donkaye

If you don't already have a G5 you'll need to add the price of the G5 plus labor, too.

The waypoints on the airway don't have to be near your interception of the airway. As long as you've activated the leg on the airway which you will intercept, you're good to go for the intercept. No problem doing it with the BK autopilots or, of course, the Garmin autopilots. Once in Heading mode towards the intercept point, arm Nav. The AP will join the airway at the intercept point. Once on the airway switch to GPSS. I would then eliminate any waypoints on the old flight plan ahead of me that would not be used.

From the Home Page tap the Demo icon and change Waypoint to the airport of your choice.

If a waypoint is being added, just highlight the waypoint after which the new waypoint is being inserted, type in the new waypoint, and you're done. If an airway is being added, you need to add an entry point, then associated airways are displayed, pick the airway you want and exit point, then load the airway, It couldn't be easier. If you're on the map page and need to change the flight plan, rather than go to the Home page and tap the Flight Plan icon, as a short cut, just tap the CDI bar and go directly to the Flight plan Page. Just with those two pieces of information all flight plan amendments should be easily accomplished.

As an instructor who teaches this stuff all the time and with the benefit of having all of it in my own airplane, a lot of the GTN is pretty intuitive and follows what Garmin has been doing with both their handhelds, panel mounted hardware, and iPad since the Aera 796 came out many years ago. I find the GTN iPad apps extremely useful and can be used to simulate various flight scenarios by setting up a flight plan with various airspeeds and altitudes and then flying it on the sim. Garmin just in the past two weeks has had several free online Webinars on the use of the GTN using scenarios with follow along on your own iPad. I have attended both of them and found them to be very instructional for new users. They even had a good one on VNAV operations. While I don't see any in the near future, here is a history of what they have done: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviation/webinars/

GTN approach I'm having trouble figuring this out. I'm enroute to a destination. I select procedures and approach. I select an approach but oops. I pushed the wrong one. How do I back out of it and select the one I want? The above was attempted to be posted by @rotorman but didn't post, so here is the answer: If you tapped the wrong approach, you will see "Approach " on the Procedures Page. The wrong approach will be in that box. Tap that box and all the approaches will present themselves. Choose the approach you want and you're off and running.

Yes, I figured Pacific Coast could make about 4K on the resale of both units. I didn't want to deal with that unknown. So they bought the unknown risk for me.

It did for me. I think what @carusoam was saying was that someone was upgrading and their old unit was being sold separately.

650 to 650Xi : 2,935 750 to 750 Xi: 4,960 But I had to pay for an expensive data card that I really didn't need, since I already had an extra card from the old 650. In fact, I should have said I didn't want it. My mistake. Also I paid for 3 hours of labor. If they made extra on the data card, so be it. They did a very good job. They required one data card back for each unit. Since I had the 510, I didn't need a card for the 750. Bottom line, it was more than Sarasota, but not that much more.

As I mentioned in another post, after AirVenture was canceled for 2020, I decided to trade its cost for the cost of the GTN 750 and GTN 650 upgrade. While Sarasota Avionics in Florida has an upgrade program, they weren't a possibility here on the West Coast. I called around quite a bit and finally found an organization that was more than willing to do the exchange upgrade, Pacific Coast Avionics in Aurora, Oregon. It turns out that they had provided one of the best bids for my GFC 500 autopilot upgrade, but they had so much business that I was going to have to wait 6 months for them to do it, so I went with Accurate Aero in Minden, Nevada. I got what I thought was a fair bid from Pacific Coast. They said they could do the job in about 3 hours including all the paperwork and could start the job in about 2 weeks. That meant that I could leave early in the morning, fly up, get the work done, and fly back, all in the same day. I didn't want to stay overnight at any motel. So, armed with face mask, Clorox wipes, gloves, and hand sanitizer I flew up on May 15th, the one good day between storm systems in Oregon and California at the time. Due to headwinds the trip took 3 hours. but with gas at $2.99 the cost wasn't that much. It was good to get back in the air and exercise the plane, which had been sitting idle for awhile. Once there, the plane was quickly pulled into a new hangar. Chad was the only one working in the hangar, and he took me to a private room where I set up to spend a few hours working on the Gleim FIRC. Even though I renew my CFI through giving Wings Programs, I like to stay up with what is going on in the industry by taking their course yearly. It takes a lot longer than the required 16 hours, but I have found the course to be useful. I told Chad that it bothered me that my G5 altitude always varied from the G500 TXi altitude by more the 60 feet, and he said that he could fix it, but that it would take an additional hour. I told him to go ahead and do it. Being a PIA, periodically I"d go to the hangar to see how things were going. During one of those times I asked him when my units had arrived from Garmin. He said that wasn't necessary since they "keep the units in stock". That took me by surprise. How many organizations can keep high priced avionics like that in stock? Although the installation is "plug and play" and the units have their own configuration modules to make for easy exchange, there were still some settings that needed to be changed. Chad made the changes, calibrated the air data computer to correct the altitude deviations I had discussed, and finished up by mid afternoon. Fuel was expensive at Aurora so I flew the 10 miles over to Mulino State to get fuel at almost $1.50 a gallon cheaper. From there I filed through Garmin Pilot, picked up the clearance in the air, and headed home. Everything worked perfectly, as expected on the way home. Pacific Coast was excellent to deal with and I highly recommend them. The units are faster, have better resolution (although I can't really tell), have better software upgrade capability, and I have a new 2 year warranty. The software is a little different from the basic GTNs with a database icon showing up on turn on that could make database updates a little easier for some. All in all a very good day. Finally, I think I am done upgrading (how often have I said that). Well, maybe if Garmin comes up with a good autoland system for the Mooney....

If you're ferrying for money, you're not covered by your own insurance.

Better have good insurance.

Fallbrook, L18, is 2,160 x 60 feet on top of a hill with drop offs on both sides. Basically, your aircraft carrier approach and landing. I worked with one student who wanted to go in there. We made it, but it was very uncomfortable. I let him out and had him look at a couple of demo approaches that I did. They were uncomfortable for me, and I recommended that he never go in there again. In my opinion certainly a long body Mooney shouldn't be based there. The 252 is very marginal. I wouldn't want to be the instructor who released a student after training to be based there in any Mooney other than a C, or E model, which wouldn't have too much trouble. L52, Oceano, is really a pretty easy airport at 2,325 x 50 feet in any model Mooney. If has plenty of "lead in" to get set up. If I have a student in that area I always work that airport in near the end of our training. It's a different matter when there is a direct 25 knot crosswind. After I did my landing video in Porterville, we flew over to Ocean to stay the night. It's a beautiful setting almost on the beach. You can walk to the condos that are rented a block away. Anyway, the winds were blowing so hard that I had to go around twice. On downwind the third time I told Shirley that if I couldn't make this time, we'd fly down to Santa Barbara and stay there. The winds cooperated and I committed to the landing which went well. For all practical purposes it is a one way runway. Short runways and big crosswinds really don't mix well. I have seen a Bonanza stuck in the mud 100+ feet off the end of the runway one time. However, except for strong crosswinds, if on proper speed and slope, the airport should provide no problem for a proficient Mooney pilot.

Yes, you're correct. For me, moving plane to plane, I cannot guarantee that the plane I'm teaching in has the bluetooth capability to be able to provide an acceptable type of weather to me.

I'm in the unique position of needing both. My 796 normalizes all airplanes for me when teaching. I can get at whatever information I need independent of student and the avionics in their airplane. It also has built in XM with a small puck. While the new 760 is probably faster, runs cooler, a little lighter, and draws holds, it requires purchase of a much larger piece of hardware (the GDL 51 or 52) to do XM weather, so for the first time, I'm probably not going to get it. Of course I said that for the 750/650 to 750Xi/650Xi and went ahead and did that upgrade last week. The 796 gives me much more information on the yoke for my purposes than having an iPad mini on the yoke. It is also much less susceptible to blackout from heat than the iPad. So, although I have some of the best avionics in the world as primary in my plane, I still like having the extra information presented by the 796. Except for the weather issue, I think the same thing would apply to the 760.

Electric rudder trim and yaw damping are two entirely different animals. I center the rudder in level flight with the YD off, then turn it on. In turbulence it makes a worthwhile difference. It's cheap for the benefit in my opinion.

Yes. It's not a distraction when enroute. It could be on approach, so recommend turning it off in busy airspace and on approach. I have XM and usually listen to SPA channel 68 for calming music. I DO NOT have it "mute on audio input" as it's constantly ramping down and up on every radio call. I have its volume set below the volume of radio transmissions, and have a switch to turn it off instead of having do a lot of icon tapping on the Aera 796, or G500 TXi, or GTN 750 to turn it off..

I'm not concerned with the physical environment of the airplane, which I feel comfortable disinfecting. I'm uncomfortable with the state of the person in the next seat over. I can't control where they have been or with whom they have come in contact.

All of this in NOT encouraging. For example I have at least 4 students who want to fly now. The first one is for a flight review. I've been flying with him for over 20 years. He is not current now. He lives in a part of the San Jose that has the highest incidence of the virus, where as stated in the newspaper, multiple people have died from it, even middle age people. I have another student, who luckily I finished his recurrence training just before the shelter in place took effect. He wants to get his instrument rating and has almost the exact same panel as I have, so I'd love to teach him. Problem is he is an ER Doctor and has a number of Covid patients. I have another student who just got the GFC 500 and wants to get checked out in it and get an IPC. Finally, I want to do my annual Basic and Advanced Wings Program. The problem is that the instructor who I've done it with has several teenage children and continues to teach multiple students because she is a single Mother who needs to work. How many "chains" are in that one? Someone from Apple Computer once said that the experience of using the computer should be transparent to what is behind the scenes, In other wards, the computer itself should not get in the way of using it. Similarly, I don't see how armoring up can't help but get in the way of teaching, and as mentioned above might not even be that effective.

Yikes! Armor up. Following these guidelines sounds like you're preparing to go into a Corvid-19 hospital intensive care ward. Sort of takes the fun out of flight instructing.

Thanks, Alex. Food for thought.

Maybe so, but it's a lot easier to reach over and down a bit than constantly raising your hand to reach a Controller placed on top.

I've been flight instructing for the past 26 years pretty much full time. I have loved it. There has been great satisfaction watching people expand their universe, whether it be the instrument rating, commercial rating, transition training, flight reviews, and on and on, while at the same time enjoying the freedom and joy of flying myself. Never would I have thought that we'd be in the predicament that we are in right now. How do you safely flight instruct now without risking your life? Who knows the chain of contacts of the other person or they of you? I guess taking temperatures, wearing masks and gloves, Clorox wipes, Lysol spray would help mitigate the situation, but there are still no guarantees. Many of the most experienced instructors are in the age group where caution should be the order of the day. I'm certainly open to suggestions, but as of right now it seems pretty grim for both flight instructors and students alike, if you value your life. Until there is a vaccine or more certain treatments, it seems like a crap shoot to either get training or to train.

I've always bought the iPad with the most memory, 128 GB iPaid Air 2 being the last one a few years ago. It has cellular which is activated. Garmin Pilot is my primary flight app. A couple of years ago, after an IOS update it would continually bomb out. Several updates later and I've never had an additional problem with Garmin Pilot. I have not closed any other applications running in the background, however, I can see that might be advantageous if there is a memory issue.

I find the Wings Program to be so much better than giving a "standard" Flight Review, that except in very unusual situations, it is the only way I am doing Flight Reviews. I do the Basic Wings and Advanced Wings yearly myself. From a Flight Instructor's point of view it is also a good way to renew your Flight Instructor Certificate by having 5 students participate in it over a 2 year period of time--and it is so easy to document from both the student's and instructor's point of view. (See AC 61-91J).