First Flight - New Production Series 400 Twin Otter
Thread Starter
Tickler:
I don't think that there will be any difficulty with operation of the integrated avionics system in difficult environments. Our Series 400 technical demonstrator has been flying for a year and a half now, and we have ocean (saltwater) less than one km either side of our airport. We intentionally park the aircraft outside all the time, and have not observed any effects at all from this difficult environment.
The display screens are an entirely different technology from those used in the B-1900. They are contemporary flat panel displays. The display system is sealed.
The whole avionics bay has its own air supply system, which is filtered.
It is, in fact, quite possible that the first production aircraft may be deployed to Sudan (the customer who is taking delivery of it operates most of their aircraft in desert environments), and we have done a heck of a lot of testing to ensure that the aircraft and its systems will be robust enough for the regions we expect the aircraft to be deployed to.
Michael
I don't think that there will be any difficulty with operation of the integrated avionics system in difficult environments. Our Series 400 technical demonstrator has been flying for a year and a half now, and we have ocean (saltwater) less than one km either side of our airport. We intentionally park the aircraft outside all the time, and have not observed any effects at all from this difficult environment.
The display screens are an entirely different technology from those used in the B-1900. They are contemporary flat panel displays. The display system is sealed.
The whole avionics bay has its own air supply system, which is filtered.
It is, in fact, quite possible that the first production aircraft may be deployed to Sudan (the customer who is taking delivery of it operates most of their aircraft in desert environments), and we have done a heck of a lot of testing to ensure that the aircraft and its systems will be robust enough for the regions we expect the aircraft to be deployed to.
Michael
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When we switched from the Twotter to the Dornier 328 we jumped right into the wonderful world of the Honeywell Primus 2000 glass cockpit.
Many of us expected lots of trouble with the cockpit displays due to the heat (40+° C), dust (thick, choking Harmattan) and humidity (99% relative in the rainy season) yet they proved to be very robust, when this came as a pleasant surprise.
There is a "burn-in" period (often done at the factory prior to shipping, nowadays) and if the display doesn't fail right then it will usually give a long and trouble-free life because of its very nature, being solid-state with almost no moving parts aside from some line-select keys, when even they are usually just thin-film devices. (Just think about what the inside of an FD-109 looks like, like a goddam Swiss watch, so much more vulnerable to wear and contamination than a solid-state device. You really think that is better?)
Even if you lost one display then you still have the other one plus the stand-by instruments to get home on. Who is the wimp here who is going to put his hand up to tell us he cannot manage a 166-knot bush plane with a partial panel? Not me!
Many of us expected lots of trouble with the cockpit displays due to the heat (40+° C), dust (thick, choking Harmattan) and humidity (99% relative in the rainy season) yet they proved to be very robust, when this came as a pleasant surprise.
There is a "burn-in" period (often done at the factory prior to shipping, nowadays) and if the display doesn't fail right then it will usually give a long and trouble-free life because of its very nature, being solid-state with almost no moving parts aside from some line-select keys, when even they are usually just thin-film devices. (Just think about what the inside of an FD-109 looks like, like a goddam Swiss watch, so much more vulnerable to wear and contamination than a solid-state device. You really think that is better?)
Even if you lost one display then you still have the other one plus the stand-by instruments to get home on. Who is the wimp here who is going to put his hand up to tell us he cannot manage a 166-knot bush plane with a partial panel? Not me!
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Chucks...I uh....
still would like my standby analog airspeed indicator....and.....Horizon. Ok so I’m a wimp.
Its just that I keep having this reoccurring nightmare where the glass goes spinning on then approach and I stabilize the spin….only to discover that my glide slope is really my airspeed scale on the horizontal! Then I wake up in a sweat, have a glass of milk, and, realize that I don’t have to worry about such crap anymore!
Ha Ha!
Its just that I keep having this reoccurring nightmare where the glass goes spinning on then approach and I stabilize the spin….only to discover that my glide slope is really my airspeed scale on the horizontal! Then I wake up in a sweat, have a glass of milk, and, realize that I don’t have to worry about such crap anymore!
Ha Ha!
Thread Starter
The Series 400 has an ESIS (Electronic Standby Instrument System) that is entirely independent of the aircraft electrical system. It is physically and electrically firewalled from the rest of the avionics systems. It has its own battery - located in the empennage for zonal separation - and the battery will keep it going for 6 hours, which is pretty much the limit of fuel endurance of the aircraft.
The ESIS provides airspeed, attitude, altitude, and magnetic heading from its own independent and dedicated magnetometer.
It is the L3 GH-3100, the exact same ESIS that Boeing chose for the BBJ, and Gulfstream chose for the G-550. It is the best and most robust ESIS on the market.
It would have made no sense at all to put three mechanical standby instruments (AI, DG, ASI) into an aircraft that has an otherwise all-electronic suite. If the crew ever lost all the electronics, they would have to transition back to interpreting round dials just when their workload was the highest. The GH-3100 is configured so that the electronic display on the ESIS is identical to the electronic display on the primary panels.
The ESIS provides airspeed, attitude, altitude, and magnetic heading from its own independent and dedicated magnetometer.
It is the L3 GH-3100, the exact same ESIS that Boeing chose for the BBJ, and Gulfstream chose for the G-550. It is the best and most robust ESIS on the market.
It would have made no sense at all to put three mechanical standby instruments (AI, DG, ASI) into an aircraft that has an otherwise all-electronic suite. If the crew ever lost all the electronics, they would have to transition back to interpreting round dials just when their workload was the highest. The GH-3100 is configured so that the electronic display on the ESIS is identical to the electronic display on the primary panels.
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That is not funny!
With the new displays in the Dornier there certainly was a period of adjustment. Those "tapes" for airspeed and altitude were much harder to interpret than the old-fashioned "steam gauges," no question about that.
Once you get used to the big flat panel display, able to focus on each bit of information as and when it is needed, you will find that there is simply so much more information available to you in the same amount of space; it is a much more efficient way of telling you what you need to know, just that it's done in a new and different way.
Michael can tell us more about this, no doubt but conventional wisdom is that the younger guys, having grown up with Personal Computers, can adjust very quickly to the new technology when we "old guys" can take longer. I didn't have such a lot of trouble with that but there certainly were a few sessions where you could hear, "What is it doing now?" At least with the Twotter that is going to happen at 160 knots or less instead of 250 knots or more, so cheer up; it could be worse!
The main problem seemed to be, particularly with the young guys, being dragged down to focus on the displays and the FMS, forgetting to keep good SA and a visual scan going. Some of these guys were typing away on that stupid FMS, trying to get it sorted out, when I would just kick off the autopilot (or go into Heading mode) and get it pointed in the right direction using the Mark I human brain, more powerful than any computer yet invented.
Once you get used to the big flat panel display, able to focus on each bit of information as and when it is needed, you will find that there is simply so much more information available to you in the same amount of space; it is a much more efficient way of telling you what you need to know, just that it's done in a new and different way.
Michael can tell us more about this, no doubt but conventional wisdom is that the younger guys, having grown up with Personal Computers, can adjust very quickly to the new technology when we "old guys" can take longer. I didn't have such a lot of trouble with that but there certainly were a few sessions where you could hear, "What is it doing now?" At least with the Twotter that is going to happen at 160 knots or less instead of 250 knots or more, so cheer up; it could be worse!
The main problem seemed to be, particularly with the young guys, being dragged down to focus on the displays and the FMS, forgetting to keep good SA and a visual scan going. Some of these guys were typing away on that stupid FMS, trying to get it sorted out, when I would just kick off the autopilot (or go into Heading mode) and get it pointed in the right direction using the Mark I human brain, more powerful than any computer yet invented.
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I can't say I ever really noticed any significant speed difference between the Twin Otter and the Van to be honest. The Van actually had the better payload over a longer distance though.
Michael, what is the fuel burn and the usefulload of the -400?
Michael, what is the fuel burn and the usefulload of the -400?
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I always thought the Twotter was a wee bit quicker than a Van. I worked for an operator that had both and flew them over the same city pairings. Usually they'd get there a touch faster. Of course the Vans I flew had pods - perhaps a podless C208 would be quicker than an Otter.
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Chuks, speaking of "adjusting"... I just had my teeth pulled out....
...but the dentures are not ready as yet. I have to read a couple of resumes tonight for interviews first thing in the morning. I wonder how the lads will "adjust" to not being able to understand a darn thing I say?
This is going to be fun.
This is going to be fun.
Thread Starter
Chuks makes some very good points in his post above, among them:
- it takes a little while to get used to any new presentation of information, and;
- there is a correlation between pilot age and time required to adapt to new paradigms.
However – we have carried out a great deal of “human factors” testing of the new avionics suite, using about a dozen pilots ranging in age from late 20s to early 70s, and no-one encountered any difficulty adapting to the new presentation. In the course of our testing, we provided each pilot with one day of classroom training (explaining how the system and the displays worked), about 90 minutes of circuit work (to get used to “where to look” to find information), then we set off on a multi-leg IFR cross-country trip in a busy environment (Vancouver and Seattle terminals) that included precision and non-precision approaches, system failures, engine failures, and multiple display screen failures leading eventually to single-screen reversion.
No-one had difficulty completing the program (although at times, the workload got quite high, as could be expected on a partial panel single engine approach), and the pilots unanimously reported that the new display system (the Apex flat-panel displays, vs. old round dials) resulted in a reduction in pilot workload.
There are three of us who work at Viking as engineering test pilots, we range in age from 49 to 70 (I’m in the middle at 55), and we have between 4,000 and 16,000 hours on the legacy Twin Otters. So, our own internal testing team is biased towards the upper end of the age range. Although it is true that as chronological age increases, time required to learn a new paradigm increases, it also needs to be noted that older pilots have greater knowledge and experience on which to attach newly learned paradigms. In other words – we ‘older’ pilots learn a bit more slowly than the kids, but we yield a better product once we have completed our learning. That’s why our age group is dominant in the left seat of high-tech stuff like the new Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream, and Dassault products.
But - to be fair to the young ones and to not get caught up in any age discrimination lawsuits,
we hope to hire a teenage pilot (who has over 1,500 hours DHC-6 time) as a summer intern, if we can get budget approval for this.
---------------------
So far as extracting information from the plane is concerned, it’s a whole heck of a lot easier to extract information from the new display system than it is to extract information from the legacy round dial system. Have a look at the photo below, which was taken just shortly after rotation. Once you know where to look (you will be able to figure that out just by observation), you can pretty easily discern the following information – in addition to the usual altitude, speed, heading information:
1) There’s nothing wrong with the engines, because all the indications are white text on a grey background.
2) Power (torque) is lower than it should be, it is about 46 and needs to be nudged up to 50.
3) Takeoff power setting limits are being applied. In other words, the gauge redlines depicted are based on the published limits for takeoff power.
4) Speed is limited to 103 knots at the high end because flaps are still extended to 10°.
5) Airspeed is stable (for all intents and purposes). In 6 seconds, airspeed will increase to 93 knots if the present attitude and power setting is maintained – note the trend line.
6) The aircraft is climbing steadily at 1,200 FPM towards the target altitude of 7,000 feet, and in 6 seconds time, it will pass through 3,900 feet.
7) The aircraft is still quite close to the ground, as indicated by both the numeric readout of radar altitude in the bottom of the attitude indicator (180 feet), and – more prominently – by the diagonal yellow lines at the bottom of the altitude tape that indicate where the ground begins.
8) The first fix is half a mile ahead, and the aircraft is pointed straight at it.
------------------------------
For what it’s worth, the company replaced my Blackberry with an iPhone last week, and I am having a heck of a lot more difficulty making the transition between those two devices than I (or anyone else) has ever had changing from round dials to the Apex display.
Michael
Series 400 Twin Otter Primary Flight Display, Shortly After Rotation
- it takes a little while to get used to any new presentation of information, and;
- there is a correlation between pilot age and time required to adapt to new paradigms.
However – we have carried out a great deal of “human factors” testing of the new avionics suite, using about a dozen pilots ranging in age from late 20s to early 70s, and no-one encountered any difficulty adapting to the new presentation. In the course of our testing, we provided each pilot with one day of classroom training (explaining how the system and the displays worked), about 90 minutes of circuit work (to get used to “where to look” to find information), then we set off on a multi-leg IFR cross-country trip in a busy environment (Vancouver and Seattle terminals) that included precision and non-precision approaches, system failures, engine failures, and multiple display screen failures leading eventually to single-screen reversion.
No-one had difficulty completing the program (although at times, the workload got quite high, as could be expected on a partial panel single engine approach), and the pilots unanimously reported that the new display system (the Apex flat-panel displays, vs. old round dials) resulted in a reduction in pilot workload.
There are three of us who work at Viking as engineering test pilots, we range in age from 49 to 70 (I’m in the middle at 55), and we have between 4,000 and 16,000 hours on the legacy Twin Otters. So, our own internal testing team is biased towards the upper end of the age range. Although it is true that as chronological age increases, time required to learn a new paradigm increases, it also needs to be noted that older pilots have greater knowledge and experience on which to attach newly learned paradigms. In other words – we ‘older’ pilots learn a bit more slowly than the kids, but we yield a better product once we have completed our learning. That’s why our age group is dominant in the left seat of high-tech stuff like the new Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream, and Dassault products.
But - to be fair to the young ones and to not get caught up in any age discrimination lawsuits,
we hope to hire a teenage pilot (who has over 1,500 hours DHC-6 time) as a summer intern, if we can get budget approval for this.---------------------
So far as extracting information from the plane is concerned, it’s a whole heck of a lot easier to extract information from the new display system than it is to extract information from the legacy round dial system. Have a look at the photo below, which was taken just shortly after rotation. Once you know where to look (you will be able to figure that out just by observation), you can pretty easily discern the following information – in addition to the usual altitude, speed, heading information:
1) There’s nothing wrong with the engines, because all the indications are white text on a grey background.
2) Power (torque) is lower than it should be, it is about 46 and needs to be nudged up to 50.
3) Takeoff power setting limits are being applied. In other words, the gauge redlines depicted are based on the published limits for takeoff power.
4) Speed is limited to 103 knots at the high end because flaps are still extended to 10°.
5) Airspeed is stable (for all intents and purposes). In 6 seconds, airspeed will increase to 93 knots if the present attitude and power setting is maintained – note the trend line.
6) The aircraft is climbing steadily at 1,200 FPM towards the target altitude of 7,000 feet, and in 6 seconds time, it will pass through 3,900 feet.
7) The aircraft is still quite close to the ground, as indicated by both the numeric readout of radar altitude in the bottom of the attitude indicator (180 feet), and – more prominently – by the diagonal yellow lines at the bottom of the altitude tape that indicate where the ground begins.
8) The first fix is half a mile ahead, and the aircraft is pointed straight at it.
------------------------------
For what it’s worth, the company replaced my Blackberry with an iPhone last week, and I am having a heck of a lot more difficulty making the transition between those two devices than I (or anyone else) has ever had changing from round dials to the Apex display.
Michael
Series 400 Twin Otter Primary Flight Display, Shortly After Rotation
Thread Starter
Here’s what the engine window (in the upper inboard corner of the primary flight display) would look like if there were any problems that required the pilot’s attention. In the photo below, you can see that there is a fire indication on both engines, that there is a minor exceedence (a caution level condition) affecting fuel flow, and there is a gross exceedence (a warning level condition) affecting gas generator speed. All of these problems would be accompanied by a CAS (Crew Alerting System) text message that spells the problem out in plain English, such as “Left Engine Fire”, “Left Fuel Flow Low”, and “Left Ng Low”.
Note also that the aircraft has recognized that one engine has been shut down in flight, and it has automatically recalibrated the markings for all the engine limits to show the limits applicable to single-engine flight (the maximum continuous limits).
Visual Depiction of Engine Limit Exceedence
Note also that the aircraft has recognized that one engine has been shut down in flight, and it has automatically recalibrated the markings for all the engine limits to show the limits applicable to single-engine flight (the maximum continuous limits).
Visual Depiction of Engine Limit Exceedence
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Anyone got an update on the -400, heard narra since Farnbourgh airshow and announcement of delivery to the customer of the first aircraft.
Grapevine rumblings are that there are some certification delays?
Grapevine rumblings are that there are some certification delays?
Thread Starter
The Series 400 Twin Otter was added to the Canadian Type Certificate for the DHC-6 by Transport Canada in June of 2010. It has been certified, in fact, the new Type Certificate was presented to Viking at the Farnborough Air Show.
Obtaining certification in the country of manufacture (Canada) is a prerequisite for obtaining a type certificate in other countries that issue Type Certificates independently (e.g. America, Europe).
Obtaining certification in the country of manufacture (Canada) is a prerequisite for obtaining a type certificate in other countries that issue Type Certificates independently (e.g. America, Europe).
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V1...,
Great work and thanks for the regular updates and responses to readers' questions but there is one thing that puzzles me. I am wondering why you started this thread in the African Aviation forum instead of the Canada forum? I am also wondering why the moderators have not transferred it.
The Canada forum would seem to be the logical place for a thread on a Canadian aircraft re-entering production in Canada. Presumably it is the intent to offer it for sale worldwide, rather than just in Africa outside of Canada.
Great work and thanks for the regular updates and responses to readers' questions but there is one thing that puzzles me. I am wondering why you started this thread in the African Aviation forum instead of the Canada forum? I am also wondering why the moderators have not transferred it.
The Canada forum would seem to be the logical place for a thread on a Canadian aircraft re-entering production in Canada. Presumably it is the intent to offer it for sale worldwide, rather than just in Africa outside of Canada.
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@ V1...Oops
Was not refering to the Type Certificate but the C of A.
Seeing Farnborough was in July, what has happened to it since then?
What about the next one off the production line, when is that due for delivery and to whom?
Was not refering to the Type Certificate but the C of A.
Seeing Farnborough was in July, what has happened to it since then?
What about the next one off the production line, when is that due for delivery and to whom?