L3 ESI 500 question

[JohnB]

Quick question for those of you who have an L3 ESI 500 in your panel. I’m considering using an L3 ESI 500 as my backup instrument to a glass upgrade and nav 2 display instead of my hsi/cdi indicator. Can I use the ESI 500 as an OBS selectable vor like an hsi? There’s a statement on the manual for the ESI attached which states you can select a course from the ESI menu, but the obs value is set from the hsi/cdi receiver. My current nav 2 cdi is run from  my GNS 430W, and this would be switched to input to the ESI 500 if I went that route.

What I am used to if I get a departure clearance like “ fly runway heading to 800 feet, then right to 120, expect vectors, maintain at or below 3,500 until crossing the 290 radial from xyz, after crossing the radial 290, clear direct to abc climb maintain 8000. Right now with my instruments, I would set my nav 2 obs on my cdi to 290 from xyz, whenever the needle centered I would then climb and turn to course. Not sure I can do this with the ESI 500, as if my cdi/hsi is removed, not sure what would set the obs on the ESI?

[Marauder]

Quick question for those of you who have an L3 ESI 500 in your panel. I’m considering using an L3 ESI 500 as my backup instrument to a glass upgrade and nav 2 display instead of my hsi/cdi indicator. Can I use the ESI 500 as an OBS selectable vor like an hsi? There’s a statement on the manual for the ESI attached which states you can select a course from the ESI menu, but the obs value is set from the hsi/cdi receiver. My current nav 2 cdi is run from  my GNS 430W, and this would be switched to input to the ESI 500 if I went that route.
What I am used to if I get a departure clearance like “ fly runway heading to 800 feet, then right to 120, expect vectors, maintain at or below 3,500 until crossing the 290 radial from xyz, after crossing the radial 290, clear direct to abc climb maintain 8000. Right now with my instruments, I would set my nav 2 obs on my cdi to 290 from xyz, whenever the needle centered I would then climb and turn to course. Not sure I can do this with the ESI 500, as if my cdi/hsi is removed, not sure what would set the obs on the ESI?

John - the ESI-500 will allow you to set the OBS to a radial and unlike an HSI, you will need to use the horizontal guidance indicator to watch it intercept. Here is a picture of mine. The OBS is set to 230° like it is on the Aspen MFD’s HSI. You can see the difference in presentation and get an idea what is different.




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[StevenL757]

Assuming you do indeed have a switch to flip NAV sources on the ESI-500 between NAV1 and NAV2, what Marauder describes is correct.

Steve

[JohnB]

Hugely helpful @Marauder !  So like a cdi or hsi, if you turn the course knob while tuned to a selected vor until the horizontal situation bar centers on the ESI 500, you are on that radial with to / or from the selected vor? 

After reviewing your panel pic Marauder of you in a turn (thanks for that!) with the same selections in your HSI and ESI, I’m thinking that caution statement in the ESI manual that was concerning me refers to if you have your ESI and another Nav receiver ( like an HSI ) tuned on the same source, changing the course on your ESI won’t change the obs on your HSI. That seems obvious to me, but they’re not saying the ESI needs another Nav receiver to change an obs of the ESI. Is that correct? Huge thanks all!

 

[JohnB]

1 hour ago, StevenL757 said:

Assuming you do indeed have a switch to flip NAV sources on the ESI-500 between NAV1 and NAV2, what Marauder describes is correct.

Steve

If I do get one of these I think I’ll also ask for a flip switch which I know Don Kaye has.

[Marauder]

Hugely helpful [mention=9886]Marauder[/mention] !  So like a cdi or hsi, if you turn the course knob while tuned to a selected vor until the horizontal situation bar centers on the ESI 500, you are on that radial with to / or from the selected vor? 
After reviewing your panel pic Marauder of you in a turn (thanks for that!) with the same selections in your HSI and ESI, I’m thinking that caution statement in the ESI manual that was concerning me refers to if you have your ESI and another Nav receiver ( like an HSI ) tuned on the same source, changing the course on your ESI won’t change the obs on your HSI. That seems obvious to me, but they’re not saying the ESI needs another Nav receiver to change an obs of the ESI. Is that correct? Huge thanks all!
 

That part of the manual seems a little confusing. If you look at my picture, the HSI on the Aspen PFD is set to do the auto-slew from the GPS. It is connected to the VOR #1, the same as the ESI-500. The Aspen PFD is indicating a course of 236° which is the course between the hold on this approach and the VOR. Once crossing the VOR (the FAF), the final approach course is 230°. My second HSI on the Aspen MFD is set to the #2 VOR.

Before adding the ESI-500, on a VOR or ILS approach, I typically would set the PFD to follow the GTN’s VOR and the MFD to follow the #2 radio which is a straight Nav/Com.

It might just be warning that if you use the OBS feature on the GPS, the course selected on the ESI-500 won’t match.


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[StevenL757]

24 minutes ago, Marauder said:

It might just be warning that if you use the OBS feature on the GPS, the course selected on the ESI-500 won’t match.

 

Correct...you have to adjust the 500’s course indication manually/separately.

[kortopates]

Couple additional points, you can set the ESI-500 course independently from what your primary Nav might be set too. I.e. set G500 on Crs 180 and set ESI to something different. This includes Vor and GPS. But for GPS you of course have to be in OBS mode before your can change GPS crs.
Also the ESI in Vor mode defaults to the direct course so that you don’t have to find it.


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[JohnB]

Hugely helpful guys. Thank you! Marauder your explaination was better than the manual’s one! Need to make my decision about glass plus vacuum backup instruments, or glass plus one of these as backup next week. This is going to be tough as I really like my current instruments and I’m totally proficient with them, this one not so much yet. But it seems not too hard to get used to so far. Still digging. Hope you guys don’t mind if I run another question by you if one comes up, as I am delving into these manuals before I buy them.

[Marauder]

Hugely helpful guys. Thank you! Marauder your explaination was better than the manual’s one! Need to make my decision about glass plus vacuum backup instruments, or glass plus one of these as backup next week. This is going to be tough as I really like my current instruments and I’m totally proficient with them, this one not so much yet. But it seems not too hard to get used to so far. Still digging. Hope you guys don’t mind if I run another question by you if one comes up, as I am delving into these manuals before I buy them.

 

Glad we could help. I did the vacuum less conversion in two steps but wish I had done it in one. The ESI-500 is a very capable instrument and offers the redundancy that it is needed when you pull the vacuum system.

 

The hardest part about adopting glass is the analog to digital presentation of the data. Once you make that transition, the rest is very similar to the steam stuff (CDIs, heading bugs, etc.). It just done electronically and not with a mechanical gizmo being move on a dial.

 

There are many that say glass is overkill. So is buying a Vette or a $1M home. I want to enjoy the toys before someone takes them away from me.

 

 

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[JohnB]

7 minutes ago, Marauder said:

 

Glad we could help. I did the vacuum less conversion in two steps but wish I had done it in one. The ESI-500 is a very capable instrument and offers the redundancy that it is needed when you pull the vacuum system.

 

The hardest part about adopting glass is the analog to digital presentation of the data. Once you make that transition, the rest is very similar to the steam stuff (CDIs, heading bugs, etc.). It just done electronically and not with a mechanical gizmo being move on a dial.

 

There are many that say glass is overkill. So is buying a Vette or a $1M home. I want to enjoy the toys before someone takes them away from me.

 

 

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Yup! You probably know exactly where I am in thinking of doing this conversion in two steps vs. one, as you did the two step conversion with several years between if I recall.  And without the luxury of being able to put my hands on the ESI device and try it out to boot!

[donkaye]

John, while I love the ESI 500, I haven't used it in the manner in which you want to use it.  Frankly, using it that way is a bit cumbersome and would require a bit of practice to get comfortable with.  The preferential way to simplify your situation with your new setup in my opinion would be to use the G500 TXi exclusively.  Nav 1 for primary navigation and bearing pointer 2 for the crossing radial.  That way you are looking at the same display with very little interpretation required.

[JohnB]

12 minutes ago, donkaye said:

John, while I love the ESI 500, I haven't used it in the manner in which you want to use it.  Frankly, using it that way is a bit cumbersome and would require a bit of practice to get comfortable with.  The preferential way to simplify your situation with your new setup in my opinion would be to use the G500 TXi exclusively.  Nav 1 for primary navigation and bearing pointer 2 for the crossing radial.  That way you are looking at the same display with very little interpretation required.

Thanks Don! Hugely helpful as always! I didn't know you could put two bearing pointers on the G500 as you can't do that on the clunky sim! Ill go through the training on the TXi to get comfy with that, or.. hmm you guys have me thinking of another solution.. hmmm. Ill ask my avionics shop. But yes I get that kind of departure reasonably frequently and its easy for me to do with a CDI or HSI, but using my second pointer! Im going to look into that.. thank you sir!!