5 Reasons Why I Liked Flying the Citation Longitude for the Third Time

This would be my third time flying the Longitude, and it wasn’t planned for me to replicate the pilot report I had already done on this capable jet. The opportunity on hand was for me to try out the Longitude’s new head-up display (HUD), a device that lets the pilot look through the windshield at the outside world while also seeing critical flight information projected on a see-through glass “combiner” display mounted about six inches in front of the pilot’s head.

The plan was to spend the first day learning how the HUD worked in Textron Aviation’s engineering simulator then the following day fly the real jet.

HUDs add a lot of safety to flying jets, enabling more precise maneuvering and helping pilots see ground features and runway lighting even through smoke, haze, and some types of fog. With a HUD, it’s often possible to complete a landing in inclement weather instead of having to go around and fly to an alternate airport and deal with all the hassles that come with changes to the original plan. 

AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber flying the Citation Longitude from the left seat with Textron Aviation manager of flight operations Rip Lee. The slim Garmin HUD projector leaves plenty of headroom for the left-seater.

Here’s what I learned during my HUD flight in the Longitude

Garmin got it right

The HUD in the Longitude is made by Garmin, the same company that makes auto and marine GPS navigation systems and sophisticated aircraft avionics. This is Garmin’s first HUD, and it’s a winner, performing just as well as HUDs that I’ve flown made by companies that have been in the HUD business for decades. Garmin’s HUD projector takes up scant space in the flight deck, which means that there are likely many other aircraft that could accommodate this HUD.

Looking up, not down

Flying with a HUD means looking through the windshield, and there’s so much good information displayed on the HUD that it’s often not necessary to look down at the other displays. Of course, the Longitude is certified as a two-pilot airplane, so the well-trained copilot will take care of much of the button pushing and knob turning. But being able to look outside adds to safety, and not just when flying near the ground but when flying around storms or near high terrain.

This HUD does it all

Like competing HUDs, Garmin’s HUD allows Longitude pilots to view a variety of imagery on the combiner glass. This includes infrared and other sensor-derived imagery; synthetic vision system, showing a database-driven animated view of the outside world; and a combination of those overlaid on top of each other called combined vision. With combined vision switched on and while flying through crappy visibility on a low instrument approach, as I practiced in Textron Aviation’s simulator, I could see the runway lights in the HUD well before I would have without the HUD’s help.

It’s still fun in good weather

I would have preferred our flight in the Longitude to have been in some of the bad weather that frequents the Wichita skies but as luck would have it, the weather was unusually good with clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures. Nevertheless, the HUD still proved its benefits as I flew some instrument approaches into Hutchinson Airport and used the HUD to guide us to the runway end. My flying partner, Textron Aviation manager of flight operations Rip Lee, had me stay low after one takeoff and point the Longitude at some tall radio towers, and they were clearly depicted in the HUD’s synthetic vision. If we had been in the clouds, I could easily have avoided the towers while watching them in the HUD. Of course, they are also shown on the main primary display in the instrument panel, but I think it’s much safer to see such obstacles in the HUD and know that it is accurately modeling the world outside the windshield. 

Elbit’s multi-sensor camera mounted on the Longitude’s nose is the easy way to tell if the jet is equipped with Garmin’s HUD.

Landings made easy

One of the benefits of a HUD is that it can be programmed to help the pilot with certain maneuvers, including landing. When landing a jet, the process is pretty much to fly down towards the runway, and it feels as though the airplane is going to smack into the ground. As the jet gets within about 50 feet of the runway, the pilot has to very slightly pull back on the control yoke to raise the nose just a tiny bit—called flaring—so the main wheels touch first and hopefully somewhat smoothly. It takes a lot of training to judge the flare correctly. Flare too late and the airplane could bang onto the runway nosewheel first and cause damage. Flare too early and excess lift could cause the airplane to balloon into the air where it will run out of energy and drop like a rock. Passengers don’t like this, nor do the mechanics who have to fix the broken airplane. And each airplane type is different, so pilots have to get used to how to flare properly in each airplane they fly. With a HUD, when it’s time to flare, a flare cue pops up and tells the pilot exactly when and how much to pull back on the controls. It makes for a much smoother landing, and the three landings that I did in my Longitude HUD flight with Lee were some of my best ever.