Universal Avionics FMS Simplifies ADS-B Installations

A new software version for the Universal Avionics satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) FMS eliminates the need to install a separate transponder failure annunciator for ADS-B OUT installations. Typically, installers have added a light module in the instrument panel to annunciate ADS-B transponder failure, but the new FMS software includes the required failure messaging on the FMS display, and this will help reduce ADS-B installation costs.

The new FMS software also “provides a growth path to localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV), required navigation performance (RNP) and with the UniLink UL-800/801 communications management unit (CMU), controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) and CPDLC departure clearance (DCL), Future Air Navigation System (FANS) and Link 2000+,” according to Universal Avionics.

Other features of the new software include support for four new Arinc input buses and four new discrete inputs, the company added. “The inputs are monitored for data indicating the state of ADS–B OUT or transponder failure. This improvement adds a monitor with messaging to alert the crew to a failure of the ADS–B OUT system. The status labels from an ATC/Mode-S transponder system are monitored by the FMS and used to detect a failure in the system.”