R44 Glass Cockpit!
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sometimes i foolishly think i can post on pprune adding something that might be useful or constructive to others without having some tosser coming in with some half thought out reply...
so you must have also learnt to navigate as well in your training but do you fly with a gps equipped machine?? all the zk ones i have flown had them fitted..
so you must have also learnt to navigate as well in your training but do you fly with a gps equipped machine?? all the zk ones i have flown had them fitted..
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Who said that you cannot have a glass cockpit in a R44?
Sorry, I didn't know that glass cockpits was the domain only for turbine pilots.
OK for the turbine guys to have all the bells and whistles. No, they don't have their eyes inside the cockpit looking at all the fancy colours, do they?
If someone has enough money to put a glass cockpit in a R44, good on them I say.
Why do they do it?
Because they can!
Sorry, I didn't know that glass cockpits was the domain only for turbine pilots.
OK for the turbine guys to have all the bells and whistles. No, they don't have their eyes inside the cockpit looking at all the fancy colours, do they?
If someone has enough money to put a glass cockpit in a R44, good on them I say.
Why do they do it?
Because they can!
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Glass cockpits in piston Helis?
Then I assume you'll bust a blood vessel at the thought of a Rotorway machine with a glass cockpit?
www.rotorway.com/misc_assets/A600specs.pdf
Ian.
www.rotorway.com/misc_assets/A600specs.pdf
Ian.
Join Date: Oct 2007
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I stand corrected....
I spoke with Rotorcraft Support today-Yes, the price has come down to $60,000 to $65,000. The original version was more geared to fixed wing IFR flying... The re-vamped rotor version has a few options deleted. I do not know what they are...
All in all, the lower price is worth the investment.
IMHO.
All in all, the lower price is worth the investment.
IMHO.
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R44 Glass
Pilots will be induced to have accidents? I don't think so! The Sagem Avionics Glass Displays in the R44 make it even safer to fly. Everything is properly located where it only requires a brief scan to decipher what is transpiring. Turbine operators gain the most due to engine trend monitoring, but this is also available on the R44 installation.
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I have no Problems with Richard on why he did what he did to his R44, and most of it is simple common sense, but one thing slightly worries me and that is in an accident you will have your bones broken by the Garmin on the cyclic as well as the Garmin over his shins.
The Fuel gauge gismo with the USB port though is IMHO just fantastic.
How come we can not have something similar on our £3.8 million machine?????????
The Fuel gauge gismo with the USB port though is IMHO just fantastic.
How come we can not have something similar on our £3.8 million machine?????????
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R44 Glass
You feel that the price is misleading. The out the door price for the Sagem Glass, is correct, not misleading. $65k and a short down time. The STC is complete and aircraft are flying. This is the same as LAPD helo's are flying with. also the SDPD and Riverside County Sheriff's helicopters are all flying with it. When you see the S-64 Skycranes flying over the fires in So.Cal., they use Sagem for their engines and stuff. There are many helicopters worldwide that are going with the Sagem Glass. The reason the price is so low for the R44 is that it is a pretty simple system to build up. The price nearly doubles for some other installations.
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Wondering if there is anybody crazy enough to install the Glass Cockpit + Chelton HeliSAS and Autopilot into his R44.
Unless this was tongue in cheek I am confused.
I don't see why our fixed wing brethren get to do that in light singles and we can't do it in light helicopters.
I can think of a dozen reasons why we should want to promote that type of technological advancement, even to the point of single pilot IFR (not referring to IMC).
This is not a R44 vs. 206 or other bashing topic; it is specifically address to help the workload and increase situational awareness and safety for pilots who have to fly in busy airspace.
I have found terminal boundaries and frequencies in the Garmin units a great help, why not Wx and TCAS / terrain maps as well for light helicopters?
With regards to the autopilot piece, there are several scenarios where this could be helpful during a flight, particularly when punching holes through the sky or needing to concentrate on navigational tasks, or even if you just need to have to scratch your
without risking your life 
Traditionally this type of technology has been out of limits because of cost and weight penalties, but in this electronic age of cheaper, more reliable and smaller / light weight gear, one would hope this makes it's way down those of us not flying 2 pilot IMC machines.
Last edited by birrddog; 21st Nov 2008 at 17:12. Reason: made garmin reference more generic
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Originally Posted by birrddog
Runway101, why would you ask if anyone would be crazy enough to do this?
It costs $65k + installation + maybe another $50k for the HeliSAS + installation. So the first person who is going to install both into the same ship is definitely a little bit crazy, cost wise.
I personally would love to have the HeliSAS, but that's a complete other story.
Never flew with a glass cockpit, so I can't comment on that. Considering the price tag. It may be a cheap glass cockpit, but it is still almost 20% of the price of a new R44, so I am asking myself what do I get for that extra buck in comparison to a standard R44 panel with GPS and maybe added engine monitoring like Richard built into his R44 above. If it wouldn't be about the price, I'd probably also go with the Sagem system and not the old equipment... flew in the left seat of a glass EC120 once and it wasn't that bad.
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more crazy people
Not an R44, but I am doing my part to bring innovation to light helicopters. This is one of the first Enstrom 480B's certified with the Chelton EFIS/FMS and other "advanced" (for a light helo) avionics. Sure, its overkill - so what? - life is short!
Last edited by EN48; 23rd Nov 2008 at 11:24.
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EN48, could you not get any more MFD's in there? 
Could you elaborate on your layout, and how you came to that configuration?
Could you elaborate on your layout, and how you came to that configuration?
Layout is mostly dictated by placement of the Chelton equipment, which are certified in the positions shown. The lay out of the lower stack mostly follows conventional practice, with audio panel at top, two nav/coms (actually 1 nav/com and 1 com) and xponder. The location of the Garmin GMX 200 at the bottom was driven by two considerations: due to the sloping panel in the pedestal, this unit could not be mounted as high as one might like. Also, since this is used more for info incidental to flight, I decided that having the audio panel and coms closer to the line of sight might be better. The Garmin 696 is attached via a RAM mount to an existing seat rail, along with the Globalstar phone. I didnt want to use any kind of permanent mount (requiring drilling of holes, and possibly FAA 337 approval) and this pretty much dictated the seat rail mounting. This can be easily removed in less than 30 sec. All other equipment is mounted in the standard Enstrom recommended locations.
I have been very pleased with this seup. Everything works as advertised. At the time this configuration was spec'd, The Chelton system did not support NEXRAD wx, so that drove the addition of the Garmin GMX200. I would have preferred a more integrated suite with one manuf supplying all or most of the bits, but ther was no such option then (and still) certified.
Recently completed Instrument-Helicopter rating in this ship and it all worked quite nicely. The check pilot insisted on flying a number of approaches himself, with me providing a bit of dual on the avionics. Took a lot of the pressure off!