Flash

I have an EDM900 with tach time visible in the upper lefthand corner of my screen, which is mounted vertically. I agree that it would be nicer esthetically if the EDM900 were flush with the panel. I think I could have done that if I'd been willing to pay for a specially cut hole in the panel, but I never looked into that as it wasn't worth it to me. The EDM900 displays a lot of info without me having to change the page to see it. I like not having to change the page. YMMV.

I can see how this would happen, especially if the vector you are on aligns or almost aligns with the course you would be flying if you were following the course you entered into your GPS direct to the fix.

Now that I think of it, I remember watching a terrific video by @Fly_M20R showing off his dual GI-275 set-up and saying how much he wished that a GPSS on-off switch was available. Fly_M20R obviously has a lot of pull with Garmin, which thankfully took his advice.

I shot approaches yesterday with my new-to-me set-up of an IFD 540 with dual GI 275s and my old familiar KFC-150. I'm a very happy Mooney pilot. The IFD 540 and GPSS takes so much of the workload out of flying a missed approach. It seems too good to be true. So my question is what CFIs and pilots with more GPSS experience than I have (i.e., anybody with GPSS experience) have found to be the gotchas that can be lurking in my avionics heaven, just waiting for the right moment to ruin my day? --Being assigned an unpublished missed? --Failing to confirm that you've actually re-engaged the autopilot and GPSS after you've got the plane climbing and cleaned up? --Overreliance on the GPSS and not being ready in the case of an untimely failure? --Something I haven't thought of yet?

I'm late to the thread, but you will absolutely love dual GI-275s with your KFC. Thanks to another thread on Mooneyspace, I knew to request a GPSS on-off switch. I highly recommend that. I've got a KFC-150. The GPSS function is excellent, and being able to turn it on and off by flipping a switch on my panel is very convenient.

I considered this same question and decided to keep my second CDI as a backup to the GI-275s. It's true that the GI-275s can show bearing data from two Nav radio sources, and I was hoping I could have that AND the second CDI, with my legacy King No. 2 Nav radio feeding both the CDI it currently feeds and the GI-275s, too. But (1) it's not clear that you could get an installer to do that, and (2) somebody who tried it said on another thread that it didn't work. So you're making a choice between taking advantage of the power of the GI-275, which reduces how many instruments you have to scan, and the availability of a backup CDI if the GI-275s fail. I chose the latter. The previous thread was Can KX-155 drive both a KI-206 and a GI-275?

I did the crossing in 2003. See my photo for me in an immersion suit on my way over to Europe. You should definitely do this. It is a blast. You need an immersion suit. You need to have it on when you're flying (but not the top part, as flying with it covering your hands would be uncomfortable and challenging) so that if you have to ditch you will have time to get into your raft before freezing to death in the water. You need to rent a raft. There's plenty of good info about rafts online. Ditching in the North Atlantic is very survivable. Much more survivable, I think, than having an engine out over rocky, foresty, northern Canada. You should stop in Ilulissat on the way over. It's amazing. Take a midnight boat ride on the ice fjord around all of the ice bergs that have calved off the Greenland ice cap. I spent one night in Ilulissat and one night in Kulusuk. Take advantage of the fact that you have a fun way to visit Greenland, which is very challenging for airline passengers to visit. Be careful flying over the ice cap on a cloudy day, as you will have trouble figuring out how high you are over the ice cap, since the horizon disappears. I didn't appreciate this when planning my flight from Ilulissat to Kulusuk; I definitely appreciated it during my flight. Reykjavik to Wick is your longest flight, and it's no problem in a plane like yours. You can bail out to the Faroe Islands, but other than that there are few options, so this trip is all about being smart about the weather and making good go/no-go decisions. Far North Aviation, the FBO at Wick, was really great; I don't know if the same guy is running it as the guy who was running it 20 years ago, though. Greenland airports charge ridiculous fees if you land after they are supposedly closed. So watch out for that. I managed to avoid this mistake. 20 years ago, weather reports at least one place along this route (Iqaluit?) were delivered by fax. Maybe things have improved. But when I went across, it was good to know how to read the weather charts and to have confidence about knowing what to watch out for en route to confirm the forecast did not get it wrong. Making position reports through airliners flying thousands of feet above you is fun. Those pilots are bored and happy to help and may be curious about your trip. Learn the difference between Radar Advisory Service and Radar Information Service. Learn what QNH and QFE mean. Learn how to translate milibars to inches, or how to enter milibars into your kohlsman window. Fun: You get to fly in the flight levels, because other countries start the flight levels much lower than we do. Learn the squawk codes for VFR flight. Hint: 1200 is for US and Canada but not for other places. ICAO uses 7000. Connect with Mooney pilots at your destination. They are very friendly, and you know they're smart because they fly Mooneys. I have flown to Alaska a couple of times, and to South America, and to multiple Caribbean countries, and to Mexico and Belize, and all over the US and Canada. All lots of fun, but it can't touch flying to Europe and back.

Thanks for all of the feedback. I think I'll just keep the No. 2 Nav wired to the KI-209. I don't really need it to drive the autopilot; I can hand fly. Having the redundancy is the most important thing to me.

Paul, the theory for keeping the KI-209 is that if my GI-275s fail I still have ILS capability. I'd technically be partial panel, but I've got a Dynon D3 to give me attitude information. I think the odds are low that the GI-275s both fail, but if even one fails the other becomes an attitude indicator and I'd no longer have the HSI. Autopilot is a King 150. The GI-275 drives it.

Thanks, Vance. It's not that I'm expecting to see different things on the two displays; it would just be nice to be able to drive my autopilot off the No. 2 Nav if the IFD 540 were to fail. The only potential for confusion I see here would be thinking I'm displaying the data from my IFD 540 on my GI-275 CDI when I'm actually displaying the data from the KX-155, or vice versa, but the GI-275 helpfully uses an outlined arrow rather than a solid arrow to represent the CDI from the No. 2 Nav radio. I agree that if I were flying a VOR and had different OBS settings, I would get different deflections, but I don't know why I would use different OBS settings. One nice thing about the GI-275 is that it can show bearing from the No. 2 Nav VOR while flying the No. 1 Nav, so triangulation should be easier because you don't have to turn an OBS to see your bearing from the No. 2 Nav VOR. The KI-209 (as N231BN pointed out I really have) will continue to act as usual. If I'm flying an ILS, the deviation indications on both displays should look the same, as the OBS on the KI-209 becomes just a heading bug. If I'm flying the No. 2 Nav VOR, I think I'd have the OBS set the same on both displays, so I'd see the same thing.

Thanks. You're right. I must have a KI-209.

I've got an IFD 540 as my No. 1 Nav/Com and a KX-155 as my backup, and I've got dual GI-275s plus a KI-206. My question is whether the KX-155 can be wired to drive both the KI-206 and the GI-275 HSI. I know that the GI-275 is capable of displaying information from more than one Nav source and that it can take output from a KX-155. I like having the KI-206 because that gives me an independent source of Nav information display if my GI-275s fail. But it would be nice if my KX-155 can drive both the KI-206 and the GI-275, so that if my IFD 540 fails I can use the No. 2 Nav radio to drive the autopilot. If the answer is that the KX 155 can drive both the KI-206 and the GI-275, how much work is involved in wiring it to do that? Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Richard. Looks like a cheap fix, as airplane fixes go.

My installer mentioned this possibility.

Picked up my plane today from the avionics shop where I got an IFD540, dual GI275s, and an EDM 900. I'll start another thread about how much I like this setup (no surprise: I like it a lot), but this thread is for the one glitch: I can hear the rotating beacon, very softly, in my headset. It's so soft I can't hear it when I'm taxiing, only in-flight, and my installer couldn't hear it, possibly because he wasn't using a noise-canceling headset. (Years ago, I could sometimes hear my strobes, a problem that has since been fixed, but this time it's definitely my rotating beacon.) When we landed, the avionics installer cleaned out the grounding of the beacon. It didn't fix the problem, though. He hadn't actually done any work on the beacon for the installation, but he obviously did run a bunch of new wiring, which he told me is shielded. Any ideas on troubleshooting this?

Welcome, Russell! The Bay Area is a great place for Mooneys. I'm at SQL. If you're looking for a Mooney-owner CFI, seek out Phil Verghese, @pfactor, who flies N201UT out of RHV. Looking forward to meeting you at a Mooney fly-in or elsewhere down the line. If you're looking for nearby places to shoot approaches in IMC, Watsonville, Half Moon Bay, Modesto, and Stockton offer up a lot of good opportunities.

Thanks, Scott. I figure for $900 and no installation cost, the D3 is a pretty cheap backup. I think the odds of both GI 275s going out are very low, but with no turn coordinator (current one would need an overhaul, so I'm dumping it) if the GI 275s fail I would have no way to know in IMC if the wings are level and no way to keep coordinated (although, to be honest, the M20J generally stays coordinated all by itself). Yes, I could upgrade to the 550, but that's a lot more expensive than the D3, and the D3 looks like it would be easier to fly by because it is so much like the GI 275 display.

Thanks, Tom. I want to keep the 900 on the left side.

Thanks, ZuluZulu. Great question. One of the switches under the TC is standby vacuum, and that can go. The other is pitot heat, and I bet that can move to the open switch spot under the HSI (which will be a GI 275) or to the gap under my No. 2 CDI. Thanks. I don't want to kill my stormscope or my ADF. Thanks, Tom. I don't understand what you mean by, "put the 900 where the switches are." Do you mean I should put the 900 where the TC is and let it overhang where the two left-most switches are, as ZuluZulu suggested? That seems like a workable idea.

N315L is currently in the shop awaiting delivery of an EDM 900. AI and HSI will be replaced by GI 275s. Turn coordinator at bottom left is coming out. Question: If the EDM 900 goes where the turn coordinator currently is, where do I put a Dynon D3, which seems like a good idea to give me a backup source of attitude info that is not reliant on the same inputs as the GI 275s? Would it fit where the Shadin currently is, above my Stormscope? Don't tell me to get rid of my ADF display. I like it and am keeping it and get off of my lawn! If I can't put the D3 where the Shadin currently is, I could pull my VSI and put it there. If I lose both of my GI 275s, I think I'd still be fine with ASI and Altimeter. I know there is an option not to have the D3 flush on the panel, but I'd prefer to have it that way. Or does the D3 go where the turn coordinator currently is and the EDM 900 goes somewhere else (where the Shadin is, or where the VSI is)? There will be an IFD 540 in the center stack, under the audio panel, with the KX 165 as a No. 2 Nav/Com and the KLN 90B and KX 155 gone. The right side of the panel stays pretty much as-is, except I'll have my iPad on a swivel mount above and over the ADF radio. It's likely that the IDF will act as a second display for the IFD540. Ideas?

+1 here, too. Joey did all my maintenance during the seven years I was based in Atlanta. He was a young guy then but already a great mechanic and a stand-up guy.

You have to purchase the STC if you want to be flying legally.

If you get the STC you can run on any combination of the new stuff and 100LL. It is approved for your engine at any blend ratio.

Per figure D70 of the updated Installation Manual for the IFD 540 released August 31, the IFD 540 is now officially compatible with the GI 275. There are a few cool new features for the 540, as well. @gsxrpilot how soon are you getting version 10.3 installed so you can tell me how wonderful it is?

This is exactly the issue my shop raised.