Jeff_S

Unless you're a close friend of Darren Pleasance (which apparently one poster is!) I don't see what all the fuss is about. I didn't think he was bad. Didn't really think he was exceptional either, although this is because I know it takes some time to have an impact on an organization and I don't think he had that time. But still, the measurement stick for me isn't what one CEO does or how the Board reacts to any one situation. The bigger picture is what the organization has done, and continues to do to support GA and my ability to fly my airplane like I want. And in this regard AOPA has been a huge positive force. So yes, I will continue to support the organization.

It took me a few seconds to interpret this one. But I'm going with a "log splitter" because it splits your logged time in half. Did I just over-explain it?

I have a close friend who put this into his Bravo. He can now activate the Flight Director bars on the G1000 without the autopilot coming on. He had our local avionics guy in Fernandina Beach do the work. I can put you in touch with him if you want. Send me a PM. Thanks!

Hey all, I'm really just posting this so it goes into the public record and someone in the future may find it useful. I know when I search for these types of things on Google I often am referred back to Mooneyspace threads so this has really become a font of knowledge for Mooney pilots. I hope this helps someone now and in the future. Here's the scoop: I updated my G1000 software to the latest Mooney version, 0401.37. There are a few threads here already on what this provides (ADS-B Nexrad, FlightStream 210 interface, higher-resolution terrain database, and it fixes the magnetic variation database update problem) and what to avoid (namely, try to use a Mooney Service Center to do the work to avoid bricking your unit). I admit I didn't follow the latter advice because, a) I talked to a few Mooney Service Centers near me in Florida and most of them weren't interested, and b) I got the software card and some detailed instructions from Frank Crawford and he assured me that with those instructions a qualified Garmin installer could do the work, and I have one of those (Garmin installer) three doors down from my hangar. And for the most part Frank was right. My avionics guy (after grumbling about how he really hated to work on G1000s) agreed to do the job (amazing what cash money will influence!) and he actually got the Mooney software part right the first time through. I did a lot of the pre-work by confirming what transcoders I have and what G1000 settings to use for my airplane. Where I ran into problems was asking him to go ahead and update the GTX-345R software since it had never been touched since installation in 2017. And I think this was the beginning of the bigger problems. After the first installation I test flew it and was getting a big Traffic Fail signal, as well as a GPSS Fail message on the S-TEC when invoking that mode. I gave it back to my guy and he quickly fixed the transponder which was good. But the GPSS Fail message persisted. We tried several diagnostic things, and I actually spoke with Brian Kendrick to get some ideas. The root of the problem was obvious: the S-TEC wasn't getting the ARINC signal from the G1000. WHY that was happening was less clear. Swapping the GIAs didn't do the trick. But having spent more of my money troubleshooting, I remembered something: this same thing happened immediately after I installed the GTX-345R the first time. I remember giving it back to that avionics shop (Precision Avionics in Griffin GA...highly recommend!) and he solved the problem toute-de-suite! So I mentioned this to my guy, and also gave him Paul Maxwell's contact info if he wanted to, you know, talk to someone who knew a thing or two about Mooneys. He didn't take that bait, but when I told him about my prior experience with the GTX I think it urged him to check the obvious, and he found that somewhere along the way the ARINC interface had gotten disabled. My guess is that it happened during the re-install of the GTX software, at least based on my past experience. But when he re-enabled it the GPSS magically reappeared! So take that as a datapoint if you are doing similar work. If the GPSS Fail message is cropping up after any s/w updates...but in particular the GTX-345R...then save yourself some time by quickly verifying that the ARINC interface is still enabled. If it is, then you have more work to do, but at least you've covered off Occam's Razor!

I'm listening to this same podcast right now and I can't verify anything about this $1.8M Acclaim. But whether or not this plane actually exists, the underlying tenets of the podcast seem solid, which is that the whole pricing ladder for airplanes has gone away. The market just isn't there for people to buy new airplanes with increasing capability as they move up the ladder. The new multi-millionaires buying into aviation now are looking at turboprops. Hell, I would too if I had the money. But the used market still exists so that's where most of us live.

I realize I never closed the loop on this. When I went back with the second set of downloaded files from Garmin, the mag var update went just fine. You do have to let the PFD reboot, and then run through the actual file updating process, but you eventually get the message shown in the Service Alert document that everything is fine. And it is!

As an update, I hate being some company's software tester but it appears this happened again with Garmin. I jumped right on the file download as soon as I heard about it, and when I ran through the procedure it kept telling me I had successfully installed the 2020 data! Which of course meant that the update didn't work and I kept getting the "Update MagVar data?" message when I booted the system. Spoke to Garmin this morning and they confirmed they hadn't actually put the correct files in the link that is found in the Service Advisory, and that I should try again. So I downloaded the new file set and it does seem like the two "igrf..." files are newer, created on October 29 compared to those files from before having been created on October 1. So I will try again tomorrow and report on the results. Those of you who waited a bit to download the files probably had no issues!

Thanks all. I've sent a PM to Paul Maxwell, but I may just call him directly. Also, I had thought about Brian Kendrick but I seem to have lost his contact info. Is he here on MS at "KendrickW715" or something similar to that? I saw that contact in the messages area when I searched.

I am refreshing this old thread to see if anybody can shed light on whether or not this software is still available. I called my closest MSC (Daytona Aircraft Services) and they said that they couldn't find it on any parts list and that Mooney is basically unresponsive these days. I called LASAR and they are inquiring and will get back to me. So I thought I would open it up to the collective Mooney experts here on MS. The latest MagVar database situation got me thinking about this software again, and I'm in a different position where having the ADS-B option for NEXRAD could be appealing. I appreciate any updates anyone has. Thanks!

@Alan Maurer, it seems you will have one of two experiences, depending on what version of the G1000 software you are on. If you have the latest version 0401.37, then you can select to update the magnetic variation database that came with the latest nav-data updates and all will be hunky dory. If you have version 0401.34 (and perhaps earlier, non-WAAS versions) of the software then if you try to update the mag-var data from the dialogue box you will get into a loop that requires you to shut down and start up again. If the latter happens to you, then you'll need to follow the procedure outlined in the SB that I posted above. HOWEVER: I have to report now that when I ran this procedure on my Ovation, even though the system said it had successfully upgraded the mag-var data, when I started up again I am still getting the dialogue box on the MFD asking if I want to update the data. So something seems amiss. I have a case in with Garmin to get this figured out. I'll post here when I have it resolved.

Good to know the latest SW version smooths the process. I can't remember why I haven't done that upgrade. What features did it have? And does that have to be done by an MSC or can an avionics shop do it?

Okay, that was easy. I've attached the file to the SB that seems to be similar to last time, so if you did it before you can do it again. It does include instructions for different operating systems this time, so I'll try it like they say for my Mac. UPDATE: There is actually a Mac-specific link which just downloads all the files into a folder so you can easily transfer them to an SD card. That was nice. Here's the link as well, if you want it: https://atlaske-content.garmin.com/filestorage//email/outbound/attachments/25056A_Time1759762392942.pdf I sure hope MooneySpace is around five years from now when we have to do this all again! Garmin MagVar Update SB 2025.pdf

Hey folks. Time's fun when you're flying...or time flies when you're having fun...or something like that. It's MagVar Update time again. I got the "Update MagVar Now" message after loading the latest database update and since I'm old, and this was five years ago, I completely forgot about the rigamarole we went through then. But of course the update failed...I never waited around long enough for a failure message per se, but it just kept sitting there doing nothing. Luckily power cycling the G1000 brought it back to normal. So I will search around to see if there are any new or different procedures for our G1000s this time. Stay tuned!

To follow up on this, I had the avionics shop clean up all the contacts to see if corrosion could be the culprit...it often is here by the Atlantic coast. But in this case, no such luck...the unit appears to be Tango Uniform. I talked to EI and they said they had a core exchange program where they would charge half-price for a new unit. That makes a new unit $350 ($700 x 1/2). I'm still deciding what I want to do. In the meantime I just have it marked INOP.

Okay, my G1000 tach definitely shows the correct redline so that makes the E.I. redundant, which I suspected anyway. I may just remove it as well. Thanks!