HondaJet: Not A Steam Gage In Sight

"Bucky" wrote in messageI found this article on the Airbus 320, which has
an all glass cockpit:

All glass, except the back-up altimeter and back-up airspeed indicator,
which are mechanical. The back-up attitude indicator has an internal battery
which is normally recharged by the aircraft's system. The FADECs are self
powered but the EICAS is not.

Many steam gauge airplanes will have indicator failures following the loss
of all electricity because the air reference instruments get data from an
air data computer and can't function in a stand-alone mode. Before RVSM ,
many airplanes had purely mechanical air reference instruments on the
co-pilot's side, but now most of those operate on a second air data
computer.

"The energy supply is backed up in several ways. Along with one
generator per engine, a third generator is powered by the APU. A fourth
power supply is available by extending a little fan generator into the
airstream. The chances of experiencing a complete power loss in an A320
are calculated to be at around one in one trillion.

And yet, it did happen recently. A loss of all display units has happened a
number of times.

Should this happen,
the above mentioned mechanical system of the rudder and the elevator
trim ensure a safe landing."

All well and good if one is in VMC conditions. Even then, the landing will
be 'eventful'. In the simulator, in VMC conditions, only 50% get on the
runway without damage and many of those don't stop on the runway. And good
luck finding an airport in the first place without the IRS, GPS, VOR, ADF,
or ATC.

D.

On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:37:08 GMT, "Neil Gould"
wrote in
:

Recently, Larry Dighera posted:

http://world.honda.com/HondaJet/Styling/FlightDeck/
[...]
It will be interesting to see how this one is FAA-certified. Power failure
would be a worst-case scenario, so I'd be surprised if this plane lacked
multiple power sources, but a lightning hit could be a problem.


If the glass cockpit is engineered anything like the Garmin system
installed in the Cessna 172S, that went into an infinite re-boot loop
while en route from Greenland to Iceland causing the loss of all
communications, navigation, flight instruments, fuel gages, autopilot
etc., it would only take a malfunction affecting the main CPU to
create a serious hazard.

Neil Gould wrote:
Recently, Larry Dighera posted:

http://world.honda.com/HondaJet/Styling/FlightDeck/
· All information, from flight and engine instrumentation to
navigation, communication, terrain and traffic data, is uniquely
integrated and digitally presented on the dual, large-format, high-
resolution primary flight displays and the multifunction display


· The HondaJet cockpit configuration provides a high degree of
integration for enhanced situational awareness, functionality, ease of
operation, redundancy, and flight safety.

It will be interesting to see how this one is FAA-certified. Power failure
would be a worst-case scenario, so I'd be surprised if this plane lacked
multiple power sources, but a lightning hit could be a problem.

It might surprise you, but a vacuum pump is not required for FAA
certification. There are quite a number of airplanes out there flying
without them, including most airliners. Many general aviation planes
are all electric. A vacuum pump is a *liability* not a backup system.

Complete power failure in a jet is not a good thing anyway. Many jets
and turboprops could not survive it, not least because it means
complete loss of flight controls.

Recently, cjcampbell posted:

Neil Gould wrote:
Recently, Larry Dighera posted:

http://world.honda.com/HondaJet/Styling/FlightDeck/
· All information, from flight and engine instrumentation to
navigation, communication, terrain and traffic data, is uniquely
integrated and digitally presented on the dual, large-format, high-
resolution primary flight displays and the multifunction display


· The HondaJet cockpit configuration provides a high degree of
integration for enhanced situational awareness, functionality, ease
of operation, redundancy, and flight safety.

It will be interesting to see how this one is FAA-certified. Power
failure would be a worst-case scenario, so I'd be surprised if this
plane lacked multiple power sources, but a lightning hit could be a
problem.

It might surprise you, but a vacuum pump is not required for FAA
certification. There are quite a number of airplanes out there flying
without them, including most airliners. Many general aviation planes
are all electric. A vacuum pump is a *liability* not a backup system.

Well, not only does this not surprise me, it isn't news. ;-) Having
experienced a vacuum pump failure, and knowing the relatively short MTBF
of those units, it is not a matter of *whether* they'll fail, but when.

Complete power failure in a jet is not a good thing anyway. Many jets
and turboprops could not survive it, not least because it means
complete loss of flight controls.

Understandable. In the case of this plane, I don't know whether the flight
controls are electric or hydraulic, but I'd hope that in either case
they'd have backups for normal power issues (failed generators, etc.) and
be robust enough to withstand the power surge from a lightning hit.
However, PFD circuits may not survive such a hit, so it made me think
about what I'd do as a pilot of one of these planes, and the answer was
pretty simple: keep a Garmin 496 in the "glove box"! ;-)

Neil