donkaye

A student called me and asked me to work with him on his instrument rating. His airplane came with the KSN 770. In the interest of helping someone get his instrument rating, I started with him, and began the arduous task of reading the 497 pages of the Pilot Guide and watching the several hours of video that BK puts out. I'm considering giving him his money back and recommending that he get another instructor who is willing to spend the umpteen hours necessary to become expert on that unit for a one off instrument rating. I'm not willing to spend my time on something that will be useless after the rating. If there is a more complicated way to get something done, then Bendix King/Aspen has found it in this unit.

It's not just the G1000. It happens on all displays where there is no nexrad coverage. If you want to see the underlining map you need to disable nexrad.

Yes, I saw your plane there the day before yesterday, while picking up N1012DX. I now remember why I live in California. The humidity and high temperature in Smithville was something else!

Last time I checked it was $$$$1,995 for the GTN. For that money the Garmin Flight Charts with blocky zoom in work quite well. Or buy an iPad subscription to Jepp Charts and pay $60 for the Aera 796 add on. That is what I do.

Very nice panel. The only thing you are going to be very unhappy with is the Placement of the KAS 297 Altitude Preselect. If possible you should exchange that position with the switches under the Shadin. Reaching over with your right hand to manage the preselect will get old very quickly.

I posted this on Beechtalk, but for those who don't go there, here it is again. I now have about 30 hours with the G500 TXi, upgraded from the G500. The upgrade was finished a couple of days before Oshkosh. I spent 4 hours before leaving for Oshkosh getting acquainted with it doing multiple approaches, Then I flew it from San Jose to Madison to Rapid City to Ogden and then back to San Jose. I'm glad I did the upgrade, but...First off I'd be interested in knowing whether anyone who has done the upgrade has had issues with the touch screen. I have NEVER ONCE had issues with the GTN 750 and GTN 650, but on at least 3 occasions on this trip the touch screen was not at all responsive to my touch. I had to touch it multiple times before it would recognize my touch. This has happened with the Baro icon the Heading icon and the V/S icon.I have found that having the PFD on the left is somewhat problematic for me. In split screen mode reaching over with my right hand to change the knob position for a heading change is awkward. OTOH when given an altitude change it is easy to turn the knob with my left hand then tap the ARM with my right hand, then advance to the V/S with the left hand and tap the V/S to ARM the vertical speed with the right. In full screen mode I just use the right hand for heading changes, but have found that when going back to split screen I sometimes use the right hand before I realize I need to use the left. I never noticed any of these issues with the G500 original. I may just go ahead and reverse the screens.The HSI map may be nice if you don't have a GTN, but I have found that is is not very useful for me. There is not enough detail, but then again, the screen is not very large inside that enlarged HSI. I always switch back to the legacy HSI as I enter the terminal area.I can't decide whether I like the 60/40 PFD/MFD. I think I would rather have it 50/50 like the old G500. I wish Garmin gave that as that option.System setup is much easier than with the legacy G500 and I really do like the larger screen. Enroute with no difficult enroute weather I use the large screen. With possible problematic weather, I use the split screen in combination with the GTN 750/GTN 650/ Aera 796/iPad each displaying a different weather product.I've attached a couple of photos showing the view out the window over Nevada where smoke from the fires cut visibility to near IFR conditions, and what it looked like on the G500 TXi.

I know these products are expensive, but having flown to Oshkosh and on the way back now (spending a couple of days based in Rapid City right now; Mount Rushmore, The Badlands, Sturgess) they are just a dream to fly with. It's taken a little time to get acquainted with the G500 TXi transitioning from the G500, but now that I have, I can say that the transition is like the transition from the 696 to the 796. Once you've done it you can't remember the older product. Getting to the information you want is much faster. Yesterday was a good example of using the equipment. The previous night the Prog Charts indicated convection and probable nasty weather along the route from Sioux Falls to Rapid City. I got a good briefing before the flight (if weather is predicted I want a live person to do it in addition to a self briefing) and a convective sigmet was predicted near the end of the trip. I asked for the lifted index and K factor and they were given as -2 and 28. These are good predictors of convection and these numbers were not good. There were several airports along the route as backups to problems so we launched. I had different weather pictures on the TXi, 750, 650, 796 and iPad that gave me a total picture of what was happening. The trip was smooth as silk with clouds starting to build the last 10 minutes of the flight, once again proving that flying early in the morning is usually best. As predicted, however, given the input from the heat of the sun in the late afternoon to get the fireworks going, on our way back from the Badlands in the late afternoon, the thunderstorms were huge. It was nice to be seeing them from the ground. And so the trip continues.

If you are at AirVenture, go to Spencer Aircraft and ask them about a discount. Thais where I got mine last year.

From Claude Goldsmith: "Soon"

Since it requires a G5, probably not, although I could put the G5 on the right side panel.. If BK can get their AeroCruz 230 certified, I'll probably go that route. Time will tell.

Last year I went to the Whelen booth and the representatives were not very friendly, as though they were doing me a favor by buying their lights . I went over to the AeroLeds booth and not only were they cordial, but they demonstrated on the ceiling a comparison of my GE 4596 bulb against their 1030-4596. It was stunningly bright. Much brighter than my old incandescent 20 hour useful life bulb. Just what I was looking for. I went over to Spencer and bought both the 1030-4596 landing light and 1030-4597 taxi light. They were expensive, but much cheaper here at Oshkosh. In addition to the Oshkosh discount, I think I was given an additional 15% discount. Unbelievable lights. I keep the taxi lights on all the time in pulse mode (Precise Fight Pulser). If I had it to do over again I might just buy all 1030-4596 and skip the 1030-4597 taxi lights. They do give a much wider beam, but display not as far the 1030-4596.

Andy Rutherford's M20M is at Garmin now as the test bed for the GFC500 certification due sometime near the end of the year he tells me.

The upgraded installation (and it definitely is an upgrade from the older G500) was finished last Friday just in time for Oshkosh. I'm still figuring out how to make the best use of its capability. There is a lot to it and much more flexibility as compared to the G500 I traded in. Altitude and vertical speed preselect is much faster than the old way of doing it. Deciding what you want to display can be done easily on the fly as compared to the G500 that required a lot of menu selecting and button pushes. Turns out my problem with the lack of geo-referenced chart display was a database problem. The flight charts database had not become current yet, and while it displayed charts on the dedicated Charts page it did not display on the Map Page until today when the new charts became effective. I'm looking forward to all the new software updates on both the G500 TXi and GTNs. If the ability to reverse the size of the PFD and MFD is pilot selectable, that would be a great addition. I'm not sure from the reading of the update if it is pilot selectable and, therefore, a fixed reversal.

I got the plane back yesterday. A few setup items needed to be corrected and were taken care of in short order. Then we went flying. Surprisingly the AP works better than before, luckily, because there are no easy adjustments for heading datum and course datum like on the old G500. One problem still exists that hopefully will be taken care of on Monday when Peter can talk to Garmin. The GTS 800 keeps going to Standby and will neither go active or stay active if activated. So Peter can work that problem while Mark works a more important one that could prevent me from taking the plane to Oshkosh. The right inner gear door operation keeps breaking a cotter pin (this is the 4th time in about as many months) that pops it open. With this issue the gear should not be raised. Can you imagine having it breaking enroute and having to fly across the country with the gear down? The Bravo is a Cessna 172 with the gear down, 117 knots at 75% power. I'm still not sure why they haven't been able to fix the problem. Meanwhile back to the G500 TXi. Assuming the gear door problem can be fixed on Monday, more time needs to be spent in the air with this unit. Although I've read the manual multiple times, thoroughly explored and played with the simulator, and know how to do everything that the unit is capable of doing, doing it effortlessly is another matter. I now agree that it would be easier to have the PFD on the right, but I want it in front me. Reaching over with the right hand to move the left knob is a bit of a pain, more so than with the old G500, but to me it is more important having the PFD front and center and just accepting the knob issue. I think with the map in HSI I will be spending much of the time in full screen mode, so the right hand knob will mitigate that problem. Display clarity is remarkable. Setup of map, weather, stormscope, traffic, basically everything, is MUCH easier than with the old G500. Data entry by knob is also a lot easier than by touchscreen. Also, in split screen mode having a much larger PFD is very nice, and in full screen mode is like having a display the size of the G1000. With this screen size, maybe Garmin could consider including Pathways in a future update, a feature they chose not to implement in the old G500. Having TAS and GS side by side is also another improvement over the original G500. Charts are sharp and stay sharp when zoomed in unlike the GTN 750 where they become blocky and unusable on zoom. One negative of the TXi is that the tapes are considerably smaller than those of the original G500, but their clarity mitigates that somewhat. Only time will tell if I like this unit better than the original.

It was supposed to take 3 days. It took 2 weeks, as Garmin provided no wiring diagrams specifically for the upgrade, so several days were taken up doing the interface wiring diagram before work could be started. Regarding the engine monitor, the MVP-50 provides so much more information that I regularly use than the EIS at present, that that was never a consideration for this upgrade. Regarding the GFC 600, which I would have had installed at the same time, Garmin last year stated that they weren't planning on certifying it for the Bravo, and incredibly, looking at their future plans for it on their website, don't even have it on their radar for any Mooneys in their certification plans for the next year. I think you'll be waiting a long time for your TXi upgrade if you're waiting for the GFC 600. I certainly don't understand their philosophy on this, since Garmin even owns an Ovation.