My airplane is special...

[Mtns2Skies]

Well I went to go do the IFR cert on my newly acquired Skywagon and boy was that interesting! To start, my extra altimeter wasn't even hooked up to anything, it was just sitting in the panel. So that got removed. Upon inspection of my alternate air valve, it was some sort of fuel valve not at all an air valve. One of my static ports, the line was completely sheared off and just resting. My encoder was leaking very heavily and the lines themselves when tested, not hooked up to anything, leaked at 200fpm.

So... I'm getting an all-new static system! Actually the avionics shop got me a fantastic deal on an encoder they had laying around and its only a few hours of labor to fix the rest, so not so bad overall. Just thought it was funny how badly maintained the whole static system was.

...But my aera 660 is mounted and my ADF has been removed (pics to come)

 

[steingar]

It’s not slow, it’s stately...

 

[Stan Cooper]

You'll love the Aera 660. The "finger squeeze" zoom is a huge improvement over the zoom in/out hard keys.

 

[Bill]

Hence the recommendation to have ~10% of the purchase price on hand to spend fixing all of the deferred stuff the DPO let go.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

You'll love the Aera 660. The "finger squeeze" zoom is a huge improvement over the zoom in/out hard keys.

I do love it. I've been flying for about 20hrs with it on a yoke mount, but the panel mount will be so much nicer.

 

[wilkersk]

You'll love the Aera 660. The "finger squeeze" zoom is a huge improvement over the zoom in/out hard keys.

How’s that work when the air is lumpy? So far, I prefer buttons to touch screen for avionics. I could change my mind in the future. But, not so far.

 

[GRG55]

Well I went to go do the IFR cert on my newly acquired Skywagon and boy was that interesting! To start, my extra altimeter wasn't even hooked up to anything, it was just sitting in the panel. So that got removed. Upon inspection of my alternate air valve, it was some sort of fuel valve not at all an air valve. One of my static ports, the line was completely sheared off and just resting. My encoder was leaking very heavily and the lines themselves when tested, not hooked up to anything, leaked at 200fpm.

So... I'm getting an all-new static system! Actually the avionics shop got me a fantastic deal on an encoder they had laying around and its only a few hours of labor to fix the rest, so not so bad overall. Just thought it was funny how badly maintained the whole static system was.

...But my aera 660 is mounted and my ADF has been removed (pics to come)

Welcome to airplane ownership (for those of us who can't afford a new Cirrus, that is)

Over time you'll probably go through every system on the airplane and bring each up to a good standard. Be thankful it's not an ancient Aztec, or something like that, where it's a constant race between insolvency and ending up with a nice, reliable plane.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Yeah, it’ll take time to get all the bugs worked out of a preowned plane.

During the summer I found my ASI reading high. It looked like I was coming in slow, the plane was a little mushy, the air vents were howling, and the stall horn was barely making noise. I had to go around because the approach made no sense to me. Turns out I had multiple static system leaks (loose fittings, wrong fitting on the encoder, trash in the alt static air valve, and a broken moisture trap).

Be careful with your new plane. Stay vigilant and skeptical.

 

[Stan Cooper]

How’s that work when the air is lumpy? So far, I prefer buttons to touch screen for avionics. I could change my mind in the future. But, not so far.

It works great! I rest my right hand baby finger against the panel above the 660 to steady my hand in bumpy air, and then use my thumb and middle finger for the squeeze zoom.

The finger squeeze is a lot faster and more precise (more continuous/less incremental than the button zoom). Also, if you really like the "zoom in/zoom out" keys, the 660 has soft keys for that. Not having hard keys means a much larger display for a given form factor.