squeaky.stow

I recently added a GI275 and Flightstream 210. Although both will connect to the iPad, I can’t send flight plans from the iPad to the 530 via the GI275, only via the Flightstream. The avionics shop explained why but I can’t immediately recall the reason. I think it is the 530 that is the problem. I am pretty sure it can be done with a 650/750 through the GI275. This would eliminate the need to buy a Flightstream for those navigators.

Are you asking if Steve’s new custom lenses provide the same level of brightness as the OEM version in both bright and dim modes? If so, the answer is yes.

Age 4. I am going to be a Milk Man when I grow up because he drives a cool truck and has a neat uniform. Then my parents take me to England to visit the grandparents. Bristol Britannia with BOAC. WAY cooler than the milk truck. I am hooked on airplanes from then on. Age 14. H-Ray RC model with OS-Max .35 engine and Heathkit radio. Bought it from a high school buddy for $20. Dream of joining the RCAF and flying fighters. Age 17. Accepted into Royal Military College. Chickened out and went to a local flying college instead. Found out years later that they had accepted me as a Naval Officer. (and no, our navy no longer had airplanes) so I guess my instincts were right. Age 23. Flying Navajos for a little charter operation after a few years of instructing and bush flying. Decision time. Do I keep doing this until the airlines open up or give up the airlines and follow my dream of flying in the RCAF? Age 25. Cold Lake Alberta. First low level trip in the F-5. 450 Kts at 100 feet. Holeee Craaap! Instructor is flying from the back seat and I am trying to figure out how you focus on anything when the world is going by in a blur. (It gets easier) Age 35. Two kids. Time to hang up the helmet. Local company is looking for corporate pilot for their Westwind and Falcon 50. I guess this will see me through to retirement. Age 39. Airlines are hiring even “old guys” like me, and wearing a pager 24/7 is no longer exciting. Joined Air Canada as Cruise Relief Pilot on the 767. Rejoined RCAF as a reservist and learned to fly helicopters. Age 50. Line flying is fun but need a new challenge. Moved over to the management side. Still get to fly, just not as often. Age 51. Hung up the helmet again after 11 years. Helicopters were fun, but the main job was taking more time. Age 55. Start lobbying the Minister of Finance about why we need a Mooney to travel to the cottage. Weekends are pretty precious now. Age 57. Minister of Finance approves my 252 purchase just to shut me up. Forgot how much fun it is flying little bug smashers. I am hooked again. Join Mooneyspace and start learning. Age 60. COVID hits and we go to 10% capacity. Parking airplanes, laying off pilots. I catch COVID on what turns out to be my last flight. Time to step aside. Age 61. I can fly my Mooney ANY TIME I WANT! This retirement gig is pretty good. Now if we could only travel..... Oh well. Tinkering with it is almost as much fun as flying it. Goals for the future? Age 62? Fly to Oshkosh, and anywhere else I like the look of. Age 70??? After years of trying, finally take the trophy at Oshkosh for best pimped out 252 after @gsxrpilot wins it 5 years in a row. Age 80??? Sell the Mooney and get a Champ for those calm summer evenings on a grass strip. Age 90??? Quit flying and start a novel new business delivering milk door to door by truck.

You know, I had never noticed that! Of course now that you pointed out I won’t be able to NOT see it! That would be awesome if you want to send me another, but you have to at least let me pay this time!

Long overdue update to this thread. @StevenL757 sent me several of his custom made annunciator lenses. A panel upgrade slowed things down but I now have a green GEAR DOWN light instead of amber. Turns out the old one had been faded to amber from the heat of the bulb after 35 years.

Apologies for hijacking this thread. I don’t know how to copy a quote and use it to start a new thread. Jake, can AIs other than the KI-256 also provide parallel drives for the Flight Director cues? Specifically, can a GI275 do it? Let me explain why I am asking. The GI 275 can drive legacy autopilots like my KFC 200. The G3X Touch can’t, and it won’t display FD cues from my KFC200 computer. So if I want a large format Garmin EFIS with a Flight Director my understanding is that I either have to buy the G500TXi and a GAD43e or buy a GFC500 autopilot for the G3X to work with. Both are expensive options while my KFC is still working well. If I could drive my KFC200 with my GI275 and mirror the FD cues to a G3X touch, that would be a relatively affordable path to a 10” PFD and still allow an upgrade path to the GFC500 if and when my KFC200 needs replacing. Am I just dreaming CB dreams?

Thanks for setting this up @DanM20C Just ordered mine.

Any updates on this? Has Garmin fixed the problem?

Truckers have been known to carry portable GPS jammers. We’re you passing over the highway when it happened? https://www.geotab.com/blog/combating-gps-jammers/ When GLS approaches first came out, Boeing and Airbus were predicting that they would be eventually capable of CAT III auto land approaches. Haven’t heard a peep about that since and I suspect that the risk of jamming is one of the reasons. GLS uses a local ground based transmitter to verify the accuracy of the satellite signals and transmit a “correction” to the GLS receiver in the aircraft. Great idea until someone with a jammer parks at the end of the runway.

Email me at mark.stow@icloud.com for payment and shipping details. Mark

Not seeing a PM. Will check again in the morning.

Yes I do.

Yeah, mine will probably end up staying in my spare parts box. Not much of a market for old gauges. If I ever go with a primary EIS however, that is the one instrument that will stay in my panel for all the reasons you mentioned. I like seeing what each alternator is doing.

I can help with that!

I bought this OEM gauge brand new in 2017 because my existing one was not working. By the time it arrived, my triple gauge had come back to life and this one has never been installed. If memory serves it cost me close to 1 AMU. Reasonable offers considered.

Just a thought to consider about committing to the Dynon EFIS before they have a certified autopilot for the Mooney. In early 2017 I was talking with a Dynon rep with an eye towards doing a full panel upgrade. Dynon’s panel is pretty impressive and will play well with Avidyne and Garmin navigators, but will ONLY work with Dynon’s own autopilot. It is not and will not be compatible with any other autopilots. At least, that is what the Dynon rep told me then. At that time I was told that certification of the autopilot for Mooney mid-bodies should be completed within 9 months to a year. I note that they are still projecting about 9 months to a year now that it is 2021 and they still do not have certification for autopilot autotrim for any of their three currently certified aircraft types. And you can’t keep your existing electric trim in place until they develop a certified solution. Right now that option is “coming soon” according to Dynon’s website. I wish them the best of luck. More competition is good for prices, but I don’t plan to commit until they have a complete certified product. On a side note, I spoke with an Aspen rep very recently to see if they have any plans to introduce a larger format EFIS. He said that with the new processor in the MAX, this is something they are looking at and they hope to introduce one “in the coming years”.

The only thing you need to add is an = sign between “Money” and “useful load increase” ;-)

I thought that paint looked familiar.

Great review Don. Any comments on how it compares to Garmin Pilot on an iPad? I was a FltPlan Go user until recently because it’s free. However when I had a Flightstream 210 installed, I decided to try Garmin Pilot for a while. I have been using it like a poor man’s GTN to push airways to my GNS530 and display user defined holds (can’t push those to the GNS unfortunately) I like it so far. The user interface is a lot nicer than FltPlan Go, but I wonder what else I would get with the dedicated hardware?

Wow. I try to share my opinions and experiences politely and respectfully on this forum. Not sure how to respond to this.

Guess I should have qualified my statement as opinion only. If he did do it deliberately, we will never know why. We will also never know whether he did or did not cause the disappearance. What I am sure of from the known facts is that that airplane was deliberately flown off the planned route and in a manner that strongly suggests an attempt to prevent it from being tracked. Somebody deliberately did that, and the only way I know of to do that, speaking as a former B777 pilot, is from inside the flight deck.

If you jam the GPS on a 777 (or any modern airliner) the FMS automatically reverts to the next best navigation method, which is usually DME/DME. If there are no radio nav sources it continues on IRS-only which is still very accurate but will drift over time. But even with drift it will be accurate to within 10 miles for longer than the your fuel will last most of the time. I imagine it is theoretically possible to modify an FMC route if you hacked into the FMS, but there is no wireless way to do that because the FMS has no wireless capability. And even if it could be hacked, airline pilots do not just go to sleep once the route is programmed. The entire flight is a continuing process of monitoring time and fuel over waypoints and passing position reports to company. Unless you WANT to disappear. That disappearance was engineered from the front left seat, including the disabling of ADS-C to prevent tracking. That can only be done by pulling a circuit breaker. We will never know why.

Lasar sells the old halogen version for $230 so something in that ballpark for a replacement that won’t melt my wingtips will probably sell quite well. Landing, nav and strobe lights are a harder sell for me. Every time I get tempted to replace my assorted incandescent lights with LEDs, I look at how many replacement incandescent bulbs I can buy for the cost of one LED and the feeling goes away. Certified Incandescent Landing light $25 Certified LED Landing light $300 I got 10 years out of my last incandescent landing lights. At that rate it would be 120 years before my LED investment would pay off. Yes I know there are certification costs etc., and I know they are brighter, but 12 times the cost? I recall when LED home lightbulbs first came out they were over $30 each. Now you can find them for under $2. I am hoping to fly my Mooney for another 20 years before somebody pulls me aside and gives me the “Bob Hoover it’s time to retire” talk. Get my ROI down to under 20 years and I am interested.

Hi Will, Any chance you could share that PDF here? It’s always nice to have a better understanding of how this stuff is put together. Mark

Yeah, I know. Kind of late to be putting in a pre-heater. I picked up a 750/1500W quartz heater at the local hardware store for $25. It has overheat shut-off and a tip-over kill switch. I didn’t like running an extension cord through an open door or baggage hatch because I worry about mice moving in so I made this adapter for the pilot’s no-draft window. Cost me all of $2.99 for the plug. Used scrap 1/8” MDF cut with a jigsaw and an old extension cord. It’s plugged into a wifi outlet so I can turn it on from home. Do I qualify for the CB club now?