My Bonanza is getting a new panel

Martin Pauly

Martin Pauly

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Cedar Rapids, IA
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Martin Pauly
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After my autopilot (Century III) died last year, I am taking the plunge - I'm doing an all-new instrument panel for N70TB. I'm getting the Garmin GFC 600 autopilot, including the yaw damper. Only downside is I'll have to drive to Oshkosh this year in the car.

Here is how the project started:

 
Your last video comparing the available autopilots was great. Made me wish the gfc600 was approved for the pa32 as I'm getting a 500 in a couple months. More incentive to stay sharp hand flying approaches I suppose. I'm looking forward to seeing yours getting installed. I hope you can get some footage of the servos going in. I'm also interested to see how much lighter the new system is than the century.
 
<rant> Maybe I’m showing my age, but why are there so many posts like this that are videos. I’d like to see the content, I hate having to watch videos and hear people talking when I could scroll through 3 or 4 photos and get the same information.

just show me the photos and write a sentence or two.

I find it super frustrating. </rant>
 
skier said:
Maybe I’m showing my age, but why are there so many posts like this that are videos.
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I can convey a lot more in a video than in a couple of pictures and sentences. If that's not what you like, by all means skip over it - no hard feelings. But a lot of other people seem to like these.

- Martin
 
Jim K said:
I'm also interested to see how much lighter the new system is than the century.
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It'll be impossible to tell because of the many things that changed all at the same time. Overall, the net change was within a few pounds, and it actually went up, not down. This may very well have been the first time the airplane was put on a scale since it was built, so maybe the cumulative math over the last 40 years had some rounding errors in it.

- Martin
 
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Martin Pauly said:
It'll be impossible to tell because of the many things that changes all at the same time. Overall, the net change was within a few pounds, and it actually went up, not down. This may very well have been the first time the airplane was put on a scale since it was build, so maybe the cumulative math over the last 40 years had some rounding errors in it.

- Martin
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Yeah that intervening 40 years certainly seems to confound things. We "unofficially" weighed my plane last annual and surprisingly found it to be within a couple pounds of the official w&b, although we weighed it with full fuel, it so there's probably some error there.

The book weight of the century 3 parts is something like 18 pounds. Between that and the vacuum systems/gyro I'm hoping to pick up close to 20 lbs useful. The gfc 600 servos look a lot beefier than the 500's.... did you try to determine the weight difference between those systems?
 
Martin Pauly said:
It'll be impossible to tell because of the many things that changed all at the same time. Overall, the net change was within a few pounds, and it actually went up, not down. This may very well have been the first time the airplane was put on a scale since it was build, so maybe the cumulative math over the last 40 years had some rounding errors in it.

- Martin
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in reality I probably wouldn't do it because so much else would be on the mind....but I'd like to think that the engineer in me would request that every thing pulled it gets thrown into a barrel and saved...for a visual but also for weighing...just for trivial interest reasons I suppose.....
They probably keep fairly good track of the new stuff going in....wires, clamps, etc.... maybe not perfectly but a decent idea anyway

I suppose in the end what really matters is what weight the tires see when it's all done!
 
Very interesting video. Amazing work that the shop does, especially cutting the new panel. Thanks for sharing.
 
just got over to youtube and watched your video. Nicely produced as always Martin. Gonna be nice!
I'm curious why "you couldn't tell" for so long. How long is (or was) the process from start to finish?...well I guess I'll find out through the videos eventually.
 
I recently talked with a local avionics dealer about a new autopilot for my Arrow. He informed me that he would not install a Garmin autopilot because my Avidyne IFD440 is not on the approved list of GPS sources, which is true. I was like OK...but other shops...nevermind, it is your shop, your call, have a nice day. Have you found such issues?

It was kinda funny as I got the impression that he felt that I had somehow cheated the Brotherhood of Avionics Installers because I swapped out the GNS430 without donating $3K to one of the Brotherhood as I would have done if I installed the new Garmin product. And that by hanging on the approved GPS list, he was somehow getting payback. Or it could all be in my head.

I liked a previous installer that has since retired. "Here is this box with electronic stuff in it. Please install it in my aircraft. Here is a check for your labor. Thank you" No games or attitude.
 
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Morgan3820 said:
I liked a previous installer that has since retired. "Here is this box with electronic stuff in it. Please install it in my aircraft. Here is a check for your labor. Thank you" No games or attitude.
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Indeed, different shops handle this quite differently. Installation manuals cannot cover every conceivable combination of equipment, so that's a source of ambiguity. And realistically a shop owner may lean one way or another based on how familiar they are with equipment from different brands (to avoid surprises), and even by sales quotas to help them remain their dealership status. All of that plays a role. Which is why I would select the equipment I want first, and then "shop for a shop" who is willing and able to install it for me.

- Martin
 
Morgan3820 said:
I recently talked with a local avionics dealer about a new autopilot for my Arrow. He informed me that he would not install a Garmin autopilot because my Avidyne IFD440 is not on the approved list of GPS sources, which is true. I was like OK...but other shops...nevermind, it is your shop, your call, have a nice day. Have you found such issues?

It was kinda funny as I got the impression that he felt that I had somehow cheated the Brotherhood of Avionics Installers because I swapped out the GNS430 without donating $3K to one of the Brotherhood as I would have done if I installed the new Garmin product. And that by hanging on the approved GPS list, he was somehow getting payback. Or it could all be in my head.

I liked a previous installer that has since retired. "Here is this box with electronic stuff in it. Please install it in my aircraft. Here is a check for your labor. Thank you" No games or attitude.
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I've learned that a lot of Garmin dealers really crap on anything non Garmin. One local shop even said he stopped dealing with avidyne because they're essentially junk. Uh....huh...

I like what Martin said, find what you went then shop for an installer.
 
Martin.. when is the ETA for your install to be complete? Thanks for the video, you’ve convinced me when it’s time to replace the legacy C2000 in my Baron I’ll go with the GFC-600.
 
Part II with the rest of the story. My Bonanza is the testbed for development and certification of something new, so until this "something new" was publicly announced, I was not allowed to disclose the nature of the project. But now the cat is out of the bag... so here we go!

 
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