GFC 500 installed in 182Q and it is fantastic!

Stallhorn

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Stallhorn
All,

My flying club in Gaithersburg just completed the avionics upgrade for our 182, complete with a GFC 500. I went and picked up the plane, and it is fantastic.

- Preset my climb altitude, and IAS before take off.

- Lined up with the runway, pushed the GA (Go Around) button. That gave me about 7 degrees nose up on the flight director. Pushed power in to full power, rotate and then got my yellow chevron to snug up to the hollow magenta chevron. Climb speed was about 90 kts at full power.

- 800 feet AGL, turned on the autopilot - came on ROL mode. Adjusted the heading to intercept the navigation path, and turned on HDG mode.

- pushed IAS again and scrolled nose down to get it to 90 and reduced power to climb power.

- Loaded up an ILS approach to an intermediary airport, got to the IAF. 430W captured the localizer and switched the CDI to green and I pushed the APR button. That engaged LOC, and armed GS.

- Reduced power when within 1 dot of GS capture. It flew the approach all the way to minimums.

- pushed the GA button and pushed in power and carb heat. Autopilot pitched the nose up and started climbing at about 7 degrees nose up.

- I cleaned up flaps, pushed the susp key and obs key on the 430 (to switch back to GPS navigation). Then pushed the NAV button on the AP, which turned me to the holding point.

- I pushed IAS and adjusted desired climb speed and reduced power to top of the green.

AP took me to the hold, entered it.

I didn't touch anything from about 800 feet AGL after takeoff. Absolutely amazing when you think this is happening in a 1980s Cessna.

List of equipment in this plane now is:

- GFC 500 with pitch trim option
- Garmin GNS 430 WAAS
- Garmin GMA 345 with bluetooth connectivity for phone and music streaming.
- Garmin GTX 345 - ADS-B, traffic and weather display on 430 and on Foreflight via bluetooth.
- Garmin G5 Attitude Indicator
- Garmin G5 HSI
- Garmin GNC 255 secondary radio
- EDM 850 engine monitor with fuel totalizer
IMG_0039.JPG IMG_0041.JPG
Here are a couple of pics
 
Awesome, thanks for the pirep


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BW how many hrs did it take to install? Did I have a legacy AP that needed to come out?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
BW how many hrs did it take to install? Did I have a legacy AP that needed to come out?


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It was installed at 3 different times and 2 different shops, but it took 15k for GFC 500 (with pitch trim servo) and 10k for dual G5 (including GMU 11 and GAD 29B) - a total of about 25 AMU - So if you subtract the cost of the equipment - about 8.5k for GFC 500 with trim servo and 5k for dual G5s, that would be 13k for install. This part of the country has a higher shop rate (about $100/hr), so that would be 130 hrs!
 
Thanks for that pirep! I'm in the conga line for the GFC 500, can't wait!!
 
It was installed at 3 different times and 2 different shops, but it took 15k for GFC 500 (with pitch trim servo) and 10k for dual G5 (including GMU 11 and GAD 29B) - a total of about 25 AMU - So if you subtract the cost of the equipment - about 8.5k for GFC 500 with trim servo and 5k for dual G5s, that would be 13k for install. This part of the country has a higher shop rate (about $100/hr), so that would be 130 hrs!

My shop estimates 25 hrs per servo plus the control unit. They are doing at 172 this summer, will get a better estimate then. But it does sound like they are pretty close


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It was installed at 3 different times and 2 different shops, but it took 15k for GFC 500 (with pitch trim servo) and 10k for dual G5 (including GMU 11 and GAD 29B) - a total of about 25 AMU - So if you subtract the cost of the equipment - about 8.5k for GFC 500 with trim servo and 5k for dual G5s, that would be 13k for install. This part of the country has a higher shop rate (about $100/hr), so that would be 130 hrs!

I hope the first shop offered a refund. LOL. Dang.
 
That's about 800 cheaper than my high quote. Could go 1500 lower. My install is scheduled for may 9th. Labor estimates are 92 to 106 hours. Exactly the same equip as OP. Includes removing vacuum system.
 
The GFC500 controller looks like it has odd dimensions, I can’t find them, anyone know what they are?
 
The GFC500 controller looks like it has odd dimensions, I can’t find them, anyone know what they are?

The GMC507 fits a 6.3 wide opening. What is weird is the buttons and text on the unit are larger than any other new Garmin radio such as the GTN, GTX.

upload_2018-4-3_12-46-19.png
 
The GMC507 fits a 6.3 wide opening. What is weird is the buttons and text on the unit are larger than any other new Garmin radio such as the GTN, GTX.

View attachment 61552

It looks like it’s narrower than standard, and taller than the 255 standard height, your pix shows a gap of 1/4” on left side.
 
It looks like it’s narrower than standard, and taller than the 255 standard height, your pix shows a gap of 1/4” on left side.

Are you talking about the gap between the floating plastic overlay and the control panel (meaningless) or it matching the width of the GNC? There is no standard hieght, just whatever they want the package to be so, yeah.

The 507 it the same as the 307 in this. Its a space hog no doubt, but some of that looks intentional.

upload_2018-4-3_14-35-40.png
 
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Are you talking about the gap between the floating plastic overlay and the control panel (meaningless) or it matching the width of the GNC? There is no standard hieght, just whatever they want the package to be so, yeah.

The 507 it the same as the 307 in this. Its a space hog no doubt, but some of that looks intentional.

View attachment 61555
than panel is sexy!!

we should totally start a panel porn thread
 
than panel is sexy!!

we should totally start a panel porn thread
His-n-Hers TVs are fine but I'd rather see one big TV in the middle and then a couple smaller screens on the sides.
 
Looking to do the same AP upgrade in my 182Q. Can’t wait, thanks for the info!
 
That's a really nice panel that is accessible, budget-wise. Great work.
 
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