Dassault aircraft covered by the certification include:

• Falcon 7X/Falcon 8X, FAA, and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) validated
• Falcon 900EX EASy, FAA validated
• Falcon 2000EX EASy, FAA, and EASA validated

The GI 275 is Garmin’s most pixel-dense display to date and includes an intuitive touchscreen with synthetic vision and terrain overlay mirroring the EASy II Primary Display Unit (PDU).

• READ MORE: Avionics Upgrades Go a Long Way

According to Dassault, the GI 275 “seamlessly integrates” with existing aircraft systems, offering the same functionality as the previous stand-by system. 

“The EASy flight deck is designed to meet state-of-the-art redundancy requirement, however, for added safety they always have been complimented by a stand-by instrument of different architecture, hardware, power and sensor sources,” a Dassault spokesperson told FLYING.

The addition of a second GI 275 on the copilot’s side allows the pilot’s instrument to remain the dedicated stand-by for certification. The copilot’s GI 275 can be configured with additional pages to mirror the pilot’s flight display, including the feature of an HSI with a moving map that can be easily panned or zoomed and automatically accessing the active flight plan.

The unit features the SafeTaxi database that improves pilot situational awareness by displaying current airport diagrams in a “nose-up” orientation. The GI 275 also enables pilots to select airports and other points of interest to view airspace, frequencies, and airport hot spots.

The post Garmin GI 275 Added to Dassault Flight Deck Stand-By System appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The companies jointly announced the deal at the Paris Air Show last week at Paris-Le Bourget airport in France.

The Aspire 350 is intended for both forward-fit by the aircraft manufacturer and retrofit on the Falcon F900 and F2000 series, as well as the Falcon 7X, 8X, and upcoming Falcon 6X and 10X. The Aspire 350 targets installation on business jets as well as commercial transport category aircraft and helicopters. It is designed to provide seamless connectivity around the globe—and be easy to install.

• READ MORE: Dassault’s Falcon 6X Completes Flight Test

Honeywell uses the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation to execute this level of connectivity, along with reliability and cost savings. Pilots can also use the Iridium network for safety-related services, while passengers enjoy download speeds up to 704 Kbps on the internet connection. The Aspire 350 gained Iridium certification in May.

“Staying connected is critical to flight safety and efficiency, and we are proud that Dassault has selected the Aspire 350 for its fleet of best-in-class business aircraft,” said Steve Hadden, vice president and general manager, services and connectivity for Honeywell Aerospace. “Honeywell and Dassault’s relationship has now reached its 50th year, and we continue to strengthen this relationship. 

• READ MORE: Dassault Aviation Rolls Out SAF Program At Little Rock Plant

“We are confident that the users of the business aircraft will appreciate the seamless connectivity the Aspire 350 will provide,” Hadden said. “The experience will be like using your broadband at home.”

The post Dassault Chooses Honeywell Aspire 350 for Falcon Fleet appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Garmin GI 275/Dassault Falcon 7X

Garmin’s GI 275 can now replace the original secondary flight display in the Falcon 7X and be configured to serve as an attitude-direction indicator with synthetic vision technology. When Garmin introduced the GI 275 in January 2020, it seemed the powerful little round dial with all of Garmin’s software stuffed inside was positioned to corner the general aviation avionics market. If you’ve seen or used it, you know it.

The 3.125-inch, panel-mount digital gauge can do the work of four separate analog instruments, with pilots having the option to choose the configuration they want. So, with the ability to display primary flight and engine information, matched with FAA approval for installation in more than 1,000 single-engine and multiengine business and general aircraft models, owners could give their panels a facelift and keep some of those old birds flying a little bit longer.

In the case of the Falcon 7X, Garmin said 300 aircraft across the global Falcon fleet were eligible to add the GI 275. Either way, this recent addition shows just how capable the instrument is, if it can serve both weekend warriors doing breakfast runs in, say, a 1983 Piper Turbo Arrow IV—as I’ve seen—to now Falcon jet drivers, possibly taking the boss into Teterboro for a critical meeting.

Is that a coincidence? Not really. Jim Alpiser, who leads the aftermarket sales team for Garmin’s aviation segment, shared with FLYING that Garmin has in mind all the use cases, from big airplanes to small, when it designs and rolls out versatile products like the GI 275. “The person installing it in a Bonanza or a Mooney should feel amazing because that same technology is also inside a Falcon aircraft now,” he said.

It doesn’t mean some larger screen products, such as the G1000, will lose their place in the market. Instead, Alpiser uses the analogy of the suite of Apple products that share similar basic capabilities regardless of screen sizes. In this case, it’s more about what’s visually appealing to the pilots, and, like the Falcon 7X application, it could even augment the larger displays.

Garmin G5000/Cessna Citation Excel

In addition to the announcement on the GI 275, Garmin also said it was working with European regulators to gain permission for EASA-certificated operators to install the G5000 integrated avionics suite on the Cessna Citation Excel and Citation XLS. Since Garmin launched the Cessna Citation Excel and Citation XLS G5000 modernization program three years ago, more than 100 Excel and XLS aircraft have added the avionics package, and now European operators will benefit once the integration is approved. The three landscape-oriented displays give pilots added situational awareness and additional capabilities.

Finally, Piper Aircraft, which also exhibited at the conference, shared an update to say that the touchscreen Garmin G3000 and the software innovation for that avionics suite featured in Piper’s flagship M600/SLS was a big boost for safety. Some of the latest G3000 upgrades in the M600/SLS include enhancements to the synthetic vision system, weather radar, navigation, flight planning, checklists, and SafeTaxi. Though the G3000 isn’t available commercially for retrofits, Piper’s confirmation is a testament to the role of advanced avionics in improving both the lifetime and ease of operation for these airplanes.

Even the new HondaJet Elite II, which the OEM announced that same week, boasted the updated G3000 would be equipped with autothrottles. To that end, the new model would have Garmin’s emergency system, Autoland, as a standard feature when it ships. 

It speaks to the bigger trend at play. When the Aircraft Electronics Association shared its six-month Avionics Market Report in August, it said owners and operators spent more than $615 million on retrofits, including flight deck upgrades and other electronics, antennas, and so forth. That represented more than 45 percent of all the avionic sales it recorded, compiled with data from more than 1,300 member companies.

That means aircraft owners and operators are finding new ways to stretch the lifetime of their aircraft by tapping into these avionics upgrades. That’s easier to do than airframe or powerplant upgrades, since those technologies progress much slower and suffer from more restrictions.

As Alpiser explained, “avionics upgrade technology has accelerated over the recent decades. In regards to the GI 275, it embodies that spirit because it packs many capabilities into a smaller space.”

Moreover, pilots now have an added layer of safety that comes from the reduced workload Alpiser says these upgrades offer. “Adding safety to the cockpit is a huge driver of upgrades and modernization. Adding safety-enhancing technology, like synthetic vision or additional data fields, can help make you a better pilot.”

Atlas, From Avidyne

Other legacy jet platforms are also being rejuvenated through avionic offerings from Avidyne. During NBAA-BACE, Avidyne shared that Learjet 55C owners and operators could now add Avidyne’s dual Atlas flight management system retrofit upgrade. The upgrade provides them with fully-coupled GPS approach capabilities, including LPV, LP, LNAV/VNAV, and LNAV-only, while not needing to make expensive EFIS86-L system replacements.

So, not only does it extend the useful life of these time-tested jets, but for operators, their world just got bigger.

“A lot of these airplanes are perfectly good airplanes,” Tom Harper, Avidyne’s marketing director ,tells FLYING. “With LPV, you’re opening up so many more runways, since that’ll allow you to get into airports that don’t have an ILS. Or, in some cases, they only have an ILS on one runway, and the winds aren’t favorable. So, the upgrade just gives you more options to complete the mission.”

In terms of use, each Atlas flight management system boasts a QWERTY-style keyboard with touchscreen capabilities so pilots can flight plan and view maps to their liking. They are also equipped with integrated wireless connectivity that links them to iPads to complement third-party flight planning apps.

Regarding the layout, Harper said the Learjet upgrade requires reconfiguring the center pedestal to make a more pilot-friendly interface by bringing EFIS mode select controls and FMS units forward.

Harper added that the upgrade to the Lear 55C is just an indication of things to come. Avidyne will look to breathe new life into other “old birds,” including others in the Learjet family, Dassault Falcons, Cessna Citations, Beechcraft King Airs, the IAI Westwind, and the Piaggio P.180 Avanti.

This article was originally published in the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING.

The post Avionics Upgrades Go a Long Way appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Yes, in theory, you could untie the very boat we were in and float out to the mouth of the Seine at Le Havre, and you could make your way across an oft-feisty ocean at sea level—but why on Earth would you do that when you could slide onto the flight deck of Dassault’s new Falcon 6X and make the jaunt in comfort and class at Flight Level 430 in less than 7 hours?

While the court of public opinion at times gives the microphone to voices calling for the end of flying, we know within our ranks that we hold the solution to sustainable flying—and the way to get there is to fly forward, not slam us to a collective stop with full reversers.

There are problems to solve with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), for one, but Dassault is already using a 40-percent blend in its operations at Paris Le Bourget (LFPB) and Bordeaux-Merignac (LFBD). The wide-body 6X and even grander 10X sit poised to debut with SAF fully tested—perhaps up to a 100 percent level by the time the 10X gains certification as projected in 2025. And it’s just one OEM out of a chorus of them moving along the same lines.

Éric Trappier, president and CEO of Dassault Aviation, dropped by our lunch that day to talk about the indications ahead in finance and supply chain following the release of Boeing’s Q1 results, along with his own assessments. A softening of the market seems at hand—but after the heady surge of 2022, a “normalization” seems prudent.

While protests in Paris, London, and Amsterdam have captured recent headlines stateside, we witnessed none of the furor firsthand on this trip. Instead I felt an uneasy calm as we work to figure out how to tell our story in a way that resonates with those who need to hear the reassurance that we can keep flying, keep innovating, keep aspiring.

• READ MORE: Boeing Reports First Quarter Net Loss on Higher Revenue

Across the river from Dassault lies the Bois de Boulogne—Paris’ great green space—and the Parc de Bagatelle, a garden that covers the spot where Santos-Dumont first flew his No. 14-bis in September 1906. Just a block away, Louis Bléirot’s factory once stood, and the vintage sign from that roof announces to passersby the history entrenched in the scene. 

Great aeronautical design still sparks to life here, with the site of the current Dassault Group buildings over a former engine factory. The lightweight-for-the-class Falcon series preserves performance while making tracks across the sky in a more efficient way than its competitors—and utilizes shorter runways closer to the passengers’ intended destination, saving fuel and time.

And isn’t time our most precious commodity?

The lightness of being is the Dassault raison d’être, in their tack towards not only efficiency but runway performance. Combined with higher wing loading than others in the class, they promise a better ride through the bumps—and a nimbleness derived from the Rafale fighter’s heritage.

You can read Fred George’s We Fly report on the Falcon 6X in the May 2023/Issue 937 print edition of FLYING that’s about to land in your mailbox if you subscribe. George took an exclusive first flight in the graceful, master stroke of the class—and he shares his expertise in the business aviation arena with FLYING’s readers for the first time after returning to us as a contributor.

Because there’s nothing like being there—and stepping into the left seat to do it.

The post Nothing Like Being There appeared first on FLYING Magazine.