Testimonials
Customer Case Studies
Mark Bunce - Guernsey, UK
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“I’ve found the Avidyne Alliant system to be very
capable, yet very easy to fly. It’s a fantastic system.”
A Cessna Conquest Renovation from the ground up
Mark Bunce has been flying for about 10 years. A while back he sold his Bell Jet Ranger helicopter and for the past four or five years has been flying fixed wing aircraft. He lives in Guernsey, on the Channel Islands, which are United Kingdom territory but are actually closer to France. Recently, Bunce purchased a Cessna Conquest II twin turboprop aircraft and contracted West Star in Grand Junction,
Colorado to do a ground-up restoration. At West Star, the airplane will get new paint, zero-timed engines, and of course, a new
instrument panel and an Avidyne Alliant avionics package.
A plane with great abilities made even better with Avidyne
Bunce chose the Conquest “for its fuel economy, range and its great abilities. Although it’s a relatively old aircraft, I want to bring it up to date with modern avionics.
I talked with West Star and decided to go with the Avidyne package for the Conquest because it was a really nice fit and it’s already STC’d for the Conquest. It gives me a full all-glass digital panel which allows me to comply with some of the new, more modern European regulations, and forthcoming regulations, so hopefully soon I’ll be Mode S compliant and RVSM compliant, which is very important for fuel economy, getting high in Europe and for crossing boundaries.”
Evolution and integration of Alliant package an important consideration and selling point.
“One of Avidyne’s greatest selling points to me was both its ability to interface with numerous external components, and should I so choose, my ability to add features to the system as they become available in the future. Indeed, Avidyne has already announced their MLX 770 for European datalink weather that I’ll be integrating into my flight deck next, and that’s what I’m looking for. I’m planning to keep my Conquest for the next five to 10 years, but I don’t want to throw away things in two or three years’ time. I’m hoping with the Avidyne product we can add on each new product as it comes along and integrate it in. What I’m looking for with the Avidyne system is a growth path, and that’s one of the things I like about this system. Avidyne recently announced their FMS900w flight management system that would add value to an aircraft like this, so I’ll probably be one of the first customers to upgrade once it’s available for this aircraft. I suppose I look at this three ways. What’s the best technology I can get for my money?
Secondly, what’s the benefit I can get from adding this equipment to the aircraft, and does it provide an upgrade path to future
capabilities?”
West Star Aviation – the premier facility for Cessna Conquest maintenance and modification.
West Star is a well known shop for the Cessna Conquest line of aircraft. While Bunce’s plane was undergoing refurbishment, there were five other Conquests on premises at various stages of work. “West Star were quite instrumental in my decision. In my conversations with them, it became clear that the best bang for buck was going to be with them and the Alliant system.”
Safety is paramount.
Often, when Bunce flies, he’s got his family along with him. “I like to keep my aircraft very well maintained, as I fly my family, and my family is priceless. I live on a small island that often has poor weather, fog, crosswinds, etc, so I want to know that on a bad night, if something’s gonna go wrong, you’ve got backup after backup. I really like the robustness of the Avidyne system’s architecture. With the Alliant system, you’ve got two independent ADAHRS, so if they don’t compare, you can switch to the good one and continue. It’s important to me on a bad night that I can still get where I am going safely and reliably. And one of the great feature of this package is that there’s no vacuum. It’s all electric.
It just runs.”
Bunce chose Avidyne for system reliability and fault tolerance, intuitive operation and redundancy.
“I chose this system after quite a lot of research and after considering other systems. One thing Avidyne’s built into the Alliant is enough backup, with all its redundancy, I’m not worried about something failing. I’ve got great faith in Avidyne. They’ve delivered what they said they would.”
Alliant is an easy transition for a pilot accustomed to electro-mechanical gauges.
Mark Bunce was a bit skeptical about how easy the transition to the Alliant system would be. He’d never flown with an integrated flight deck before. “How I enjoy flying an airplane is important to me. Enjoyment is an important part of the process. The last thing I want to do after flying to visit some family is get into an aircraft that I don’t enjoy. I read the abbreviated flight manual for the Avidyne. I’m used to dials going round and those sort of things.
I was quite nervous about getting used to watching speed tapes and so on, and on my flights with the chief test pilot at West Star, I just found the Alliant system very natural, very intuitive. Some of the functionality is quite stunning.”
“The audio warnings are very good, almost like a large commercial flight deck. The altitude warning, speed warning, traffic, TAWS, they’ve all got aural warnings. It sounds complicated, having all those systems, and I’ve got radar, but it’s not. The Alliant system actually reduces workload, and it looks good too.”
Alliant - A good investment in safety and value.
Bunce feels the investment in the Alliant package has been a good one. “Value for money? No electronic flight deck is inexpensive. Aviation’s not inexpensive, but the Alliant’s value to me as a pilot, and to the value of my aircraft, are manifold. I appreciate the inherent safety benefits of the system, and I appreciate the higher residual value my aircraft gains. My plane’s benefiting from the installation of a modern suite of avionics that surprised me when I found out how intuitive it was. I think you can fly this system safely after looking at the manuals for a few hours. It won’t take days of classroom training to get up to speed with it. I’ve found the Avidyne Alliant system to be very capable, yet very easy to fly. I’m really enthusiastic about how this project has all come together; it’s a fantastic system.”
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