Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has installed the Astronics Max-Viz 1400 enhanced vision system (EVS) on five Beechcraft King Air 200s operating in the country’s remote and rural southeastern region.
Astronics, based in Cedar City, Utah says its EVS enables pilots to see up to 10 times further in obscured conditions such as smoke, haze and fog throughout the day and night – ideally suited to the round-the-clock operations the RFDS provides.
Priced at $25,000, the Max-Viz 1400 features a lightweight, solid-state, uncooled thermal camera with a sensor image that can be displayed on an array of flightdecks such as the Garmin G500, G600, G1000 and the Avidyne Entegra R9.
Royal Flying Doctor Service
The RFDS’s EVS has been integrated into its King Air’s G1000 cockpit by Queensland engineering company, Complete Avionics. The Berringa-based company secured supplemental type certification for the installation in the third quarter. US approval is expected in 2016, says Astronics.
The emergency medical services provider has a fleet of 68 aircraft, of which 29 are King Air models including the 350.
The RFDS says its southeastern section covers medical incidents – from snake bites to heart attacks – across southwest Queensland, eastern and northern South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
Source: Flight International
