ExperimentalAB

I think another poster mentioned it somewhere, but apparently Chip has said EFB's are coming to the CRJ fleet, thanks in part to a $600,000 grant the FAA has given to several airlines...

Installations will begin come fall (once aircraft utilization is down), and installed units will be operational immediately...all aircraft onboard in less than 24 months.

I, for one, will actually miss the paper...sure the updates are a pain-in-arse, but I'm happy as a clam tactily flipping through my own charts, folding enroutes, etc...can't imagine I'll be too thrilled to flip through a grungy, grimy, and greasy electronic interface for my flight charts!

EDIT: Yes, I now see that this info was in all of our SWOL inbox's tonight LoL. First heard it in recurrent several weeks ago...should have posted it then

TonyWilliams

I think I wrote this article a year ago....

WHEN CAN I STOP CARRYING CHARTS TO WORK?

I’m sure we’d all love to use the chart bag receptacle in the RJ for something fun, like holding ice for your drinks. But, for now, we still need that space for the 30 – 40 pounds of paperwork we lug around for every trip. We’ve all heard talk about getting an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), and some of us have even flown in N962SW with the unpowered EFB installed. Wouldn’t it be great to not have to manually update your charts every 28 days, or worry about an FAA certificate action ‘cuz your current chart revision is sitting in an envelope, and not in your binders? How much longer will we be teased?

A few weeks ago, Klen Brooks attended the monthly SAPA meeting in Los Angeles and gave us an overview of where the project currently is. SkyWest is the launch customer to install the DAC International (DAC International) EFB in the CRJ’s, and ship 962 was the guinea pig used to receive the FAA Supplemental Type Certificate. The DAC EFB has already been in service and STC’d with SkyBus Airlines, and Pinnacle Airlines plans to take delivery of some new aircraft in the future with these units factory installed.

Kelvin Hyatt was kind enough to give me some background on the EFB project. Four years ago, he was tasked by Brad Holt to find the perfect magic box. He looked at several, including a system currently used by Fedex. He felt that system was inferior for our needs, since it is a strap-on-your-knee product. He looked at a system from an outfit in Calgary, but they really didn’t have a product yet ready to sell. Plus, what they planned to build was also some type of inflight entertainment system.

Another currently available system cost $25,000, just for the hardware. Yet another system, form Flight Deck Resources, offers a hard mounted single box EFB (meaning the display and computer guts are all in the same box) making it a tad biggish. Horizon plans to use this unit.

And finally, the DAC system, which is also about $25k, but that is the installed price with all the software. In addition, since the system doesn’t use Jeppesen charts, the monthly subscription costs for charts would drop from $165,000 per month, to a little less than half that from electronic chart company MapTech. They have been around for 20 years making nautical charts, so that experience now builds electronic hybrid versions of the government NOS/NACO aviation charts. The data was originally designed to be wirelessly updated, but that was cancelled due to cost and a little problem with patent infringement. It will now be updated with an encrypted USB device.

The DAC product uses two displays, hard mounted to the airframe, with a remote electronic gizmo to run the whole thing. It will allow SkyWest to tailor individual pages to their needs, and add in all the other printed material that we currently carry in the plane, like the MEL or HazMat manuals. It can be used for communications, and even ACARS could go through it (no plans for that, however). When you’re flying along enroute, the map will have your aircraft in the center showing your position superimposed over the jet route charts. The same thing is technically possible with the approach charts, but initially the FAA was against approving that.

Now, in the dust that has settled after the Comair accident in Lexington in Aug 2006, the FAA now endorses that feature. So, a future upgrade to the EFB may include your position on approach plates as well. When you taxi out, you just take your finger and touch the taxiways you want, and they light up. The whole system is as intuitive as looking at a normal book, so there shouldn’t be much training to implement.

These units can be installed at one aircraft per day, if you ask the design team, or one aircraft every 2 or 3 days if you ask the installers. That time equals about $4000 in lost revenue cost per aircraft, bringing the total cost up to about $30k per plane. Total cost for the 190-ish fleet is about $5.5 million. Even a simple guy like me can figure out that if there is an $85k per month is savings over Jeppesen, that little $5.5m investment pays for itself in less than 6 years. That’s good for the company, the shareholders, and for flight crews.

So, when can we expect to have the whole fleet equipped with the new EFB’s? Chip is still negotiating with DAC, and also speaking to United on cost indexing of the real time data this new product can provide. No discussions are pending with Delta, or Midwest. I would think we may be able to get rid of the printers, for further savings, and a completely paperless cockpit. Klen had made mention that United had developed a formula to determine how much it cost them in fuel to haul around 20 pounds of our SkyWest magazines in the back. Using that same formula, he wondered what it would save them when we aren’t hauling 80 pounds of charts and books?

I then spoke with the Steve Davis, of DAC International, and he had this to say; “DAC is proud to have worked with SkyWest, a true industry leader, in the move to the paperless cockpit. The addition of the GEN-X EFB with GENESYS software will give SkyWest pilots a convenient means to access Charts, Plates, Company plates, Minimums, and Manuals with one touch simplicity. Soon the pilot’s flight bag will be a thing of the past as all updates are accomplished automatically and precisely on time.”

Oh, one extra somewhat related tidbit. The company is planning to spend $45k per airplane to install ACARS in the ten Comair birds we fly. Throw away the manual manifests brothers and sisters, we’re going to the 21st century!

It may still be some time further before RJ drivers get to play with the new toys, and I don’t think we will be able to surf the internet at FL390, but I think it’ll be worth the wait. I’m going to the EMB, so I can only dream what that kind of automation is like. Fly safe all.

TonyWilliams

TonyWilliams

thrustsetrj200

Thanks for the pics! That looks pretty cool. However it looks a little cramped.

GoBlue

We have this same set-up in several of our United 170's. At first I was excited to have them but after using them for several months, I would definiately prefer the paper jepps. The airport diagrams are very cluttered and hard to read unless you zoom way in. There is no moving map on the a/p diagram (at least on ours). There is no briefing strip on the approach plates, much harder to brief in any sort of organized manner. The arrival charts are also harder to read. They can't be read during the day without the sun shade pulled up and are too bright at night, even in night mode. Also, ours are broke most of the time...hopefully you guys will have better luck. On the brighter side, I now know several vor names that I didn't previously.

cessnamann

huh 600,000 dollar grant? How many of the 80 pilots skywest has on furlough would that bring back for a while?

mynameisjim

CPZ also uses EFBs with the Maptech data, and I have also been disappointed with them. Same complaints as above in regards to clutter, detail, screen brightness, etc. Very heads down and cumbersome. Maybe Apple can make an EFB?

ExperimentalAB

You must be thinking of ASA...and a grant is usually designed and dispersed with a specific purpose. I'm sure the FAA never meant it to make payroll

Yep, I'm with you...but an Apple product might just swing my vote LoL

Oh, and thank you Tony for the post and pictures...Don't recall it myself, and I haven't flown 962 since the installation!

bored

Interesting... Mesaba abandonded the CRJ EFB project because the product that BBd had available was subpar. Maybe this is a new one? Or since they're getting a grant Skywest is going for it anyway, since they're not paying the whole bill.