Page 36 - Volume 13 Number 6

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FAA Awards STC for ThrustSense® Autothrottle on King Air
Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. (IS&S) has received the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for its patented ThrustSense® Autothrottle for retrofit on the King Air. ThrustSense, which provides FADEC like engine protection, is a full regime autothrottle from takeoff to landing phases of flight, including go­around that allows the pilot to automatically control the power setting of the engine. ThrustSense computes and controls appropriate power levels reducing pilot workload providing a new level of convenience and safety for the King Air.
This year IS&S will offer a certified software upgrade for King Air Vmca Mitigation. ThrustSense will continually monitor multiple engine parameters and will detect the loss of an engine then compute the amount of rudder authority loss due to the reduction of airflow over the rudder. It uses this to calculate the reduction in thrust from the remaining engine to prevent hazardous yaw. Real­time monitoring of YAW provides additional safety in engine­out conditions.
ThrustSense is also the first and only certified autothrottle for the PC­12 Platform and is offered as a standalone installation integrated with the Company’s Integrated Standby Unit (ISU) or with its PC­12 NexGen Flight Deck.
Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. (innovative-ss.com) is a systems integrator that designs and manufactures flight guidance and cockpit display systems for original equipment manufacturers and retrofit applications. The company which is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, supplies integrated Flight Management Systems (FMS) and advanced GPS receivers for precision low carbon footprint navigation.
Garmin Offers New Upgrades for G1000 NXi-equipped King Airs
Garmin announced that it has received Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for new features and upgrades for the G1000 NXi integrated flight deck in the King Air 200/250/300/350 series aircraft.
A new, Bluetooth­enabled audio panel for the G1000 NXi integrated flight deck in the King Air offers an expanded feature set alongside innovative sound quality. Home theater­like music effects add to the rich audio characteristics provided by the audio panel, allowing pilots to select bass boost levels, as well as equalizer effects, including rock, classical and pop. Advanced auto squelch automatically adapts to the noise level within the cockpit and allows for natural conversation through headsets. It includes a six­place stereo intercom and support for up to three stereo music inputs. Split­ COMM mode allows the pilot and co­pilot to broadcast independently on two separate frequencies and contains dedicated pilot and co­pilot music and intercom volume control knobs. Additionally, a built­in digital clearance recorder can record up to 60 seconds of selected COMM radio transmissions so pilots can easily play back difficult clearances.
The first to introduce 3D audio, Garmin incorporates 3D audio processing into the audio panel. With stereo headsets, incoming audio is spatially separated to reflect how people naturally process sound and conversation by differentiating audio sources by their unique locations
ThrustSense computes thrust, holds selected speed/ torque and implements appropriate limit protection. When engaged by the pilot, the autothrottle system adjusts the throttles automatically to achieve and hold the selected airspeed guarded by a torque/temperature limit mode. Protection modes will automatically activate, regardless of autopilot engagement state in an attempt to keep airspeed, torque and temperature from exceeding pre­defined targets.
The IS&S ThrustSense Autothrottle ensures stabilized approaches by controlling speeds in the descent. During high pilot workload the autothrottle prevents the airplane from getting dangerously slow or fast and protects against overtorque and overtemp enhancing the safety and capability of the King Air.
Control of the revolutionary autothrottle is housed in an easy to install Autothrottle Control Panel (ATCP) that provides autothrottle control interface. The optimized design for retrofit allows for no structural modifications to the existing throttle quadrant and can be installed in four days.
34 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2019