"Pilot feedback on the EASy flightdeck installed in the Falcon 900EX and 2000EX has been extremely good," says Brigitte Bonneville, deputy director for sales engineering at Dassault. "So there was no debate about using it for the Falcon 7X."
The EASy flightdeck is based on Honeywell's Primus Epic hardware platform, and aims to reduce pilots' workload and give them far better situational awareness through "intuitive displays". Only half the number of controls are required compared with the Falcon 900 and they are placed within easier reach.
The T-shaped instrument panel has four 360mm (14.1in) displays, divided into two areas – tactical and strategic. The outer primary flight displays (PFD) present tactical information, and the inner two present strategic (long-term) information, such as flight planning data. For safety, the two inner displays, called multifunction display units, are shared, and cannot be changed by one pilot without the other knowing, avoiding the possibility of one alteringing the flight plan, possibly erroneously. Typically, the upper display is used for navigation functions, the lower for flight management, systems pages, checklists, and so on.
Control of EASy is carried out primarily using the Dassault-designed cursor-control device (CCD), a trackball and mouse controller that enables the pilot to organise the flightdeck without looking away from the display panel. Multifunction keyboards provide fast access to essential functions. "We wanted to minimise the amount of time pilots spend head-down," says Bonneville.
Another 7X innovation is that the PFDs display a flightpath, or trajectory, vector driven by the inertial reference system aligning itself with the flightpath. Already used in combat aircraft, the vector adds a safety feature by showing the actual trajectory of the aircraft rather than its attitude. Coupled with the optional head-up display and the new moving-map display, situational awareness is vastly improved.
The pilot can maintain an accurate descent, for example, just by keeping the flight director in the middle of the trajectory vector. A further feature is an acceleration chevron that, coupled with the thrust director, shows excess energy available at any time – useful in windshear or when an engine fails.
The PFDs also display other useful information graphically, such as the position of flaps and slats, the phase of flight, and radio and navigation frequencies. On the navigation display, any waypoint can be called up instantly, and is seen in its correct position on the moving map.
The entire flight plan can therefore be constructed without entering waypoints manually into a control display unit, which has caused several accidents. Once both pilots have agreed on the flight plan, it is activated and the colour of the route shown across the map changes.
Source: Flight International
