ADS-B

[kath]

I'm planning a round-the-country adventure trip, which will start in July. I'll be visiting friends, family, and colleagues all over the Lower 48 over 12 months.
Of the 25-ish destinations I've got planned at the moment, about half of them are in "rule space". They include places like Madison, Minneapolis, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Atlanta, D.C., New York, and Boston. (Y'know, places with universities.)
So yeah. Our ADS-B-Out install just got out of the shop today.

This trip will likely be the adventure of my life. I wouldn't be able to do it if I didn't equip.

I'll also say that I wouldn't have chosen to equip otherwise, but that's a different story, and one that doesn't require purposelessly disparaging city folks, or country folks. Or academics, Ed.

 

[zaitcev]

I think if you had to spend a quarter of the value of your Mooney complying, you might squawk, too.

I spent about 12..15% of value of the Mooney for 2020 compliance, depending on the market price. I'm going to spend even more on corrosion mitigation.

 

[wanttaja]

I spent about 12..15% of value of the Mooney for 2020 compliance, depending on the market price. I'm going to spend even more on corrosion mitigation.

*Just* on adding ADS-B? Or as part of a general avionics upgrade (new transponder, etc.).

Why didn't you opt for the lower-cost units? Or did you do it several years before you had to?

Ron Wanttaja

 

[zaitcev]

Why didn't you opt for the lower-cost units? Or did you do it several years before you had to?

There isn't anything cheaper than GTX-335 in 1090ES, especially if you consider that the $3k deal included the antenna, and the Appareo didn't (well, they started doing the same promotion later, IIRC). The Skybeacon is a joke and GDL 82 is a UAT unit, which is not going to be permissible for international flight very soon. I also looked at doing a piecemeal upgrade with Trig, L3, and other options, but all of them came out significantly more expensive than GTX-335. None of those other transponders included a GPS source (again, except the Stratus). So, there you have it: unless you're doing UAT, which will tank the resale of your Mooney, the 335 is the cheapest option. Still is, this close to the deadline.

5/42 = 12%. More percents on high time engine, fewer on a spiffy M20J model.

Don't get me wrong, I've read your long message in its entirety. And I considered what it would cost to update the Carlson, which was experimental, could never fly above 9.5 for the lack of power, and didn't have the range to reach the nearest border. And even then it was cost-prohibitive. I sold it for $6k to a guy living in the middle of Iowa.

 

[chemgeek]

Well, the $300 price difference when you figure in handling fees, ramp fees, parking fees, security fees, fuel that's $3 more per gallon...sometimes it makes way more sense to land outside.

Not my experience in the East. There are lots of GA friendly airports in metropolitan areas. KGAI AND KPWM come to mind in the East/Northeast, for example. I've also found great metro area airports on longer trips to Florida/Georgia. I don't think I've spent a TOTAL of $300 for airport fees and fuel on metro area trips, much less $300 more than I would spend somewhere else farther away from my destination. Maybe your experience is different. I like flying close to where I'm going, whether it is a business meeting or a pleasure trip. It's the beauty of owning an airplane. If i just wanted to save money I would drive, fly commercial, or take the bus. Personal flying is in large part about convenience. It will never be cost-effective. And for those of us in the NE corridor, filing IFR without ADS-B is likely to be impractical after 2020.

 

[EdFred]

Last trip for me into a metro area was 100ish in fees, and it wasn't even signature!! Stopping 10 minutes away would have been 0 in fees.

Figure going into BOS is going to kill you on fees.

 

[chemgeek]

Last trip for me into a metro area was 100ish in fees, and it wasn't even signature!! Stopping 10 minutes away would have been 0 in fees.

Figure going into BOS is going to kill you on fees.

Hanscom in Boston is GA friendly and just as convenient as Logan. Currently $10 landing fee, $22 per day to park. Not a deal-breaker. (In the grand scheme of things, this is in the budget dust of of annual plane ownership costs.) I've spent more and I've spent less when I need or want to travel to a metro area. But it's not $300 more than somewhere else, and it's not even $300 total with a tank top-off. Whether or not you find metro area airports of value for travel is an individual decision. But it's certainly not common to pay $300 more to fly close in than stay outside ADS-B required airspace.

By all means avoid ADS-B required airspace as you desire. It's not a viable option for everyone.

 

[EdFred]

Yeah that's not terrible. Seems to be hit and miss on fees. I've paid 5 bucks a night at a Charlie (no fuel, no handling fee), and then others want $100 to taxi across their ramp.

 

[chemgeek]

Yeah that's not terrible. Seems to be hit and miss on fees. I've paid 5 bucks a night at a Charlie (no fuel, no handling fee), and then others want $100 to taxi across their ramp.

It varies. The really big commercial terminals, and some popular jet-set oriented airports can be prohibitive. (And some low volume airports not in big cities can be putzes as well. ROC, which is dead, charged me a $40 ramp fee to stop for 5 minutes to make a research sample delivery to a colleague at RIT. I'd been there many times in training and for fun, and this unpublished fee was news to me.) On the other hand, I've had pretty inexpensive stops at TTN, GSO, PDK, PWM, PIE, and CRG, just to mention a few places near metro destinations. It's been a while, but BWI turned out to be a nice stop with a separate GA runway and FBO. I don't remember paying big fees there last time I was there to catch a game at Camden Yards. And GAI is one of the friendliest GA airports in the Washington Metro area, and is convenient to Rockville and Bethesda, where I worked a couple of times for a year (and based my plane there temporarily.) The Washington metro areas has become increasingly inconvenient to navigate over the years unless filed IFR, then it's dead simple. (In the olde days, you could easily fly to College Park and hop the Metro Green line across the street. That's not so easy anymore.)

 

[LT4247]

The Skybeacon is a joke,,,

Uh oh, thats the ADS-B solution I was looking at. Am I uninformed?

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

There isn't anything cheaper than GTX-335 in 1090ES, especially if you consider that the $3k deal included the antenna, and the Appareo didn't (well, they started doing the same promotion later, IIRC). The Skybeacon is a joke and GDL 82 is a UAT unit, which is not going to be permissible for international flight very soon. I also looked at doing a piecemeal upgrade with Trig, L3, and other options, but all of them came out significantly more expensive than GTX-335. None of those other transponders included a GPS source (again, except the Stratus). So, there you have it: unless you're doing UAT, which will tank the resale of your Mooney, the 335 is the cheapest option. Still is, this close to the deadline.

5/42 = 12%. More percents on high time engine, fewer on a spiffy M20J model.

Don't get me wrong, I've read your long message in its entirety. And I considered what it would cost to update the Carlson, which was experimental, could never fly above 9.5 for the lack of power, and didn't have the range to reach the nearest border. And even then it was cost-prohibitive. I sold it for $6k to a guy living in the middle of Iowa.

Meh....I paid $1,800 to a Florida Avionics dealer for an GTX-330ES. You can do better....if you're willing to do some leg work.

btw....your ES won't work in many places....unless you got the "diversity" option. But, that's doubtful for that price.

 

[dmcummins]

I’m still waiting for the tailbeacon. I could stay out of most of the rule airspace except the gulf. I’d have a problem flying to the keys and staying under 3000’.

 

[iflyvfr]

And for the record, Columbus is not a crap-hole city, quite the opposite. It just has crap-hole weather. For the first time this flying season, we have managed to string together 3 consecutive nice flying days. Just in time for my annual.

 

[steingar]

And for the record, Columbus is not a crap-hole city, quite the opposite. It just has crap-hole weather. For the first time this flying season, we have managed to string together 3 consecutive nice flying days. Just in time for my annual.

Columbus sucks canal water. The weather sucks, it’s expensive as all get out, polluted, horrible traffic, totally crime ridden and utterly awful. Most people who live here are just scheming for a way to get the hell out.

(What are you trying to do, make this yet another destination for disaffected Californians?)

 

[weirdjim]

You can purchase a Stratus ESG with both gps and transponder antennas included for less than $2200. If the GTX-335 is cheaper than that, please tell us where we can purchase one.

Uh, not quite. GPS antenna yes, transponder antenna no. However, you are certainly going to get rid of the old transponder and that will leave a perfectly good transponder antenna somewhere on the belly.

Jim

 

[GeneC]

You can purchase a Stratus ESG with both gps and transponder antennas included for less than $2200. If the GTX-335 is cheaper than that, please tell us where we can purchase one.

Where can you purchase a Stratus ESG with gps antenna for less than $2200? Everywhere I see it’s $2999. If I can get a Stratus for under 2200 I would definitely go that route, but I cannot find it.