Monday, September 9 — 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

UAS Track

Avionics systems for manned and unmanned aircraft world-wide are now mandated to follow “DO-178C or ED-12CC” for literally all phases of development:  Safety, Requirements, Design, Code, Test, Quality Assurance, etc.  The new DO-178C was introduced in 2012, but the predecessor versions began in the 1980’s. Growing from 100 to over 600 pages, this new DO-178C seems complex to follow but almost all aircraft flying today must comply with it:  commercial and military planes, UAV’s, and rotorcraft. First-time users often complain of costs and schedules doubling while trying to comply. But is DO-178C really complex? What are the true meanings of DO-178C? How can DO-178C be understood and applied cost-effectively the first time?  What are the top mistakes when starting DO-178C projects and how to avoid them? What are the best practices for DO-178C avionics requirements, design, code, configuration management, test, QA, and certification including for UAV’s? All of these topics are explained in this fast-paced Introductory DO-178C class. 

Key Features
  • Understanding DO-178C’s basic principles:  DO-178C explained for the “real world”:  unmanned and manned aircraft and differences between.
  • Understanding DO-178C’s true intent by understanding the original authors’ goals
  • Understanding the avionics development ecosystem of Safety, Software, Hardware and Certification
  • Understanding DO-178C’s five Plans, three Standards, Requirements, Design, Code, Verification, Quality Assurance, and Configuration Management
  • Real-world DO-178C examples, and how to transition from DO-178B to DO-178C
  • Common DO-178C initiation mistakes: UAV’s and Manned aircraft.
Who Should Attend

Attendees may include engineers, managers, quality assurance or certification personnel; no DO-178 expertise required.

Mr. Vance Hilderman is Afuzion’s director of Avionics Certification. Holding a BSEE and MBA from Gonzaga University, and a Masters in Computer Engineering from USC (Hughes Fellow). Mr. Hilderman was previously the co-founder of TekSci (the world’s largest avionics software services company in the ’90’s), HighRely, and now AFuzion – performing technical avionics software/certification development at companies throughout the world.

Mr. Hilderman has focused on safety-critical avionics software, systems, hardware development and related technical products for 25 years. Considered an expert on safety critical software/computer systems and certification, Mr. Hilderman has consulted with ninety five of the world’s one hundred largest aerospace companies plus numerous medical, industrial and telecommunications entities Mr. Hilderman has trained over 17,600 avionics engineers and managers in 40 countries on DO-178B, ARP-4754, DO-178C, DO-254, DO-200A, DO-297, and safety/software development.

Mr. Hilderman is the principal author of dozens of technical whitepapers and avionics training protocols, plus the world’s best-selling book on avionics development/certification, published by Avionics Communications and titled “Avionics Certification – A Complete Guide …”; all royalties are donated to the Boy Scouts of America where Mr. Hilderman and two of his sons are Eagle Scouts. Mr. Hilderman will soon be publishing his next book to be titled “The Avionics Development Ecosystem” published by Afuzion Press.