IR

[sxauer]

I was just wondering why infared imaging has not made it to the cockpit yet. I work as a firefighter (god bless the economy) and we have been having thermal imagers to see through the smoke for some time now. It seems that if we had thermal cameras in the cockpit it would make it legal to shoot an ILS while the wx is 0/0 because it would basically be the same as a normal ILS, just look at the LCD screen instead of outside when you transition...sort of...any thoughts/ideas/homocidal tendencies?

-shaun

[pilot602]

Oh there's all sorts of cool technology out there for flying - the problem is:

a) it needs ot be proven over and over and over before it can go "live"

For example: The guy who built Brantley helicopters (I believe) wanted to use the throttle cable from a 182 in his new helicopter (this was back in the 60s). The FAA wouldn't allow him to use an already certificated cable because he was (shock) going to use it in a helicpter - never mind the fact that the engine he was attaching to was the same engine used in the 182, even the same friggin mounts! So, the FAA made this guy put his helicopter with an already certificated engine and throttle cable through 1,000 flight hours to just prove it would "work" in a helicopter.

b) it costs money to upgrade entire fleets of aircraft and

When management sits down and takes out their bonuses for the year they look at the remaining money (cheap shot, I know) and have to decide whether or not the benefit of flying 0/0 approaches outweighs both the cost of upgrading the equipment and the liability. No matter the technology 0/0 is still more risky than a "no below 10 and greater than 6" visual day.

c) (probably the biggest) most of this stuff is trapped in the limbo that is known as FAA Certification.

See the first example.

Gulfstream has been using this technology for a couple of years now. I'm pretty sure that they offer it as an option on almost all of the GV's. I just read something on it last night in Flying mag. I believe it allows the pilots to shoot approaches down to 100 feet before having to initiate the go around, the nice thing about it is that it doesnt have to be a CAT II or CAT III ILS in order to shoot the approach either. There's some demo videos of it at the Gulfstream website that are pretty cool

Enhanced Vision System

[drumminpilot]

Got this in the AOPA ePilot Newsletter today...... what timing

FAA MAY ALLOW ENHANCED VISION IN SMALLER GA COCKPITS
The FAA is proposing new rules to allow pilots to use enhanced flight vision systems (EFVS) to assist in identifying required visual references during instrument approaches. EFVS improves a pilot's ability to identify ground references (such as runways, runway approach features, buildings, and terrain) in low-visibility conditions by using airframe-mounted infrared cameras or sensors, which send an enhanced forward visual image to a heads-up cockpit display. While mostly used in high-end general aviation aircraft, the technology can be adapted to smaller GA cockpits. AOPA is currently reviewing this proposal with an eye toward the future development of lower-cost vision technology.

[Brandon]

Water vapour is quite good at blocking infrared radiation, so the EVS doesn't see through really heavy fog very well apparently. Still a very cool system, and I am sure it can see much farther through heavy fog than I can!

[tonyw]

Does anyone know how much the infrared systems in the Apache helicopters cost? I think something similar would be required in the cockpit.

Give it time. After all, GPS was a high tech toy limited to the military only at first, and now it's worked its way down to cars!

[davetheflyer]

Probably two reasons:
1. Cost
2. FAA certification is tough

I have jumpseated on a big jet or two that had a HUD. Now that was cool!