Thank you for your insight Michael:
I have no question as to the benifits of utilising PFD's:
My Question envolves operators in remote locations, Africa is hardly of comparisim in regard remoteness to some obscure island in the Pacific that relies on the twotter for a once weekly service, and is serviced at its home base by engineers without the rescource to computors, or electrical path fault finding.
(IE: They understand analog, they have another gyro on the shelf)
The logistics envolved in a recovery, or repair, even replacing a battery that has decided to quit under load on a remote start, is a substantial effort.
Alot of these companies, (Airlines) run by small countries that rely on income from Tourisim, & Aid donation, or selling their vote to a UN member country, do not have the expenditure.
Alot of these companies (Airlines) operate from a paved surface one end, a oceanic sector with either NDB navigation, and GPS, to a Sand, Coral, Grass, Dirt, Broken rock type strips.
These strips range from Sea level to 8000 ft Amsl, ( I believe in Nepal they have one at 16000ft) to one way 300 mtr uphill: I mean “uphill” hardly a slop.
Also worth a mention is the fact that on some strips the landing is a very very precise affair, on the ground on the “X” and Beta/Reverse simultaniously with Heavy Breaking, on a surface that shakes the living crap out of you and the machine.
They have relyed upon this fantastic product (All series including vista liner series) that has constantly delivered outstanding service over alot of years.
And hope to have continued support to enable ongoing operations.
I cannot help but think this PFD thing, will not suit all, thats all I am saying, and I feel it would be good, (excellent in fact) if the analog was still on offer with the newly developed model.
I have been taking an interest in the intergration into service of a couple of helicopters, AW 139's: And have seen and witnessed the problems associated with PFD failure.
Now a slight correction is in order: Zimex did not replace their entire fleet 8 years ago with Garmin 530's, as of 2002-2004 they had two:
One of these lost its interface and the whole unit failed?
Their fleet of Twotters had its IFR capability withdrawn by FOCA, but we won't go there! (wern't allowed to let the client know) The only ones FOCA gave IFR certification two was the ones with the 530s, and as I say one lost its interface in total.
As for heat, Carrier Airconditioning company had problems with their airconditioners as supplied rated to 55 deg's C , to a client company down Krechba & Teg, they came down and redesigned the compressors for these units after recording the temperature at 63 deg's C : only 7 deg's away from your max.
Now the military in Iraq, that operate the same PFD's in the heat, do not suffer the heat soaking that these Zimex aircraft suffer, because of the military servicing and maintainence procedures they routinely use, that Zimex does not have and will never ever be able to adopt or implement:
I feel that Viking have to be certain that what they are dealing with is "apples" and not confusing them with oranges:
I have seen a very good product IE: Casa 212, suffer operationally due to in my opinion to having an engine fit being unsuited for its remote roll, if this product had a pair of PT 6's on each wing the Otter would have been out classed along time ago.
Twotter is with doubt, a bloody great machine, I am very fond of it, I have 11500 hrs on “all” series, in most operations with the exception of on Ice, and I hope to do that one day, in saying that, I spend my time at a desk more than I should, and hope to be able to spend more time on the Twotter in the future.
I only hope you guys at Viking understand the way the machine is operated in other parts of the sphere, and don't screw the pooch and be left with a lemon.
Chr's
H/Snort
