Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:30:00 -0500
Message-ID: <redirect-1983734@logan.com>
From: "Kirk Hammersmith" <kirkh@lancair-kits.com>
Subject: Blue Mountain EFIS Flight Test
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Last year, I promised I would (continue) to test the Blue Mountain EFIS
system and report how things were panning out.  If you recall, we
attempted to flight test Greg Richter's system on several occasions and
I reported negative results.  Since my post in July 2002, several things
have occurred.  Most significantly, Greg Richter paired up with Malcom
Thomson, who I met in Reno at the Air Races last September.  After
conversation with Malcom about our negative experiences with BMA, he
assured me that things were changing at Blue Mountain and asked for some
time to prove it.  I agreed to a new round of testing, which we started
in October 2002.  We installed the system in our company Lancair IV and
waited for Malcom to arrive.  After our first round of flight tests with
Malcom in the copilot seat, we did a fabulous job at demonstrating
pitch, roll, acceleration and deceleration errors that were
unacceptable.  After seeing the errors, Malcom agreed that they had some
work to do.  Two subsequent flights were made specifically to collect
data for Greg to analyze.

Malcom arrives back at Lancair (late Nov or early Dec), this time with
Greg.  Some new software code and flight tests showed vast improvements
(and hope), but additional flight-testing continues to show significant
pitch & roll errors as well as acceleration and deceleration errors. 
After again collecting more data, Malcom & Greg left, promising to
return with a fix.  

Malcom, Greg, and Greg's AHRS expert returned to Lancair last week with
new software and determination to demonstrate an accurate EFIS/One.  The
weather was nasty all week, preventing any flight-testing.  The Blue
Mountain crew headed to Portland for the weekend, returning bright and
early Monday morning.  No more snog (snow-fog) and blue skies
prevailing, Chief Pilot Peter Stiles and Greg Richter took off in the
company IV to put the EFIS/One through the paces.  After they returned,
Peter walked into my office to report the test flight.  "I couldn't fail
the system," Peter tells me.  I questioned him further about the test
and couldn't believe my ears.  The Blue Mountain EFIS/One performed
flawlessly.  

Additional testing and refinements to the Blue Mountain system will be
done between now and Sun N Fun.  The BMA group dove in head first,
identified problems, and demonstrated incredible support in resolving
those issues.  Based on the testing standards we put these guys through,
the accuracy of their system and their level of support, we will be
offering the BMA EFIS/One to our customers.  As a side note, the system
we are testing has new software code, which is not released yet,
according to Greg.  He mentioned it would be incorporated in his next
software release after refinements and debugging is done.  
Additional testing and in-flight photos will be available soon on the
Lancair Avionics website (www.lancairavionics.com)  

If you have any specific questions about the system or its performance,
feel free to contact me directly kirkh@lancair-kits.com

We are preparing for first flight-testing phase of the new Avidyne
Entegra EFIS, Garmin GTX330 Mode S Transponder w/ TIS, weather
datalinking system by WSI and the JPI EDM-900 Engine Monitoring System. 


Kirk Hammersmith
Lancair Avionics