A de Havilland DHC-7 equipped with an avionics suite from Universal Avionics Systems Corp., of Tucson, Ariz., completed an environmental research mission in Antarctica.
The Dash 7, operated by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), was retrofitted last fall with the Universal equipment, including four Universal Avionics EFI-890R Flat Panel Displays, dual UNS-1Fw WAAS/SBAS-FMSs with multi-mission management software (MMMS), TAWS, dual Vision-1 Synthetic Vision Systems, dual Radio Control Units (RCU), and dual Application Server Units (ASU) for charts, checklists and electronic document (e-docs) display.
“From a pilot’s point of view, we found the Universal systems intuitive to operate and easy to use after an acclimatization period of only a few hours. The training provided by Universal helped considerably with this process," says Alan Meredith, BAS’ Chief Pilot. "The improved operability and especially the increased situational awareness are appreciated by the crews and in general we are very pleased with the upgrade. The upgrade has, from an avionics perspective, future proofed this airframe for which there is no obvious alternative that meets British Antarctic Survey’s operating criteria.”