EricJ

I have a PMA450B and the music/audio capability still impresses me. I have 1/8" music jacks in front of the passenger and in the back seat, and it is easy to configure so that the pilot, passenger, and back seaters can all be listening to independent music sources and still converse on the intercom. With the dual BT it is possible to have all four occupants have their own music sources without bugging anybody else, and still converse freely. Admittedly I haven't tried this yet, but I've used the BT and the front jack for music on trips and both work just fine. Using the phone via BT also works great through the headsets, which is great on the ground for filing/clearance delivery at untowered fields. Lots of cool features in those units. Definitely one of the better purchases I've made for the airplane, but you do pay up a little for it.

There are multiple layers of 406 MHz SAR satellites at GEOstationary, LEO and (projected on GNSS satellites) MEO orbits. As long as there is sufficient radiation in an upward hemispherical direction you have a decent chance of the signal being heard. Regardless, I'd be very careful about matching an appropriate antenna to a particular VHF/406MHz ELT system, not only for frequency response and antenna pattern but also to match the expected impedances to the transmit amplifiers. If the antenna isn't recommended by the manufacturer of the unit, I'd proceed with caution. There are many ways in this particular endeavor to inadvertently defeat the performance of the system.

The 406 antennas are fairly unique in that they have to have the characteristics of an ELT antenna (e.g., less likely to break off), and also have to support both 121.5MHz and 406MHz operation. That's not a typical VHF antenna, nor is it a typical old-school ELT antenna. So be careful what you connect to it as it would be reasonably easy to diminish its capability with an inappropriate antenna.

I call them the OGs of GA. OGs = Original Gangsters for the uninitiated.

That's always made me wonder why Bos have three lights for the gear, other than maybe they thought that's what people expected. I used to fly an Arrow which had three lights, but did have three separate hydraulic actuators for the gear so they'd come down independently. You really did wait for all three lights to come on, and they'd sometimes come on at different times. I've always kinda wanted to start a list of retractable-gear GA airplanes and how the gear works. A lot more than I originally expected use electro-mechanical systems where the gear are all coupled together, and lot fewer than I thought are hydraulic and independent. An example Arrow gear failure:

Yup, and make them a twisted pair like Brice suggested and it should help quite a bit. An example twisted pair:

For experimentals? Plenty of them out there. The UI on my MX170C isn't all that hot, either, so it's not their strong suit. It's a nice radio, though, and has been very reliable. I'm much happier with that in my panel than the ancient KX-170 it replaced. I think my ex-boss (co-founded a company I used to work for and I've done some other comm stuff with him, plus he used to race Corvettes with us), has been consulting with them on-and-off for quite a while. He knew I'd done some SDR projects and he was sucking my brain about it a few years ago...maybe it was for this.

+1 on LEDS. There are plug-in replacements that meet the TSO specs for basic nav bulbs. Probably just re-opened a worm can, but that's fine.

It's believed to have already happened. At one point Aeromexico confirmed that it was a drone collision, but I haven't heard anything since. In the pics you can see there's no eviscera like would be present from a bird strike. https://www.diyphotography.net/mexican-authorities-are-investigating-an-alleged-drone-collision-with-boeing-737-passenger-plane/

When I bought my airplane it had a switch to select between LORAN/NAV1/NAV2 to drive the autopilot. The LORAN had been deleted, but it did work to switch between NAV1/NAV2 to drive the autopilot. I used it frequently until the autopilot died. When I paid up for a large, reputable, more expensive avionics shop to do my panel rebuild, install my IFD540, audio panel, EDM-900, etc., etc., the time came to layout the panel and decide where all the switches went. They didn't have a spot for the NAV1/NAV2 switch so I suggested one. They said they were deleting my NAV1/NAV2 switch and refused to replace it. This led to some significant discussions since they hadn't indicated that they'd be deprecating functionality that my airplane had when it entered their shop, and particularly regarding waiting until my airplane was already disassembled in their hangar to inform me of this. I told my AI this story the other day and he was incredulous, since adding that switch is a minor modification, and my airplane already had it when it went into their shop. They cited safety concerns (You could select the wrong radio!) and pointed to the Avidyne STC since it did not show such a switch. I could go on, but you get the idea. If you want that switch, which I think is useful, and you hand your airplane to somebody to change the avionics around, make sure they're not going to delete it. Many airplanes have such a switch.

I used Gleim for my IR, I've heard good things about Sheppard as well. It seems like they all get decent reviews depending on who you talk to. I bought the King PPL ground school to get back in the game after a few decades of not flying, and it was quite good. The Kings are quirky but good at what they do and they feel like family after you've been through one of their courses.

Someday a Cessna 180 may have a dead battery...

That C looks nice! Lufthansa trains their pilots out of the Goodyear airport in Bos. They fly the crap out of those things, obviously. Other than the 27k hours on the airframe I'd think one of these would be a fun fixer-upper! I was wondering how they got released back to the wild.

Currently the manifold lines are all blocked off, so the regulator can still function as long as it can produce enough leak to meet regulation. If it can't I should be able to tell right away from the suction gauge, in which case the filter line could be put on the manifold where the AI was connected. The instrument shop is predicting a fairly quick turnaround on the AI rebuild, so I may not need to fly it at all before the instrument goes back in. It'll be moot in that case.

That's how all the big problems really start.