Tony Armour

Why didn't you use it with the 540 install ?

Older thread but fyi, Bruce Jaeger hangs around the Punta Gorda area. I'm not sure if he's a snowbird or there full time. He is one of the old time Mooney guys. I met him there a month back giving some instruction to another Mooney owner.

On my picture there is a screen and hard key to the left that say land and nav. Pressing the nav one time turns the screen black. Each key has four settings. I did that on the simulator but it probably works the same on the box. I'm not sure I have looked at the taxiways in the airplane, on the sim they look fine. Of course no geo reference on the plates if the subscription isn't up to date so probably not on the taxi either. I have not seen a dedicated traffic page like your picture shows. That's nice, I'll have to ask about it. The sim works good on the iPad especially playing with the touchscreen options. Here's a link with the sim download http://www.avidyne.com/products/ifd540/ipad-app.asp

Have you found anything ?

No, simply because I was planning on waiting until 2018 or so to spend $$ AND to see how all the ADSB stuff pans out. I didn't really care to do anything right now but the deal was a no brainer since I didn't have WAAS. There are at least three (probably more) that did the trade deal with my little shop that traded their 530W's in at the buddy price. I believe the other shops on the web were advertising $6,500 for the 530W trade. My shop, I think, was just wanting to move some Avidyne boxes (they are Garmin dealers too) Everyone that did the deal are maintenance or engine customers, they weren't advertising it or anything. Heck, I didn't find out until Thursday 1/29/15 and the deal stopped month end, so actually the next day which was Friday. I think, I don't know, but there's a good chance that Avidyne is grinding up the Garmin boxes, ouch.

The IA had a sheet that he went into the Garmin display and made around 10 ? notes of settings. Power off, slide the Garmin out, slide the Avidyne in, power it up, put those settings in and it was done. Of course we had to change the antenna to a WAAS. I pulled the rear upper panel and swapped the antenna....took 15 minutes plus when I get around to putting the panel back up :-) I think I am going to go ahead with a GPSS box and when we do that add the one wire to the audio panel to get the alerts. Some guys are adding a yoke button or repurposing the ident button to become a com swap from standby to active, one wire. Some things I am not fond of, possibly because I am not good at change and had flown the 530 for years: 1. If you look at the screen shot you see the box at the top of the map TRK, I wish there was a box beside it DTK the same size. Back to what I am used to seeing :-) I don't think they want to take up anymore map real estate but it should be easy enough for them to give the option for two or even no boxes there. I have mentioned to Avidyne that I would like for the smaller datablocks to have the capability of being made larger, larger text and numbers. Look at the ground speed box, too small. DTK too small. I'm trying to figure out what I like, you can see on the screen I have two dtk on the top and the CDI on the left showing trk and dtk. 2. Although I didn't see it much, during an approach the 530 gives upcoming and turn now text at the top of the map. The Avidyne gives a colored and maybe flashing indication in the bottom right. It may be fine now that I know where to look but the first time in the air and several on the sim I never even saw it there. I was looking at the top :-) 3. I will, and my wife will miss a dedicated VNAV button. Easy enough to look at the flight plan and get the same info but I still liked the button. On the picture I posted, you can see the white underlined 4200, that's the altitude that the approach calls for at that point in the approach. That was the GPS 14 to KDNN. I'll try to think of more.

I think they talk fairly well with the Aspens. Here is a thread and you may search and find more info. I don't understand most of what he is saying. The guy AviJake is with Avidyne and there is constant communication between the owners and Avidyne via that forum and AviJake. Even to the point that they keep a running list of items to add, change etc from the users. Some have already been implimented. I'm not up real well with what it works with regarding ADSB. The 540/440 do have wifi and Bluetooth built in and I think the next software update should open them up. Seems like at first wifi will be out only and Bluetooth both directions. They will not say, but are working with someone on the iPad front.....I think it's Foreflight but that's speculation on my part. If they do that I picture the stratus talking to foreflight and the 540. One thing Avidyne has done is leave their communication wide open where Garmin makes it hard or impossible for other folks to work with them. I'm not sure what I will do but I invison a bonified transponder for ADSB and that feeding into the 540 and then the 540 sending it out to the iPad and hopefully foreflight. I guess it could go lots of different ways. http://forums.avidyne.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=580&KW=Aspen&title=ifd540-440-integrations-with-aspen-efds-and-acus

First you have to realize that all this time I have been flying approaches with my Garmin 396 :-) The 530 was there to make me legal, it came with the airplane. I jokingly called it ballast. Sad huh ? My 530 was not WAAS. The 2020 ADSB deal has been on my mind and was a deciding factor too. This happened because my IA called me and said that he had some trade in 530W's that they had to send back to Avidyne. He could send mine in instead and I pay some boot to get a WAAS box. They gave a little less for a non WAAS trade. I queried about the trade in deal and was looking at only $1,500 more to get the Avidyne vs the 530W. And they were doing it for me at cost. I think other shops were at $7,000 trade with a non WAAS, my deal was substantially better. So really cost was a large part. Beforehand, what I looked at VS a WAAS 530 was newer technology, 530's are 15 years old now. And also getting a warranty. Had mine been a WAAS 530, I'm not sure I would have even worried about it. Now that I have learned some about the box there are quite a few nice features. Watching those YouTube videos is much better than me telling you but here are some that stand out to me: 1. Larger and better display. Colors, pixels. 2. Auto fill when entering identifiers. 3. Touch screen but most everything can also be done with buttons, I tend to use both. 4. The name of the frequency is on the display, that's cool. It will auto ident VORs etc and I think that has to happen before it displays the name. 5. Since it knows where you are at, when you start making a flight plan it starts offering you the waypoints, airways , airports etc as a first choice and draws the plan as you progress. I've always been mostly a "direct to" or one waypoint guy myself, flying the heading bug. 6. When selecting approaches and then IAF it draws them on the screen as you scroll thru. Very nice for a visual of what's coming up. 7. Magenta line for the current course, dashed magenta for the next leg. 8. A hold and presentation can be changed for any direction, length etc. Cool but who does holds :-) 9. It will display and geo reference approach plates. I'll prob continue to use the iPad for this instead of keeping the plates updated. 10. It does some audio alerts such as time to descend. I need to get one wire to my audio panel. 11. You can see on the picture that I have the nav frequencies off the main screen and have two standby com frequencies. You can have three standby's if you want them. I'm still playing with how I want everything set up. Another note, on the picture if you see the little "data" tab to the right of the map, touch it and it hides away, touch again to bring it back. Oh, and maybe the BEST feature, the port on the front left where you do updates via a thumb drive is a USB. That will charge your phone or iPad = best feature. Haha The 530 May do some of that too, I never paid attention :-)

There are some good tutorial's on YouTube. I did make one but I wasn't changing anything on the box.....I was pissed that it wasn't doing something. Come to find out Garmin does the same thing :-) I'm not good at change haha. I'll look at mine again and if it's worth watching I will upload it somewhere.

Everytime I change the oil, 25 hours, I spray Mouse Milk on all the joints and wastegate. BTW, it does not necessarily take an aviation shop to weld that but of course you want someone that really knows what they are doing....not the dude next door that built his own lawnmower trailer :-)

My 540 has been in about a week. So far so good, it replaced a 530 no W. It has some really slick features.

I'm not sure we are thinking differently Andy.......i "am" trying to raise it ;-) But no, it hasn't been a big concern on the east coast and plenty of runway. I like the prop comment "not optimized for anything" :-)

Yep that's it, thanks. Digital to analog adaptor. It negates the savings from going with an Aspen instead of using the DAC box.

My daughter and granddaughter, son-in-law are moving to the Baltimore area soon. Probably GAI or FME for me. Instead of advice, somebody please just shoot me !

Same question here. Avionics guy said use the DAC unit. I inquired about an Aspen thinking I could take a couple grand off the top because of not spending on a DAC but he said I needed some other box to go with the Aspen and that offset the savings. Even though I also have an electric AI he said the HSI would move to being the backup because it's still needed to drive the autopilot. So I still need a vacuum pump, I thought I might get away without vacuum with the Aspen and an electric AI. Anyone familiar with the "other" box to make the Aspen work ?

Raise an old topic. The manual says 1/8 turn for 2" of manifold pressure, mine was turned almost 1/4 turn and I only picked up 1". What has everyone seen in actual experience ? I have been at 33" max for quite some time but never really worried about it. We have checked tightness of bolts etc a few years back and recently my IA pressure checked the intake and exhaust. Maybe until you get near the book levels it takes more movement, ie not a linear curve. 1875 TT with a top at 1350. One quart oil for every 25 hours at most. I don't remember it being this low when we changed turbos around 1450 but it was lower, after a reasonable break-in time it may have gotten down there. The IA says that's when it started and we just never adjusted for it.

Awful_Charlie......why do you eat flies ? ;-)

We have to count hanger and insurance ? Damn ! :-)

$30,000 ? Are ya'll including reserves ? Mines not even close to that.....much lower. Tim's airplane sounds very nice.

Quote: 201er We started a New Jersey Mooney Pilots group recently: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NJMooney We are trying to hold monthly mooney fly ins in the region. We had one two weeks ago with 5 Mooney Pilots. We'll probably do something again in January, December is just a bit too hectic with the holidays. I myself am from NY but keep my plane in NJ. You are welcome to join our group if you're willing to fly on over.

A couple times I have had a leak from one of the oil nozzles that goes into the head on the top (the Bravo mod) Mine has been cylinder #3 and it would end up as burnt oil on the exhaust and on the right main gear door. Even though the leak is on top, you really can't see it on the top. Easy fix too.

Ok, back to TLS/Bravos !! Last week I sit in three Bonanas. Two were twins (33 and 36 bodies) and one was a 33 single. I'm sitting there and say to myself. "I'm a lucky guy to be flying my TLS" For you Jim, Not getting into specifics I'll briefly talk about my seven year 201 ownership and my six year TLS ownership: Basically the costs have been the same and IMO inline with any other retractable, performance single. A few of the higher costs for me have been: a turbocharger $1200, new mags @ 1700 hours $1,600, nothing in the over all picture. I am expecting a much larger engine OH $$$ compared to a four cylinder normally aspirated. Annuals have been pretty much the same as the 201, basic inspection for around $1,600. Throw in an ELT battery, a tire every few years. Did the donuts one year. Really no surprises. Whoever was quoting you those enormous figures must be smoking crack. Right or wrong If buying now, I personally would try to buy the newest airframe with lower hours that I could afford. A pilot on my home field asked me about Mooney's a few years back. I asked him his mission, there was some mountian flying, mainly him and his wife.......I told him the best all around airplane might be a properly equipped K model. I didn't push him toward a TLS/Bravo only because of fuel burn. He bought a 231 and has been very happy since. For me personally, the fuel burn over a 201 or K model is well worth it. Honestly, the only way you could tempt me away from my TLS (cost considered) is a newer model Bravo with a glass cockpit (and I'm not sure that would be a good move) In fact, speaking of fuel burn, when looking to upgrade from the 201 and figuring in time saved (not using fuel) it wasn't as bad as it looked on paper. There are times when flying short hops (one hour) that I try to avoid looking at the fuel flow But you know what, even on short flights I'm still flying safer and faster than my 201. 3,000' to 4,000' higher, out of traffic with back-ups. If I seem biased, I am I believe for good reasons though. I did talk to a gentleman last week at a fly-in breakfast that is going to be putting his 94 TLS on the market. He just had a third child and also has a Bonana. He "might" have even bought the TLS new, if not he has owned it for a long time. If you want his contact # let me know.

Quote: fantom "OK, that's enough and I've irritated you fellows enough for today. Jgreen" Bugging people with your opinions isn't an issue for me, but your enjoyment of doing it is probably an issue for lots of folks. I've been actively involved in the Florida Mooney community for 20 years, and after serveral personal experiences, and 100's of discussions with other people, you are only the second person I've ever heard say anything good about that self professed FL Mooney guru. Strong personalities are one thing....basic ethics are another. But he does give lots of business to your profession. Oh, and the other guy who had something nice to say, finally got screwed to the tune of about $4,000 he couldn't afford. YMMV.

If you can afford it, one of the best things in the world is to own your own Mooney. Finance or not, doesn't matter. I bought/financed my 201 in 1998, purchased/financed the TLS in 2005 then sold the 201. There have been times over these 13 years that I have had the loan collateral on the airplane, had the airplane loan collateralized on property, even a period of time when I had the plane as collateral for a loan used to purchase properties. Run the numbers on everything and use what works best for your situation. If you can afford to make the payments and associated costs go for it !! It costs $$ to have the pleasure but I know when I tuck my TLS in the hanger it's there anytime I need it on a moments notice and (very important) that no one has touched it. I look back (as most pilots probably do) at when I started flying and think...Man, I wish I had done that years earlier. I'm glad I don't have to do that about owning my Mooney's.