Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. company, announced today the FAA certification for its Basix-Pro Glass Retrofit Kit for Bell 412EP models. The new glass cockpit retrofit kit benefits include reduced pilot workload, increased precision and improved situational awareness. The Bell BasiX-Pro Glass Cockpit Retrofit Kit uses the current Bell production displays from Astronautics and Garmin avionics by upgrading analog instruments to a full glass cockpit featuring the latest technology and state of the art instrumentation that is common with current SUBARU Bell 412EPX and Bell 429 aircraft.
“As a part of Bell’s Customer Support and Service offerings, we are committed to developing and certifying new technologies for legacy platforms. In an effort to increase reliability, situational awareness and decreased pilot workload, the BasiX-Pro Kit delivers the latest integrated flight deck, high-resolution displays as well as engine data and flight operation recording. With the BasiX-Pro Kit, 412EP’s now can be upgraded to 4-axis autopilot further reducing pilot workload,” said Chris Schaefer, vice president, Customer Experience, Bell.
Astronautics has a proven record of dependability with hundreds of fielded displays, achieving high reliability with more than one million flight hours. Garmin has become the aviation standard for COM, NAV, and GPS integrated solutions.Currently, Bell is under contract to complete a fleet upgrade of several analog Bell 412EPs. Bell will offer the Bell-owned BasiX-Pro retrofit kit through Aeronautical Accessories with retrofits being performed at Bell’s global completion centers of excellence, which include Piney Flats, TN, Miami, FL, Singapore, Bell Australia and Prague.
The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter of the Huey family manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It can be deployed in search-and-rescue, emergency medical service (EMS), fire-fighting, coast guard, airborne surveillance, counter-terrorism, law enforcement and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) missions. The current production version, 412EP (Enhanced Performance), is equipped with a dual digital automatic flight control system. In 2013 Bell introduced the 412EPI which includes an electronic (digital) engine control for a PT6T-9 engine upgrade, and a glass cockpit display system similar to the Bell model 429.
