Cobham last week said its synthetic vision glass cockpit has been approved for single-pilot IFR operation of the Bell 412 helicopter by the Federal Aviation Administration with the granting of a supplemental type certificate to Arrow Aviation.

“The Bell 412 is already a capable aircraft, and the addition of the Cobham EFIS [electronic flight instrument system] make it even more so, bringing it into the 21st Century in terms of pilot interface and enhanced safety,” David Guidry, Arrow Aviation general manager, said.

This development marks the world’s first IFR approval for a synthetic vision system in a helicopter, Cobham said.

Arrow Aviation, the completion center responsible for installation of Cobham’s EFIS, was selected to complete the 412 retrofit based on its proven track record of successful avionics equipment installations and superior ongoing maintenance and service.

The Search and Rescue unit of North Slope Borough, Alaska will be the first customer to have Cobham’s electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) installed on a 412.

The North Slope Borough 412 performs medevac, search and rescue, and emergency missions in the rigorous environment of Alaska’s North Slope.

Working across diverse coastal and inland topography, the Bell 412 uses the synthetic vision three-dimensional graphic technology to translate the terrain ahead of and around the helicopter into an intuitive, real-time visual picture, helping the pilot “see” aircraft position in relation to its surroundings regardless of darkness or weather conditions, Cobham said. This display reduces instrument scanning and pilot fatigue by consolidating readings of all primary flight instruments into one efficient tool, resulting in a dramatically reduced pilot workload and safer execution of flight plans and procedures, it added.

Features of the EFIS include: advanced, four-screen glass cockpit package – two Primary Flight Displays (PFD) and two Multi-Function Displays (MFD); enhanced situational awareness via 3D Synthetic Vision; Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning System (HTAWS); full-function Flight Management System (FMS); Highway-In-The-Sky (HITS) Predictive Flight Director; user-definable approaches, geo-referenced hover vector with “mark-on-target” functionality; Remote Bugs Panel (RBP); IFR approved with Cat-A capability; NVG compatibility; digital flight recording; intuitive audio and visual warning and advisory systems; traffic display from TAS, TCAS-I/II, and ADS-B; integrated GPS/WAAS (Global Positioning System/Wide Area Augmentation System), and an Air Data and Attitude Heading Reference System (ADAHRS).

Supported WSI Weather products include NEXRAD Weather Radar, Echo Tops, Graphical METARs, Textual METARs, Textual TAFs, Lightning, SIGMETs/AIRMETs, TFRs, and Winds/Temps aloft; ADS-B datalink display functions, including TIS-B (traffic) and FIS-B (flight information, including weather).