Duncan Aviation is encouraging customers with a Honeywell Aerospace FMZ-2000 flight management system to make sure their software is upgraded to version 6.1 or higher prior to 30 September, 2022. After that date, owner/operators who have not upgraded will lose access to the nav database.

“Once they lose it, owner/operators won't be able to fly flight plans that involve GPS coordinated waypoints. To all intents and purposes, without access to the nav database, those aircraft will no longer be Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) aircraft,” says senior avionics representative Adrian Chene. “So, when air traffic control says, for instance, to proceed to Echo and clear to final, you'll have to look up the coordinates for Echo and manually enter them. In this day and age, when you're flying a jet, those waypoints come up far too quickly for pilots to waste long minutes searching for a waypoint's coordinates, cross-checking charts and fiddling around to manually enter them.”

How owner/operators upgrade to version 6.1 of the software depends on the avionics configuration in the aircraft. For some, the flight management system equipment itself will need to be upgraded and for others, only the software version will require an upgrade.

The company's MRO facilities in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah, as well as number of Duncan Aviation satellite shops, are now authorised service centres for Saft America. With this authorisation, Duncan Aviation has access to tech data, manuals and parts directly from Saft to provide warranty, inspection, repair, overhaul and AOG services for Saft NiCad and lithium-ion batteries.

“Many of our in-house customers operate with Saft batteries in their aircraft,” says accessories business development manager Tim Fidler. “We have supported them for many years with factory-trained technicians providing the highest quality maintenance and service that meets Saft's rigorous standards.”