Wireless loading of avionics data is coming to Honeywell’s Primus Apex and Epic avionics suites, beginning with the Pilatus PC-12 NG. For the PC-12 NG the new wireless data loading system requires installation of an Aspen Avionics CG100P connected gateway device. In aircraft equipped with Epic avionics, hardware upgrades built into the aircraft’s avionics will facilitate wireless data loading, but a common interface for all Honeywell avionics suites will be a database loading application installed on Apple’s iPad. Such functionality will also be a feature on the new Pilatus PC-24 twinjet when it enters service in 2017.
The wireless data loading system using the iPad will replace cumbersome hardware-based updating systems. “This is something that the aerospace industry, particularly in the business jet arena, has made difficult for maintainers,” said Warren Nechtman, Honeywell director of integrated products and avionics strategy. Having to update nav databases every 14 or 28 days requires downloading data from a USB storage device or DVD onto special equipment, then plugging that into the aircraft. According to Nechtman, the airplane isn’t always easy to access, since it may be flying far away from equipment and personnel needed to accomplish the update, and the update process is not user-friendly and takes a lot of time. “Honeywell is after solving all three of those challenges,” he said.
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