Universal Avionics Unveils InSight Integrated Flight Deck

Shorty after the NBAA Convention exhibit hall opens this morning at 10 a.m., Universal Avionics Systems will unveil an ambitious new product line (at 11 a.m., Booth 273), an integrated flight deck–called InSight–that leverages the company’s avionics expertise and also vaults it into the ranks of manufacturers of full avionics suites for Part 25 business jets. A demonstration rig of the new flight deck is available in the booth, and NBAA attendees can also see the InSight system installed in Universal’s Citation VII at the Orlando Executive Airport static display.

It comes as no surprise that Universal has decided to offer a full avionics suite for business jet cockpits. InSight was actually launched (although at the time not named that) by MD Helicopters when it announced in March 2013 the selection of Universal Avionics to manufacture a new integrated IFR flight deck for the MD 902 twin-engine helicopter. Many of the components of the MD 902 system are found in the business jet InSight flight deck, too, but the market for Part 25 jet retrofit and potentially forward-fit (new jet) applications is far larger than for helicopters, so Universal’s new InSight is a logical and expected move.

Universal Avionics is a conservative company and doesn’t jump into new markets without careful consideration, but it is also an innovator, having pioneered the flight management system (FMS) for business aircraft, adopting at an early stage the LCD for cockpit displays and then certifying the first synthetic vision system for Part 25 jets. It seemed like it was just a matter of time before Universal developed a fully integrated flight deck, and now that time has come.

While the new InSight flight deck is targeting OEM applications, and Universal is actively discussing opportunities with airframe OEMs, according to Robert Clare, director of sales, the retrofit market offers plenty of opportunity because of the way InSight is designed. Instead of just ripping out every piece of avionics and associated wiring, InSight is optimized to adapt to existing products so that owners don’t have to lose the investment in some installed avionics. For example, the InSight installation in Universal’s Citation VII interfaces with the Honeywell bus, which is ASCB-based, thus enabling retention of the Honeywell radios, autopilot and Primus 880 weather radar.

“We’re striving for the proper level of product integration into InSight,” said Clare. “Customers have made investments in avionics over the years, they’ve had to do RVSM, multiple TCAS changes, the TAWS mandate, so we didn’t want to force our market to throw that investment away. It’s the right balance of integrating functionality and supporting those investments.”

The result is a relatively cost-effective upgrade, which will be offered by Universal dealers at $250,000 for a three-display system or up to $375,000 for four displays and engine instrumentation and many other features, such as the system installed in the Citation VII.

The MD-902 InSight system uses three EFI-1040 LED-backlit displays in landscape orientation, while the Citation VII retrofit offers four of the same 10.4-inch displays in portrait mode, replacing the original Honeywell SPZ-8000 system’s CRT displays. The supplemental type certificate (STC) for the Citation VII will cover about 190 of those and also about 30 later model Citation IIIs. “This is an appropriate airframe for us to do this development,” said Dan Reida, Universal’s vice president of sales, marketing and support. “There are no other options for the Citation VII owner.

Owners of many other aircraft types will be able to consider an InSight upgrade, too, because Universal has developed STCs for 35 types for upgrades to its EFI-890 displays and other products. InSight uses many of the same interfaces that were incorporated in the 890 upgrades, so those STCs still have some life left and could easily be adapted to the 10.4-inch displays–which are also new for Universal–and other InSight products.

Summarizing the benefits of InSight and the reason that Universal undertook this effort, Reida outlined key factors that led to the program:

• “We’re focused on innovation,” he said. “We’re very proud of our synthetic vision, and we’ve got a long history with that.”
• “It’s feature-rich. Customers demand a lot of features and functionality. We’re proud of the initial release but will keep building on that.”
• “Reliability is key. The return on investment for somebody undergoing a retrofit would be to improve reliability.”
• “Flexibility. We leveraged our experience with the EFI-890s for flexibility in the interface, even flexibility with the hardware, and the configuration, look and feel. Pilots have a lot of control of what they see and when they see it.”
• “It’s user friendly and has innovative pilot interfaces.”
• “It’s consolidated. We’re striving for the proper level of product integration into InSight, but not too far.”
• [We offer] high value. Engineering focused heavily on minimizing the costs, both recurring and non-recurring. We want our customers to realize a high value for what they invest.”
• InSight is easily installed and configured. We have a lot of experience with our dealers as they installed the 890 systems and the challenges they faced, configuring multiple displays. We have a good tool to help dealers with design and installation.”

InSight Elements

The heart of an InSight cockpit is the big EFI-1040 displays, but it’s the interface with cockpit displays that makes pilots appreciate an avionics system.

The main pilot interface is the Electronic Control Display Unit (ECDU), which employs the same user interface as the latest Universal Avionics SBAS FMS. The FMS remains a significant part of an InSight installation, but not as a separate unit installed in the cockpit pedestal. Instead, InSight marries the ECDU, which has its own display, with an alphanumeric keyboard. In the Citation VII installation, both are adjacent so it looks like a traditional FMS, but there is no physical reason why they need to be next to each other besides ergonomic considerations. So the ECDU is the primary FMS control, and the keyboard interfaces with the ECDU, although the keyboard also has FMS function keys along the top, mimicking standalone FMS controls. The advantage of splitting up the FMS controls into a separate ECDU and keyboard is that some installations will already have a modern WAAS-capable FMS, and there is no need to replace that FMS. The ECDU employs graphical icons that will be instantly familiar to any pilot flying with a modern Universal FMS.

The Universal Reference Set Panel is placed in a convenient spot, usually at the center glareshield, and is used to set heading, altitude preselect and speed.

Universal has had a cursor-control device for years, used as part of its Application Server Unit to interface with charts on some installations of the EFI-890 displays. A newer version was developed for the MD-902 InSight flight deck. In that system, the device needs to be mounted on the cyclic and requires more point-and-click opportunities for managing the avionics because helicopter pilots don’t always have a free hand to adjust something on the instrument panel. In the InSight cockpit for the Citation VII, the Cursor Control Panel (CCP) is mounted in the pedestal between the seats and feature an inverted cone for pointing and two buttons (A and B) for clicking.

New Data Concentrator Units (DCU II) were developed for InSight, and these are what make possible interfacing with older avionics that will remain in the aircraft. In addition to analog-to-digital data conversion, the DCU IIs convert data to the Ethernet standard and connect to InSight’s Ethernet bus. A new SD Card Server makes database updates easier, although wireless updating is under consideration and wouldn’t be difficult to implement.

InSight Functionality

The InSight cockpit features what Universal says it its next-generation synthetic vision system, with extremely realistic-looking terrain and water. Instead of just drawing blue water for lakes, rivers and oceans, Universal engineers crafted an algorithm that considers the reflectivity of the water. “[Now] you will see the reflection and the shimmer of water,” said Universal CEO Paul DeHerrera. The idea is that subtle elements such as reflections give the viewer cues to their location. “This is the way water should look,” he said. In addition, the terrain’s relative sharpness decreases with distance to help enhance depth perception.

The 3-arc-second worldwide terrain database includes an improved algorithm for terrain shading to increase terrain clarity, which also include improved depictions of ice where appropriate. Airport charts are Arinc 618-compliant high-resolution maps, which include depictions of airport buildings as well as detailed runway and taxiway information. About 600 airports are available in this style; other airports use standard FAA-type markings. Pilots can add an extended centerline to make finding runway ends easier.

A key feature of the original Vision 1 synthetic vision was the exocentric “bird’s-eye” view, where the pilot could select between a perspective looking forward from the cockpit or looking down on the aircraft from above. Now InSight’s synthetic vision offers a choice of camera angles. The choices are three: two different locked-in views and one where the pilot can choose the viewing angle. Universal will even add a customized paint scheme to the animated birds-eye view aircraft, which naturally replicates the aircraft type.

Pilots can use the CCP for graphical flight planning on the MFD. All charts include own-ship display. Radio control is via the ECDU, or the pilot can click on map elements to select frequencies. InSight also provides suggested frequencies based on the aircraft’s location, including labels to identify the frequencies.

One handy and unique new feature came from a suggestion from Universal Avionics president and chairman of the board Ted Naimer, who actively flies the company’s Challenger and thus provides plenty of feedback on Universal products. This new feature is a simple way to display the remaining distance of runway from any intersection or point on a runway. Just click on the runway anywhere on the taxi chart, and the distance to either runway end pops up.

InSight supports reception of SiriusXM weather via a Heads Up Technologies receiver, but it also can incorporate FIS-B weather via ADS-B IN. Airport weather conditions are show in color coding to indicate VFR, IFR, etc.

The ability to remove all of the old-style engine tapes and gauges on older jets is a real advantage of InSight. Engine instruments can be displayed in compressed format on the PFDs and are fully displayed on the MFDs. Pilots can configure the layouts on the PFDs and MFDs to suit their preferences and store these layouts for each time they fly, including layouts specific to the left or right seat position. Up to 31 layouts can be stored, and a fleet operator, such as an airline, can lock the layouts so pilots can’t change them.

For more efficient flight planning, the follow-on version of InSight will add Universal’s InSightConnect feature, allowing the pilot to send a flight plan created on an iPad directly into InSight. So far, Universal has done this using ForeFlight Mobile and Jeppesen’s Mobile FliteDeck. Pilots will have to confirm that the information from the iPad is correct and accept it before the flight plan actually is accepted by InSight. “That’s the safety handshake the FAA requires for uncertified products sending something to avionics,” said Reida.

To help its dealers with InSight installations, Universal’s software designers have created a powerful new Web-based system called the EFI Configuration Editor. This allows the dealer or OEM to design a Universal-based cockpit and output complete configuration details, including pin-to-pin wiring assignments. This way, the dealer can prepare a blueprint for the installation well in advance and be ready for when the aircraft arrives, plus the configuration can be saved as a template for similarly equipped aircraft. This also makes it easier to figure out which avionics can stay and play with InSight and which need to be removed.

Universal is expecting to receive the STC for the Citation VII InSight upgrade in the second quarter of 2015. All of the engineering and installation work was done by Universal personnel at the company’s headquarters in Tucson. Subsequent InSight certifications programs will be done by dealers.

Ultimately, what Universal is doing with InSight is offering a simpler upgrade path to new capabilities while helping owners manage the cost of upgrading. InSight will also offer options to meet upcoming FANS 1/A+, ADS-B and other mandates. “This can pull that in economically,” said Reida. “There is a lot of EFIS obsolescence out there and reliability can become an issue. One of those [CRT] tubes in the legacy Citation VII costs tens of thousands to do repairs. Features will drive people to [InSight upgrades] more than anything. They want the capability, but keeping an eye on costs is a very critical element.”

InSight In-flight

I flew the InSight-equipped Citation VII with Universal senior flight test pilot Joel Glunt in September to get a feel for the new system and see how it performed in real-life operations. The weather was perfect, which means that we didn’t get to see how synthetic vision looks when flying in IMC surrounded by mountains. We flew the RNAV (GPS) 21 approach into Cochise County Airport in Willcox, Ariz, then the RNAV (RNP) 11L approach to Tucson, which includes a nicely curved leg over nearby mountains.

Two ECDUs and keyboard units fit nicely in the Citation VII’s pedestal between the seats, with two CCPs at the forward end of the stack within easy reach. The four EFI-1040 displays are not festooned with buttons and knobs; all controls are via the CCPs, ECDUs and keyboards. Each pilot has control of two displays, although cross-control of the opposite displays is available. The PFDs each have two insets, typically displaying traffic and moving map info one one side and flight planning on the other or engine instruments can replace those two insets. Weather radar can display on one of the insets, too, but charts aren’t displayed there as that would be too cluttered.

Moving the cursor with the inverted-cone CCP is easy, and any element that can be interrogated lights up when the cursor slides over it. Clicking the A button produces information or a pick list of options. The B button allows panning of the moving map, thus avoiding having to zoom way out to see something further away, then re-zooming in to see the details. The SEL knob (which is the only knob) on the ECDU defaults to the range setting but is used for many other functions such as dialing in frequencies. Of course, frequencies can also be typed in on the keyboard, but InSight’s FMS knows where the airplane is and offers suitable location-based frequencies. Another important use for the knob is adjusting the camera angle for the birds-eye view on the 3-D synthetic vision display.

If a pilot gets lost in the selections, a simple home button–indicated by a house symbol–returns the system to a familiar place. A back button also simplifies system navigation.

User-defined holds can be set up on waypoints, navaids, etc. After powering up the system, InSight knows the aircraft’s location and pulls up suggested frequencies needed for the departure. After inputting the flight plan or pulling one in from an iPad and plugging in weight and balance data, InSight calculates takeoff performance and adds V speeds into the PFDs and provides recommended power settings.

We shot the LPV approach into Cochise County Airport, and the autopilot smoothly followed the lateral and vertical paths.

Returning to Tucson International, approach control was suddenly busy and kept us south of the approach course until we passed 9,157-foot Mount Lemmon, which we could clearly see both outside the window and also on the synthetic vision display’s 3-D terrain depiction as well as on the moving-map’s 2-D terrain map. The autopilot smoothly tracked the curved RNP approach path, which swings nearly 180 degrees from a westerly heading back around to line up with Tucson’s Runway 11 Left, all while descending from the 10,000-foot minimum altitude at the last waypoint (HODPU) to 6,000 feet at the initial fix (LIPTE). This was an excellent demonstration not only of how well RNP approaches work and how easy they are to fly, but also of a rather oldish business jet’s transformation into a capable, modern machine, strictly via an avionics upgrade.

The benefits of the synthetic vision were illustrated on short final, when Tucson tower requested that I switch to landing on the shorter runway 11 Right. Even on a clear day, I found that the synthetic vision view on the PFD was helpful as a confirmation of where we were going.

For any pilot familiar with Universal displays and FMSs, the InSight upgrade will be an easy move. And pilots who aren’t familiar will find the relative ease-of-use of the InSight interface far more friendly than typical FMS CDUs. As test pilot Glunt put it after we landed, “It you speak Universal FMS, it’s a no-brainer.”

The goal with the InSight design was to adapt to modern avionics requirements while lowering pilot workload. What became InSight started out more than five years ago with a basic design philosophy, according to DeHerrara, that was refined so that it always retained a basic logical underpinning. “You want to immediately access the things you need or want and build in workload-reduction techniques,” he explained. Company president Naimer has flown with InSight, too, and retains a strong interest in its development and even has a test rig set up at his home so he can continue providing valuable feedback.