gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
I finally got the airplane back from the avionics shop and am busy playing with the new gadgtry. It was three weeks ago today I flew it to SD for the installation of a GNS-480, EX-500/TAS-610, PM8000, and a few other goodies (Like roll steering, landing light flasher, vacuum and engine monitor warning lights, a ground power switch for the GNS480, and an improved avionics master setup). The also ended up replacing the Beech "bat wing" VOR/GS/Comm antenna on the roof with a blade antenna on the tail plus a comm whip on the belly and had to move my transponder antenna. The initial time estimate was 2-3 weeks but by the end of the first week I was told it should be ready by the next Thursday baring any significant problems. And of course a significant problem cropped up in that there are four antenna cables (cost $850!) that must be custom made by Ryan/Avidyne for the TAS and they sent the wrong length (probably ordered wrong). The replacements took a while to arrive and the completion date slipped to last Wednesday and finally Friday (yesterday). In the meantime the shop had the plane washed, buffed, and waxed (shined the paint right up). I paid for the buff/wax job, but they washed it for free as a consolation for the delay.
The plan was to make a test/certification flight when I arrived at 1PM and then fly home with the new gear. That flight went OK but we did find a few discrepancies that neede to be addressed: Existing Shadin fuel flow gauge powered from the avionics bus (it needs to be on whenever the engine is running), the flight plan route wouldn't display on the MFD, the GNS 480 annunciator audio wasn't hooked up, and there was no mute button for the TAS alerts. Considering all that was done, that wasn't too bad and they got right on making the changes as soon as we got back to the hangar.
It turned out that the flight plan route issue was due to them connecting the wrong serial bus between the GPS and MFD (RS232 vs ARINC429 for you techies) and unfortunately when they added the correct connection the tech miscounted pins and made the wrong connection. Bizarrely this resulted in the GNS 480 failing to turn on at all which took another 4-5 hours to figure out and fix so I didn't get out of there until around 9:30 PM.
Flying home I was able to check out the traffic and weather capabilities and play with the GPS and MFD. I think I'm really going to like this setup. Today I plan to do some "hangar flying" with the radios and maybe take a flight or two if weather permits. The GPS came with an outdated DB so I can't try any approaches unless it's VMC (which it isn't) but that should be rectified early next week. Reports and better pictures to follow.
The two attached pix are of rather poor quality as I was about to be late for dinner with friends and family but they show the panel adequately.
The plan was to make a test/certification flight when I arrived at 1PM and then fly home with the new gear. That flight went OK but we did find a few discrepancies that neede to be addressed: Existing Shadin fuel flow gauge powered from the avionics bus (it needs to be on whenever the engine is running), the flight plan route wouldn't display on the MFD, the GNS 480 annunciator audio wasn't hooked up, and there was no mute button for the TAS alerts. Considering all that was done, that wasn't too bad and they got right on making the changes as soon as we got back to the hangar.
It turned out that the flight plan route issue was due to them connecting the wrong serial bus between the GPS and MFD (RS232 vs ARINC429 for you techies) and unfortunately when they added the correct connection the tech miscounted pins and made the wrong connection. Bizarrely this resulted in the GNS 480 failing to turn on at all which took another 4-5 hours to figure out and fix so I didn't get out of there until around 9:30 PM.
Flying home I was able to check out the traffic and weather capabilities and play with the GPS and MFD. I think I'm really going to like this setup. Today I plan to do some "hangar flying" with the radios and maybe take a flight or two if weather permits. The GPS came with an outdated DB so I can't try any approaches unless it's VMC (which it isn't) but that should be rectified early next week. Reports and better pictures to follow.
The two attached pix are of rather poor quality as I was about to be late for dinner with friends and family but they show the panel adequately.
