toto

Congratulations! I traveled to see this aircraft about five years ago, and was blown away by how clean the owner kept the aircraft and the hangar. I'm pretty sure you could eat out of the wheel wells. And off the hangar floor. I think you'll really enjoy it.

The 210 has a built-in AHRS, which the 510 does not. Otherwise they're equivalent. The 210 is a standalone unit, and the 510 fits in an SD slot on a GTN. ETA: Oh, and the database concierge works only on the 510. So maybe db concierge and AHRS offset?

This one? Al Mooney article 1952.pdf

I'm sure that Doc or Blue or Jonny can answer the question definitively about current requirements, but I think they're nonzero. A local MSC had to drop the designation when their Mooney-trained mechanic left, and they told me that they weren't able to keep the designation unless they had an A&P on staff with a current Mooney certification. (No idea what that really amounts to, but..)

I dropped Jeppesen like a bad habit as soon as the Garmin navdata became available. I was always astounded that Jepp's customer support was as bad as it was, given that (imo) they had a very superior product and a lot of experience in the business.

If you want a 1090 emitter and you're planning on cutting open the panel anyway, you might look for a used GTX330ES. There seem to be a lot of them coming out from upgrades. That would eliminate the 978mhz concern. I was really excited about the Skyview HDX when it came out, but I had a really tough time finding an installer who wanted to do it. Most of the Dynon network seems to be experimental shops. The AP isn't certified yet, so you're just talking about a nice PFD/MFD. Might be worth considering a used 330ES plus an Aspen PFD for about the same money installed.

+1 for aliens

I've owned a Piper for a long time. They're great airplanes, and every mechanic at every airport in the known universe can work on them. I can buy parts from a factory dealer in town, and they stock a surprising number of the things I need. The Piper Forum is a great online resource, with an engaged community and a lot of experts who have been there, done that. But the Piper can't do what the Mooney can do. It's a night and day difference in aircraft capability, and for me the Mooney is worth the minor pain points of specialty parts and tribal knowledge.

Yep, that's right. FAA doesn't want to maintain VORs because they're expensive, but they have recognized the long term need for the high power network. (I think this largely covers enroute in the flight levels, but I'm not sure about long cross country flight down in the weeds.) My airplane came to me with an enroute certified GPS+LORAN receiver, which had a nice built-in backup option. As long as you were high enough, the satellites could be jammed all day long and you could navigate with a ground-based system. But with LORAN decommed, GPS is it. And this unit is currently sitting in a box in my basement I don't know if any of the major nav device manufacturers have incorporated a VOR-based RNAV function, but it would make a lot of sense. My perception is that today's flight students are very dependent on GPS, and are not very proficient at dead reckoning. If the nav box could just switch to a ground-based position source when GPS goes out, the pilot wouldn't need to do much but acknowledge the condition and then continue the flight (albeit with less accuracy) in an emergency fallback mode.

Interestingly, I think that Garmin had as much to do with driving subscription prices down as Seattle or anyone else. I'm sure that they didn't make any friends at Jeppesen/Boeing when they decided to compete with their own navdata product. In the early real-time wx world, it cost something like $450 per year per unit for a 430 navdata subscription, and $900/year for a 696 handheld, plus $59/month or whatever for XM aviator. When Garmin started offering their own navdata, these prices were completely upended. Why should a handheld cost twice as much as an enroute+approach certified panel unit? And why should you pay separately for each panel unit in the same airplane? No idea. But once the Garmin data came out, it all went away.

Right, that's what we're talking about. The increasing reliance on satellite-based nav is unfortunate, especially since ground-based backup options are dwindling. I'd love to see someone come up with a cheap INS, whether it's based on some accelerometer thing or some breakthrough cheap LRG. But in any case have a local position source as backup would be nice.

It's a local position source?

With an old VOR-based RNAV receiver, you could even fly direct using nothing but VORs. It's a little distressing how we've gone "all in" with satellite-based navigation. People think of a moving map as synonymous with GPS, but the map just sits in a database and the GPS is just a position source. Having that source be 10,000 miles away with a weak and relatively fragile signal seems kind of meh. I'm a bit surprised that someone hasn't come out with a cheap pseudo-INS using a couple of accelerometers and a Raspberri Pi. Having a purely local nav source feels like the ultimate backup, even if it's completely uncertified.

Well, right, but I mean if it's just an unscheduled test - the inaccurate position event that I encountered seemed more like SA than a broad jamming approach.

Thanks for posting. I read this yesterday and thought it was a nice summary of the issue. The one time I encountered a GPS spoofing event was many years ago.. I realized that the view out the window disagreed hugely with the position displayed on two different GPS receivers (off by about 40 miles). When I returned from the trip, I frantically searched for any NOTAM or reference to GPS testing or instability in the area and found none, though I did find a handful of other pilots complaining about problems in the same region on the same day. I've been very curious lately -- with a recent GPS receiver that also does GLONASS, if the US military are testing/spoofing/jamming, is it possible to have the receiver prefer GLONASS over GPS when the two are in conflict? Or is this just a bad idea all around?

The value proposition is *much* different if you have two navigators. If you want navdata for each one, and the minimum is $299/year, you're basically at $600. The onepak packages start at $649, which would include both navigators, plus a portable device, plus the GP upgrade. And you would get all of the databases - not just the navdata. So if you had two 430W units, you would get the navdata plus all of the other stuff for only $49 more than the navdata-only subscription. OTOH, if you had one 430W then you're paying a minimum of $649 vs the cheap option at $299, and my opinion is that the other stuff isn't remotely worth the extra $350. United States Standard OnePak $649.00 Including Garmin Navigation, Obstacles, SafeTaxi, Airport Directory, IFR/VFR Charts, Terrain, Basemap, and Frequency databases. Also includes Garmin Pilot Premium Upgrade.

Well, in any case, the onepak covers half of it

Yep, the minimum is the $299 navdata subscription for the GTN. You're legal for enroute and all approaches. I do the $299 subscription and then a one-time update for the airport information and safetaxi. I don't really worry about frequencies or runway diagrams changing every 28 days. This approach still saves a couple hundred bucks over the onepak. The onepak is slightly more valuable if you use Garmin Pilot instead of Foreflight, since it includes the VFR subscription to Pilot - but you'd still have to pay to upgrade it to the IFR version. (Garmin calls these "Standard" and "Pro.")

Dynon has a pretty low entry point with their PocketPanel product. An AHRS that you can install yourself, with a built-in battery backup for about $900. (These are often available cheaper from retailers.) https://www.dynonavionics.com/pocket-panel.php

Geez, that looks pretty much like every "supporter expiration" email I've seen. I'd assume it's legit, but probably best to pay Craig directly instead of following that link just to be sure. @mooniac58

This is very interesting. I have held off doing the Xi switch because the avionics shop said it's basically higher resolution with the same functionality. I hadn't realized that there were significant changes in the interface or workflow.

Thanks for posting this, and for the effort that went into it. It's always good to be reminded that training and proficiency are critical factors in the successful outcome of a flight, and we should be careful not to focus too much on things that are relatively unlikely to kill us.

These images night not be viewable to anyone without a newish iPhone.. might be worth converting to regular jpegs.

I think to myself.... given the trouble that so many people on MS have had lately with insurance for certified land planes, I can't imagine what a pain it must be to get coverage for an experimental seaplane..

I use MyFlightBook as an electronic pilot's log, but it also has some decent interval tracking features including flight currency, medical, and aircraft maintenance. Well worth a look. Completely free, and available for iOS/Android/web. https://myflightbook.com/ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myflightbook/id349983064 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myflightbook.android&hl=en_US&gl=US