PlaneView Update

James Albright (a former G450 driver)

Updated: 2018-04-09

When we first got our G450 the most intimidating part of the introduction was the database update.

I took copious notes which included a few gems from the avionics technician such as this: "At this point the cockpit goes nuts." Over the next year our update times varied from one hour to eight. The Entry Into Service folks denied the problem at first, but after a while admitted the PlaneView database update was the leading complaint of all G450 operators. Years later after Foxtrot Enhanced and several new circuit boards in each MAU, things usually go very smoothly.

UPDATE: The FAA has ruled against the practice of having pilots perform these updates. Though we pilots have done these for years, we have stopped. More about this: Database Updates by Pilots.

How to do it . . .

I think the easiest way to learn the procedure is to watch someone else do it a few times. In that spirit, here is a video of a red/blue update that included one error that required a target load: Data Base Update 2016. The video is about 20 minutes long and takes a while to load, but the process takes a while.

CMS Load Check

In case you want to see what a typical CMS check looks like, here's ours.

Note: we’ve blanked out any identifying information, such as our serial number, etc. These lines should be filled.

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 DB Config

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[Honeywell Data Loading Procedures, pg. 97.]

  • Select the DB CONFIG box at the bottom of the display

  • Ensure all DB are valid for actual date and note color displayed for the parameters shown in the following table

  • Use Page Up/Page Down buttons to verify the data displayed on multiple pages

There are two pages and everything should be green. We've seen blank lines and green dashes, indicating we had a problem and had to do that portion of the upload again.

The Honeywell Data Loading Procedures page 97 gives you a place to start, depending on what ails you.

Mistakes...

...are inevitable. But so far, every time we’ve done this, it has worked. The worst we’ve seen so far is after the update the dates on the CMS or Database Config page remain yellow. We powered the aircraft down and back up again and everything was fine. We’ve heard that sometimes you have to repeat the entire process. So don’t attempt this update unless you have a lot of extra time available!