Dassault EASy Roadshow Begins

Wednesday afternoon Dassault officially kicked off its 2001 Enhanced Avionics System (EASy) roadshow at EBACE. Scheduled to continue through the Paris Air Show and NBAA in New Orleans, it will expose large numbers of Dassault Falcon Jet customers, press and certification authorities to the firm's next-generation avionics system, slated for delivery on the Falcon 900EX in mid-2003 and on the Falcon 2000EX a year later. Invitation-only demonstrations of EASy are being held in Dassault's TRACS (Tool for Rapid Advanced Cockpit Simulation) development system at EBACE.

Partially unveiled at last year's NBAA Convention, Dassault promised then to release more details about EASy in 2001. "Promises made, promises kept," said Jean-Francois Georges, Dassault Aviation's senior civil aircraft VP.

Dassault's objective for EASy is nothing short of a quantum improvement in the business jet accident rate, which virtually leveled off at 1:1,000,000 hours two decades ago. "Human error contributes to more than 80% of all accidents," Georges explained. "People make mistakes, human error is normal."

Such errors are caused by lack of situational awareness, breakdowns in cockpit resource management, excessive pilot workload, and inadequate training, according to Georges. EASy can provide solutions to many of these problems, he claimed.

EASy's four 14.1-inch CRT screens provide double the display area of a conventional five-tube EFIS system, enabling the crew to view twice as much data. EASy, a second-generation version of Honeywell's Primus Epic avionics system, also takes full advantage of a graphic user interface, not unlike today's personal computers, except that EASy uses an ergonomically designed cursor control device for each crew member in place of a desktop mouse.

Does it work? Dassault hosted an EASy panel discussion on Wednesday, moderated by respected French aviation journalist Bernard Chabbert. Falcon Jet operators, certification authorities and two journalists on the discussion panel aired their views regarding EASy after TRACS demonstrations.

"There's a massive amount of information being thrown at us," commented Steve Fisher, chief pilot for Shell Aircraft Ltd, regarding EASy's displays. Accessibility and presentation of information is essential. Training will be fundamental to EASy's success, Fisher believes. "Simulator training companies haven't done a good job of avionics training in the past," he said.

The need for training was echoed by Nick Caporella, chairman and CEO of National Beverage. "How to use it ought to be the number one priority," explained Caporella, who also is pilot-in-command of his firm's Falcon 2000. "I think the simulator will iron out a lot of the bugs," he added.

Involving operators during EASy's early design stages will prevent "bleeding edge" development problems, said MASCO aviation director Roger Salo.

EASy's integrated navigation display, providing flight plan route, terrain data and TAWS functions is "really excellent", according to Giuseppe Riccioni, a senior pilot with Servizi Aerei of SNAM's flight department.

Some panelists expressed concern about pilots having to make the transition between a mixed fleet of Falcon Jets, some fitted with EFIS and others with EASy. Dassault officials sidestepped that issue, but their long-term goal is to standardize the EASy cockpit in all future models.

EASy's revolutionary design, compared with previous avionics technologies, will let Dassault and Honeywell accommodate present and future customer requirements, according to John Uczekaj, Honeywell's VP of regional, helicopter and business aircraft avionics.

"This is the first time we'll be able to add applications without having to reinvent the (avionics) computers," Uczekaj said. EASy's open architecture, featuring hardware and software partitioning, will enable Dassault and Honeywell to upgrade and modify the system without having to completely recertify it from the ground up, Uczekaj explained.

Most folks on the panel were impressed, if not awed, by EASy's capabilities. However, Caporella, summing up the view of many, advised Dassault to "give us an EASy KISS-Keep it sophisticated, but make it simple."

By Fred George