Collins or Honeywell Avionics

[Lead Sled]

I agree 100% with Hawker F/O. I'll tell you what, from what I've seen, I'd dare say that many (most) pilots flying advanced stuff like Pro Line 21 suite haven't bothered to learn it beyond the depth required for routine day-to-day operations. It's good stuff, but it's wasted if all you can do with it is fly "Direct To" somewhere.

'Sled

 

[HawkerF/O]

I agree 100% with Hawker F/O. I'll tell you what, from what I've seen, I'd dare say that many (most) pilots flying advanced stuff like Pro Line 21 suite haven't bothered to learn it beyond the depth required for routine day-to-day operations. It's good stuff, but it's wasted if all you can do with it is fly "Direct To" somewhere.

'Sled

Exactly!

When I 1st got into the Hawker 800 (Honeywell SPZ-8000 with dual NZ-2000 intergration), I was on a trip to IAD with another new hire pilot who had been hired about a week prior to me. We had enough knowledge between the 2 of us to get us out to D.C. and not get into any trouble. We were there for 3 days, so on the 2nd day, we got bored, went out Piedmont, fired off the APU and bleeds, and sat in the aircraft for a couple of hours with the manual and both units online pressing buttons and setting up different scenarios. We came out of that aircraft that day with more knowledge than the other pilots who had been flying that airplane for 2 or 3 years, and we had only been flying it for 3 weeks. After flying with a couple of the other pilots, both of us started getting phone calls from those same pilots asking for help operationally with the units. Neither of us minded helping, but we were both really surprised at some of the questions we were asked.

I think the biggest surprise was the pilots would set the unit up correctly, and exactly what they wanted it to do was presented but they didn't trust it, so they'd dump the FMS and go to traditional nav methods. I figured out it was not that they didn't trust the FMSs, but they didn't trust that they had set it up properly, so they went back to what they knew, making things harder on themselves and not using all available data to make the pilot's work load consideralby less. In doing that, they'd take away a large chunk of the tools designed to help them with situational awareness, which I think is one of the biggest things pilots want in an unfamiliar environment, especially when in the terminal area and in the crap.

 

[Kiwi]

Having used everything from "steam driven" VHS to GPS units with 1 inch thick users manuals too confusing to even bother reading I now am very happy operating with the Honeywell Primus Epic.

It has its problems but you can't beat the 14" screens, track ball and the I-NAV.

If i knew how to put a pic in I would

 

[SCT]

My departmant operates both Honeywell Primus and Collins Proline 21 on our a/c. My opinion is that the Collins has alot of very nice features but is not very user friendly. It seems like there is alot of button pushing and going thru pages to position init., get numbers, and basic setup of a flight plan.

Where as the Honeywell Primus seems to logically lead you from one page to the next. Example, once you enter an approach the Honeywell will prompt you to the landing page for the #s. Where as the Collins is going thru several pages to get to the approach #s (Perf-Perf-Approach).

It is funny though, to see new pilots trying to do an extended centerline on the Honeywell.

Both are good systems.

 

[Pilot_Ryan]

Flown both, like the ProLine 21 the best. I think it's a great system. Might be because I fly it a lot more than the Honeywell, but I think it's intuitive and simple to use.