To ADF or Not to ADF

[Bennett]

On my current panel revamp, I opted to remove the ADF, and it was almost immediately sold to a pilot in South America. I don't recall the exact price, but is was around $2,000 (icluded tray, antenna, etc).  I sort of liked it as I could do a quick visual heading check on the KNBR broadcast tower that defines a reporting point at San Carlos Airport (CA), but I now have so much GPS, and GPS moving map, redundancy, that it is hardly necessary.  In reality it was just an old habit from the days when ADFs were important to arial navigation. Yes, I'm sure there are some approches that require an ADF, but I believe most of these (United States) have either a GPS overlay, a diffrent approcah available, or that the GPS can be used in lieu of the ADF beacon. 

[fantom]

Ummmm....when things go to poop, GPS service is turned off and VOR's are gone, you may miss that good ol' reliable and simple radio beacon. YMMV.

[Bennett]

Ummm, you are right if every other nav aid goes away I guess it will be time to look out the window  Just kidding of course. Here, inland on the west coast we just fly west (mag compass) until we see water, turn north or south (again mag compass) until we can find something familiar.  GPS could be jammed, but I think we would have a lot of other problems to deal with in that event. The VOR system is still in place, and there are localizer approach beacons that can be tuned to if we actually lose GPS.  If I had the room in the panel, I just might have kept the ADF for foreign travel, but Mooney panels (M20J) are just too small to allow for everything I want, and the ADF was low on my priority list.  

[PTK]

Quote  Fantom

Ummmm....when things go to poop, GPS service is turned off and VOR's are gone, you may miss that good ol' reliable and simple radio beacon. YMMV.

 

Yeah, I still have a battery operated all transistor AM radio from when I was in sixth grade.  I kept it in case "things went to poop" and I need to listen to oldies music on AM!

[Jerry 5TJ]

"Ummmm....when things go to poop, GPS service is turned off and VOR's are gone, you may miss that good ol' reliable and simple radio beacon."

 

 

 

 

If GPS is turned off it probably will be due to 'extreme events' and GA will be prohibited from flight as in the weeks after Sept 2001, so you don't need to worry about navigation then. 

 

 

 

 

[bd32322]

I am thinking of ditching my ADF too to make space for a 3M wx10a stormscope. About the only thing I dont know how to do with the GNS430 that would be done by the ADF is to follow a certain bearing from the NDB to avoid mountains when departing IFR from airports... Can the 430 do this?

 

thx in advance

 

 

 

[carusoam]

Expect that each ADF is resident in the database As a waypoint on Garmin equipment (and others).  If your Garmin is working, you would probably use it, in the US.

I still use my ADF for AM radio reception, although the background noise can be bothersome.  With iPad availability, even this skill is making ADFs not very desirable...

Of course, after a couple years of IR flying I have not used my ADF. Unless an unusual emergency eliminated several other radios and left my ADF working....

My strike finder gets used more often.  Do you only have space for one or the other?

Best regards,

-a-

[Oscar Avalle]

I tossed it out during my panel upgrade. Now I have 2 430 and a portable 795, plus the ASPEN. The problem is the cost of the database (s).

[bd32322]

Quote: carusoam

Expect that each ADF is resident in the database As a waypoint on Garmin equipment (and others).  If your Garmin is working, you would probably use it, in the US.

I still use my ADF for AM radio reception, although the background noise can be bothersome.  With iPad availability, even this skill is making ADFs not very desirable...

Of course, after a couple years of IR flying I have not used my ADF. Unless an unusual emergency eliminated several other radios and left my ADF working....

My strike finder gets used more often.  Do you only have space for one or the other?

Best regards,

-a-

[OR75]

Quote: bd32322

I am thinking of ditching my ADF too to make space for a 3M wx10a stormscope. About the only thing I dont know how to do with the GNS430 that would be done by the ADF is to follow a certain bearing from the NDB to avoid mountains when departing IFR from airports... Can the 430 do this?

thx in advance

[jetdriven]

make sure to set the CDI sensitivity to something less than the 5nm enroute setting.

[bd32322]

Quote: OR75

 you can do that by pressing the OBS button. You then select the radial you want to fly by turning the OBS button on the indicator GI-106 or on the GNS unit itself. Kind of tough to describe but really easy to do. The track you will want to follow will be a white line on the display. The GNS 430 simulator is not a bad tool to see how it works.

Fly safe ...

 

[rainman]

I removed my ADF when I modified my panel and put in the 430 WAAS. At that time I also added a panel mounted 696 so that I have back-up GPS; XM weather, Zaon Traffic Avoidance, etc.. I think it was a fair trade.  The ADF is in a box in the hangar if anyone needs one. Ray

[m20flyer]

There's something comforting about having ground based navaids. Like a previous poster said, a RAIM fault (or other error) on a GPS approach can ruin your day!

If you fly through the intermountain west, I'd keep it. There are a number of airports that only NDB and GPS approaches (Trinidad, CO comes to mind). If I had a plane that needed an ADF (made an offer today), I'd happily take it off of your hands! If nothing else, it's an AM radio receiver.

Then again...a 430 is a nice tool to have.

[marks]

I removed the ADF and DME as well as the antennas on my J. The ADF antenna lies under the plane like half a loaf of bread. Maybe I picked up half a knot or so, but I certainly gained 9.5 lbs. of useful load (I also removed the big rotating beacon and had the Mini Red Baron LED light installed). I also had installed an XM satalite radio on the panel with all the wires hidden. The antenna for the XM is about as big as a postage stamp and it is hidden at the bottom center of the windshield. On long trips I listen to comedy radio. GPS does everything. I can hardy imagine that the ADF would be the thing to save me. I have both back up power and a handheld as well.

[jlunseth]

I see I posted on this two years ago. I still have my ADF and still shoot a practice approach with it now and then, but have never used it for a real approach. We still have quite a few rural airports in MN that have NDB's and nothing else. The one thing the ADF is useful for is getting weather. Those NDB airports often broadcast the weather only over the NDB. For that purpose, I have had occasion to use it in IMC.

[Carlton]

I have a working ADF in my 66' M20E, but the antenna mount on top of the fuselage has cracked. Anyone have a serviceable used one lying around?

 

Thank you.

[Andy95W]

Best and cheapest speed mod: remove your ADF antenna. Incredible amount of drag from the long sense antenna running to the tail.

[BKlott]

Occasionally a local radio station will play music from the 1940s and we can pick it up with our ADF. Makes me wonder if some of the aircrews listened to the same music while enroute during WW2?

[0TreeLemur]

On 7/29/2015 at 2:43 AM, BKlott said:

Occasionally a local radio station will play music from the 1940s and we can pick it up with our ADF. Makes me wonder if some of the aircrews listened to the same music while enroute during WW2?

In 2023, this need is met by loading up old-timey music on your phone and bluetoothing it to your audio panel.

If one does remove that bread-loaf size ADF antenna from the belly, a gaping hole results.   Where might one find a cover for this hole?

[EricJ]

52 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

In 2023, this need is met by loading up old-timey music on your phone and bluetoothing it to your audio panel.

If one does remove that bread-loaf size ADF antenna from the belly, a gaping hole results.   Where might one find a cover for this hole?

Flush patch with some aluminum sheet per AC 43.13, or just leave the antenna there as a rub block to protect the belly in the event of a gear-up landing. 

[0TreeLemur]

4 hours ago, EricJ said:

Flush patch with some aluminum sheet per AC 43.13, or just leave the antenna there as a rub block to protect the belly in the event of a gear-up landing. 

I just about added the bit about sacrificial material in the unlikely event...   But I was unwilling to tempt fate. 

That thing has to weigh 5 lbs, right?

[Fly Boomer]

On 4/26/2010 at 2:31 PM, KSMooniac said:

NDB approaches are going the way of the dodo bird, so the utility of an ADF receiver is diminishing every year.

If you don't have XM, how are you going to listen to the ball game?

[hais]

38 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

If you don't have XM, how are you going to listen to the ball game?

You don't listen. You watch instead. The procedure involves circling the field. You did know that the "field" in that standard maneuver doesn't need to be an airport, didn't you?

[jlunseth]

I see this thread poked up from 13 years ago. My ADF left the panel about 5 years ago. There are no NDBs anywhere in my area that I have found. XM radio is better anyway.