Farnborough Aviation purchases Labcell instruments for greater accuracy

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

ISSN: 0002-2667

Article publication date: 1 June 2001

92

Keywords

Citation

(2001), "Farnborough Aviation purchases Labcell instruments for greater accuracy", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 73 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2001.12773cad.010

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited


Farnborough Aviation purchases Labcell instruments for greater accuracy

Farnborough Aviation purchases Labcell instruments for greater accuracy

Keywords: Labcell, Farnborough Aviation Services

With the world's airways becoming more crowded all the time, legislation on aircraft has to be changed to allow tighter vertical separation of the airways to be accomplished. In order to operate within more stringent testing guidelines on aircraft instruments, Farnborough Aviation Services (FASET) has recently purchased a precision altimeter tester and precision airspeed tester from Labcell to carry out testing to greater accuracy standards.

Farnborough Aviation Services is able to carry out all aspects of aircraft repair work and maintains corporate aircraft for businesses and private individuals. Everything from Lear jets to Gulf stream aircraft are maintained, with different aircraft requiring servicing after 300, 600, 1,200 and 2,400 hours' operational time, as well as three, six, nine and 12 month service intervals.

Actual calibration of the altimeters and air speed indicators is carried out on the ground. To achieve this, pressure is applied to the relevant system to simulate different altitudes, rates of climb and airspeeds whilst the aircraft instruments are monitored by the calibration instruments.

Prior to purchasing the new instruments from Labcell, FASET used a standard Barfield tester, but the new legislation meant a more accurate system was required, as explained by avionics manager at FASET, Mr Peter Allen;

New legislation on aircraft to reduce vertical separation of airways means that restrictions for altimeter testing have now been tightened, so we needed something with less of an error rate than the old Barfield tester. As well as giving us much greater accuracy, the new Labcell instruments are very easy to use.

The model 353 precision altimeter tester (Plate 4) is reported to be able to calibrate altitude, rate of climb and static system leak rate in one unit. With NIST traceable accuracy of ±7ft at sea level and ±70ft at 60,000ft, the model 353 exceeds FAR 43-Appendix E requirements. Rate of climb of ±6,000ft/min and a wide altitude range of 2,000 to +60,000 feet are able to be tested.

Plate 4 Precision altimeter tester from Labcell

The model 354 precision airspeed tester is also said to have a NIST traceable accuracy of ±0.05 per cent over full scale. With a resolution to the nearest tenth of a knot, mph or kmh, it is able to measure up to 514 knots.

Details available from: Labcell Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1256 760777; Fax: +44 (0) 1256 760921; Web site: www.labcell.com

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