FAA, EASA OK G500/600 Flight Control Software Fix

Gulfstream Aerospace received FAA certification yesterday and EASA approval today for the flight control software update that eliminates crosswind landing limitations on the G500 and G600. Approval of the software fix is a terminating action for an Airworthiness Directive issued in May.

The first 20 of the approximately 170 in-service G500/600s will have the software update completed by the end of today, with most of the remainder of the fleet expected to be done by month’s end. Gulfstream Product Support president Derek Zimmerman said the software update and associated paperwork can be completed in one day at its service centers or at three special stand-up facilities in Fort Smith, Arkansas; Basel, Switzerland; and Singapore. All affected aircraft have already been scheduled for the software update work, he noted.

Jeannine Haas, Gulfstream’s chief marketing officer, said the approval paves the way for shipments this month of four G500/600 whose deliveries were deferred in the second quarter pending a fielded software fix. The Savannah, Georgia-based aircraft manufacturer told customers in May that it expected to have a certified solution by the end of September.

Limitations that are eliminated by the now-certified software fix include a maximum landing wind speed of 15 knots, including gusts; maximum gust speed of five knots; approach speed additives (flaps 39) half the steady state wind plus the gust increment up to a maximum additive of 20 knots; all approaches stabilized by 1,000 feet altitude before landing; mandatory vertical guidance required from ILS or FMS-based approaches before night landing; minimum approach speed of Vref+10 to the threshold and used to calculate landing distance and autothrottles required during a normal approach, landing, and operations with pilots to physically guard and override in the event of performance anomaly.