Mid-Canada Mod Center (MC2) recently completed installation of a Universal Avionics (UA) InSight display system on a Citation VII aircraft. This marks the first Canadian installation of UA's integrated flight deck solution.

“Repair costs for legacy avionics on an aircraft of this age are typically quite high, and some of the systems are no longer supported,” says Bill Arsenault, president of MC2. “The main goals here were to enhance safety through better situational awareness and extend the usable life of the aircraft with a modern cockpit. This Citation VII had relatively few upgrade paths available, but having worked on older aircraft for many years, it was clear to us that the Universal Avionics InSight display system would meet our client's goals. We are pleased to team-up with Universal Avionics on this project.”

The work included an extensive flight deck upgrade, inflight connectivity, plus additional certification related to activities to obtain Transport Canada approval of UA's FAA STC. MC2's sister division, Avionics Design Services (ADS) helped smooth the way for application submissions and developed an STC for a software upgrade. With this completed installation and certification, the InSight display system is now a solution for all Citation VII aircraft with existing Honeywell and Collins nav/comm packages.

Recognising the Canadian milestone, Dror Yahav, UA CEO comments: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with MC2 to certify our InSight display system in the Canadian market. The excellent personal and technical relationships between our companies resulted, again, in a wonderful cockpit upgrade which brings state-of-the-art capabilities to the Citation VII aircraft.”

This modification, which also included in-flight connectivity, saw the client take advantage of the downtime related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was completed in a short time frame. The new flight deck offers the operator: the ability to land at unfamiliar airports with confidence, simplified user control and input, and increased reliability with high component MTBF/MTBUR.

The age of the aircraft was a key challenge in completing this modernisation, but the UA InSight display system offers a more integrated solution that interfaces with the existing automatic flight control system which would be cost prohibitive to replace. Modifications included the UA 10.4” EFI-1040 displays, touch EFIS control display unit, alphanumeric keyboard and reference select panel, data concentrator unit II, engine interface unit and Class A TAWS. The system offers LPV, ADS-B Out, and CPDLC/CPDLC DCL capabilities, plus a growth path to EFVS. Top features include embedded 3D SVS, advanced mapping, electronic charts and the ability to customise displays for different phases of flight. Additionally, the FMS installation includes the UA FlexPerf trip performance option. This provides advanced fuel saving predictions for aircraft performance in climb, cruise and descent phases of flight.