EricJ

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.

So my Attitude Indicator (aka Artificial Horizon, as opposed to my mood ring), crapped out during a trip yesterday. It is the only vacuum instrument left in the airplane, and the only load on the vacuum pump. Today we removed the AI to send off to the AI clinic and see if the AI doctors can help it. Meanwhile, if the turnaround time is going to be significant I may still want to fly the airplane without the AI. The question is, should I just hook the instrument input air filter to the vacuum manifold or should the remaining location on the manifold just be blocked, like the others all got blocked when the old instruments were removed. This would mean that the pump is putting vacuum on the manifold, but the manifold is completely blocked off so no air can be pulled through it (except at the regulator). Right now it's blocked off, but I'm wondering whether it'd be better for the pump to allow more flow through it, or will the regulator do that sufficiently with the manifold completely blocked off? I figured worst-case if I start the engine and the vacuum gauge freaks out I'll just shut it down, and if it stays in the green the regulator is probably taking care of it. I was wondering whether there are any more educated thoughts on the matter, though?

It's possible you might have an intake blockage.

Even given the "issues", which I don't think are really that big in the scheme of things, I'm extremely happy with the IFD540 and would highly recommend it to anybody. I don't think you can have modern integrated avionics installed without issues. If you avoid something and pick something else because of the kinds of things we've been describing, you're just going to get that brand's "issues" instead. Nobody can name an avionics company that doesn't have such problems.

Since there will be transmission power going out the antenna at 1090, you don't want to hook a receiver up to the same antenna that can't handle that input power level. It puts a lot of additional constraints (and cost) in the receiver to do that, or add an expensive diplexer between them that has sufficient isolation. A dedicated antenna for the 978 input avoids that. In my case they used the DME antenna since I was deleting an inop DME at the same time. Which was is the most economical, a second antenna or a diplexer or a unit with an integrated system design, may depend on a lot of things... Avidyne doesn't charge for WiFi/BT, or for synthetic vision, or a couple other features that may be expensive add-ons with other competitor's units. Apparently at one point that was the plan, though, since you enable all of that after installation when they send you the activating codes for free. In my case I did the WiFi/BT activation, it indicated that it was all working, but nothing could connect to it.

I'm the same size as you and am comfortable, even on long trips. Like you, I like to have access to pedal travel so I sit close and pull the seat forward. Not an issue. I fly an M20J. No, it depends on whether somebody has added bladders rather than fix a leaky tank. There are nearly religious wars over whether bladders or just resealing the tank is a better way to go. Best of luck!

The TIS-B and FIS-B services come from the ground stations on 978 (UAT), so to display Wx, METARs, etc., on the panel a box has to have a 978 receiver. In order to minimize cost and only use one antenna and one receiver, it makes sense to just receive 978 instead of both. This also simplifies installation. A dual-band receiver in the panel adds cost and installation overhead. Adding dual-band capability to a Stratux costs about $20. I fly with the in-panel Ranger getting just the TIS-B, 978 traffic to display on the IFD540 and my Stratux getting both 978 and 1090 displaying on my tablet(s). I still routinely see cases where a traffic target that appears on the IFD won't show up on the tablet(s) and vice versa. I understand why I might get a target on the tablet(s) that doesn't show up on the IFD, but I don't get why something will show up on the IFD and not on the tablet(s). Maybe the Ranger has a more sensitive receiver or something. It does utilize an external antenna while my Stratux is just suction-cupped to the inside of one of the rear windows. Regardless, I still like to fly with both since they do seem to add to each other, plus the cheap redundancy provided by the Stratux. When I had my alternator failure I still flew home with my tablets getting traffic/wx/etc., from the Stratux (on battery) while my panel was dark.

FWIW, when mine was first installed the ADSB-in didn't work at all. According to the installer it was all wired up according to the instructions, but it didn't work beyond setting a fault. The story I got from the shop was that an Avidyne (non-technical) rep had been by and even taken some of them to lunch, but when they tried to get technical support to solve the problem they got nowhere. The shop eventually punted and wired it up like it was a legacy GNS530 (which the Avidyne is plug-compatible with) and now it seems to function like it should except that the FF Ranger throws faults sometimes. It still works fine when it throws the faults, it's just annoying. I suspect they had to move some of the serial busses around to do that, and that may cost me trouble later if I try to expand things. I had called Avidyne myself previously about a different issue during installation and got very good help. I don't know why the support seems patchy other than they're probably overloaded.

What are you not getting? Are you getting traffic and METARS? I did determine that I do get METARs, and I get weather displayed on the screen when we have it. I don't think I had to do anything special to set that up, but maybe the installer had already done something. My FF Ranger traffic thingie is still a little wonky, but other than throwing fault warnings once in a while seems to be working fine. The weird part is that the fault warnings seem to be position dependent, e.g., I get them when I go through certain spaces, and other times it's fine.

The WiFi/BT on my IFD540 was DOA on installation. It'd configure, you could "allow" it, it appeared at the top of the screen, but it basically didn't exist and wouldn't connect to anything. In my case they sent the box back to Avidyne to be fixed. The shop checked it on reinstallation and said it was all working. I've since used the BT keyboard with it, but personally haven't tested the WiFi since it's been back. I need to do that.

In the early Mooneys there was a fuel tank under the rear seat, too.

Remember to match the POH Number to the aircraft serial number. e.g., the early Js are POH 1220 up to SN 24-0377. I believe the latest rev of 1220 is 1220G. If that's not the one on Mooneyspace there are copies available elsewhere out there on the intartubes.