GULF COAST AVIONICS announces the completionof an
all-digital panel upgrade on a Panamanian servicio NaCional Aeronaval Bell 412EPhelicopter
The total digital panel transformation included dual Garmin G500H EFDs,Garmin touchscreen GTN 650Hs and Electronics International electronic enginedisplay systems.
Lakeland, FL, December 23, 2014 — Rick Garcia, President and CEO, Gulf CoastAvionics announced that the company recently completed a full digital upgrade ona Bell 412EP helicopter operated by the Panamanian Servicio Nacional Aeronaval.
“When this 412 arrived in our shop last August it lookedevery bit like a helicopter that had worked long and hard. As you can imagine,its original analog avionics and instruments were becoming unreliable anddifficult to repair,” Garcia said. “The state-of-the-art digital avionicspackage including Garmin Helicopter Synthetic Vision (HSVT) gives PanamanianPublic Forces pilots the highest levels of system reliability, safety and situationalawareness.”
Andy Smith, GCA’s Installation Sales Representativeexplained that the project began with the removal of all of the helicopter’soriginal analog avionics, mechanical flight and engine instruments, wiringharnesses, and mounting hardware.
“To accommodate the new Garmin EFDs, GTN radios and ElectronicsInternational digital engine displays we had to design and fabricate a new,custom metal instrument panel and center pedestal for the 412,” he said. “Wealso had to build-up new wiring harnesses that would integrate all the newdigital avionics with the original autopilot, weather radar and other instrumentsthat were staying in the aircraft.”
“One of the major challenges with this upgrade was integratingthe analog units the operator wanted to keep in the aircraft. It took a lot ofeffort and planning to get the autopilot, radar, engine instruments, TCAS andother systems to work seamlessly with the new digital displays,” Smith said. “Wecouldn’t have done it all without a tremendous amount of help from the supportteams at Garmin and Electronics International. Their cooperation wasinvaluable.”
Smith explained that the upgraded Bell 412EP panel nowfeatures:
• Dual Garmin G500H dual-screen electronic flightdisplays with HSVT
• Dual Garmin GTN 650H touchscreen GPS/NAV/COMs
• Dual Garmin GTX 33 remote Mode S transponders
• Garmin GMA 340 digital audio panel
• Electronics International MVP-50T-B412 digital enginemonitoring system
• L3 Communications Trilogy Electronic StandbyInstrument
• Digital interface to existing Sperry SPZ-7600autopilot
• Digital interface to existing BendixKing RDR 2000 radar
• Digital interface to existing Avidyne TAS 605 trafficsystem
• Custom designed and fabricated instrument panel and centerpedestal.
• All-new, custom wiring harnesses.
