Greg Ellis Posted April 26, 2022 Report Posted April 26, 2022 Well, at last my GFC 500 is installed on my 1963 C model. It is absolutely fantastic. I have never flown with an autopilot until now and I got my PPL in 1993!! It was kind of a strange feeling letting go of things and seeing the airplane do its thing without wanting to intervene. Especially since the maiden voyage was in clouds part of the time!!! Anyways, I am posting the photos of the evolution of my panel from 1963 vintage to what I have today. 9 Quote
StevenL757 Posted April 26, 2022 Report Posted April 26, 2022 That's a really, really nice job there. You should be proud. One of the nicest "C" panels I've seen! Quote
Greg Ellis Posted April 26, 2022 Author Report Posted April 26, 2022 32 minutes ago, StevenL757 said: That's a really, really nice job there. You should be proud. One of the nicest "C" panels I've seen! Thank you. I don't think I have stopped smiling since I pick her up. I was able to lose the vacuum system as well that had failed me 3 times in the 16 years I have owned the airplane. 3 Quote
StevenL757 Posted April 26, 2022 Report Posted April 26, 2022 Outstanding. You'll never get an argument out of me when it comes to wanting to remove your vacuum system(s). :-) 1 Quote
carusoam Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 Vac systems and TCs…. The fewer the better… Nice work Greg! Might be one of the oldest Mooneys with the GFC! As far as flying a Mooney with an AP vs without… Give a pirep on that after a few hours… My M20C would tire me out after a couple of hours… My M20R was never that exhausting… I’m pretty sure the AP makes a huge difference… Best regards, -a- Quote
Greg Ellis Posted April 27, 2022 Author Report Posted April 27, 2022 6 hours ago, carusoam said: Vac systems and TCs…. The fewer the better… Nice work Greg! Might be one of the oldest Mooneys with the GFC! As far as flying a Mooney with an AP vs without… Give a pirep on that after a few hours… My M20C would tire me out after a couple of hours… My M20R was never that exhausting… I’m pretty sure the AP makes a huge difference… Best regards, -a- Thanks. I hand flew this airplane in IMC for 16 years with approaches to minimums and I will say that this airplane has made me a better pilot. But after 16 years it was time for some automation. I am just thankful that Garmin took the time to get something certified for these older airplanes. Mine may be one of the oldest with the GFC 500. I ordered the autopilot last year probably on the first day it was certified for the 1963 C model. Garmin had done the 64 and newer but had some work left to do for the earlier ones. I thank Garmin again for forging ahead with these early older airplanes. I know there are those that don't particularly care for Garmin or the way they handle their products but I for one am a Garmin fan, as you can tell by my panel. The autopilot is awesome. It even handled continuous moderate turbulence with what seemed to be ease but I am sure it was getting a real workout. I will follow up with a pirep on autopilot vs no autopilot. 1 1 Quote
Ragsf15e Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 4 hours ago, Greg Ellis said: Thanks. I hand flew this airplane in IMC for 16 years with approaches to minimums and I will say that this airplane has made me a better pilot. But after 16 years it was time for some automation. I am just thankful that Garmin took the time to get something certified for these older airplanes. Mine may be one of the oldest with the GFC 500. I ordered the autopilot last year probably on the first day it was certified for the 1963 C model. Garmin had done the 64 and newer but had some work left to do for the earlier ones. I thank Garmin again for forging ahead with these early older airplanes. I know there are those that don't particularly care for Garmin or the way they handle their products but I for one am a Garmin fan, as you can tell by my panel. The autopilot is awesome. It even handled continuous moderate turbulence with what seemed to be ease but I am sure it was getting a real workout. I will follow up with a pirep on autopilot vs no autopilot. It looks awesome! Very similar to what I have in my F, except for the autopilot (I have everything else just like yours). Quick question, do you get the altitude “beep” alert as you get to within 1000’ and 200’ of your selected altitude or do you need a g3x to get that? I have the G5s and do not get tgat alert even if I select an altitude, but not sure if adding the autopilot changes that? Maybe I should ask @PT20J because he seems to know more about Garmin than Garmin does… Quote
Skates97 Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 29 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said: It looks awesome! Very similar to what I have in my F, except for the autopilot (I have everything else just like yours). Quick question, do you get the altitude “beep” alert as you get to within 1000’ and 200’ of your selected altitude or do you need a g3x to get that? I have the G5s and do not get tgat alert even if I select an altitude, but not sure if adding the autopilot changes that? Maybe I should ask @PT20J because he seems to know more about Garmin than Garmin does… I did not get the alert when I only had the G5's in my plane. With the GFC500 added I do get the alert. It also gives and "Airspeed" alert when approaching Vne. 5 hours ago, Greg Ellis said: Thanks. I hand flew this airplane in IMC for 16 years with approaches to minimums and I will say that this airplane has made me a better pilot. But after 16 years it was time for some automation. I am just thankful that Garmin took the time to get something certified for these older airplanes. Mine may be one of the oldest with the GFC 500. I ordered the autopilot last year probably on the first day it was certified for the 1963 C model. Garmin had done the 64 and newer but had some work left to do for the earlier ones. I thank Garmin again for forging ahead with these early older airplanes. I know there are those that don't particularly care for Garmin or the way they handle their products but I for one am a Garmin fan, as you can tell by my panel. The autopilot is awesome. It even handled continuous moderate turbulence with what seemed to be ease but I am sure it was getting a real workout. I will follow up with a pirep on autopilot vs no autopilot. I agree with everything you said here. I didn't fly for 16 years but did fly for 5 without an autopilot or even the wing leveler. The GFC500 is amazing, and does handle the bumps well. On a recent flight from CO back to CA it was working constantly through the up and down drafts. You can see the speed variations as it held altitude. We had a fairly ugly headwind the whole way back. 2 Quote
PT20J Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 33 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said: It looks awesome! Very similar to what I have in my F, except for the autopilot (I have everything else just like yours). Quick question, do you get the altitude “beep” alert as you get to within 1000’ and 200’ of your selected altitude or do you need a g3x to get that? I have the G5s and do not get tgat alert even if I select an altitude, but not sure if adding the autopilot changes that? Maybe I should ask @PT20J because he seems to know more about Garmin than Garmin does… The G5 doesn't have audio outputs. I believe that the GFC 500 audio is limited to the disconnect tone and the voice "Engaging Autopilot" for ESP. So, the 1000' and 500' tones come from the G3X. There is also a 500' voice annunciation. I find that during a normal traffic pattern, if I have set the altitude bug to pattern altitude, I get the 200' tone as I turn base and the 500' tone shortly after completing the turn which is a good cross check to my sight picture. Skip 1 Quote
Greg Ellis Posted April 27, 2022 Author Report Posted April 27, 2022 45 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said: It looks awesome! Very similar to what I have in my F, except for the autopilot (I have everything else just like yours). Quick question, do you get the altitude “beep” alert as you get to within 1000’ and 200’ of your selected altitude or do you need a g3x to get that? I have the G5s and do not get tgat alert even if I select an altitude, but not sure if adding the autopilot changes that? Maybe I should ask @PT20J because he seems to know more about Garmin than Garmin does… I do get the altitude alerts at 1000 feet and 200 feet with the GFC 500 and the G5's. It is a tone, not a voice but I do get the alerts. 1 Quote
PT20J Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 7 minutes ago, Skates97 said: I did not get the alert when I only had the G5's in my plane. With the GFC500 added I do get the alert. So, perhaps this audio does come from the GFC, but it's not described in the documentation. 1 Quote
Skates97 Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 33 minutes ago, Greg Ellis said: I do get the altitude alerts at 1000 feet and 200 feet with the GFC 500 and the G5's. It is a tone, not a voice but I do get the alerts. Yes, a tone for altitudes. The airspeed alert is voice, not a tone. Quote
Greg Ellis Posted April 27, 2022 Author Report Posted April 27, 2022 19 minutes ago, Skates97 said: Yes, a tone for altitudes. The airspeed alert is voice, not a tone. Interesting. I have only had two flights with it, both in moderate turbulence so I did not come close to Vne. Quote
Skates97 Posted April 27, 2022 Report Posted April 27, 2022 3 hours ago, Greg Ellis said: Interesting. I have only had two flights with it, both in moderate turbulence so I did not come close to Vne. The next time you have smooth air on descent just push the nose over and let the speed come up. Vne in mine is 189mph, I want to say it alerted at 184mph but I don't remember. Quote
PT20J Posted April 29, 2022 Report Posted April 29, 2022 On 4/27/2022 at 8:29 AM, Ragsf15e said: It looks awesome! Very similar to what I have in my F, except for the autopilot (I have everything else just like yours). Quick question, do you get the altitude “beep” alert as you get to within 1000’ and 200’ of your selected altitude or do you need a g3x to get that? I have the G5s and do not get tgat alert even if I select an altitude, but not sure if adding the autopilot changes that? Maybe I should ask @PT20J because he seems to know more about Garmin than Garmin does… Tried this today with my G3X, G5, GFC 500 setup. With all on I get the audible altitude alerts. With the PFD breaker pulled disabling the G3X, and the GFC 500 reverting to the G5, I get no altitude alerts. So, I believe that the altitude alerts come from the G3X and not the GFC. The G5 does not have audio outputs. Skip Quote
Ragsf15e Posted April 29, 2022 Report Posted April 29, 2022 31 minutes ago, PT20J said: Tried this today with my G3X, G5, GFC 500 setup. With all on I get the audible altitude alerts. With the PFD breaker pulled disabling the G3X, and the GFC 500 reverting to the G5, I get no altitude alerts. So, I believe that the altitude alerts come from the G3X and not the GFC. The G5 does not have audio outputs. Skip Agreed about the g5 not having audio output… does the gfc500 controller have audio output? Quote
PT20J Posted April 29, 2022 Report Posted April 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Ragsf15e said: Agreed about the g5 not having audio output… does the gfc500 controller have audio output? It does. The documentation is not clear about what it's used for. As far as I know, it is only the disconnect tone and the "Engaging autopilot" voice annunciation when ESP activates the autopilot in LVL mode. 1 Quote
PT20J Posted April 30, 2022 Report Posted April 30, 2022 On 4/28/2022 at 7:50 PM, Ragsf15e said: Agreed about the g5 not having audio output… does the gfc500 controller have audio output? 23 hours ago, PT20J said: It does. The documentation is not clear about what it's used for. As far as I know, it is only the disconnect tone and the "Engaging autopilot" voice annunciation when ESP activates the autopilot in LVL mode. I did some more research and in a G3X installation, the GFC audio comes from the G3X and the GMC 507 mode controller audio is left unconnected. I cannot find in any Garmin documentation a list of all the GFC 500 audible annunciations. Looking through the GFC 500 AFMS, I find autopilot disconnect tone, Airspeed! voice annunciation for ESP under/overspeed, and Engaging autopilot! voice annunciation for ESP autopilot LVL mode activation. I cannot find a mention of the 200'/1000' altitude tones. Skip Quote
Ragsf15e Posted April 30, 2022 Report Posted April 30, 2022 1 hour ago, PT20J said: I did some more research and in a G3X installation, the GFC audio comes from the G3X and the GMC 507 mode controller audio is left unconnected. I cannot find in any Garmin documentation a list of all the GFC 500 audible annunciations. Looking through the GFC 500 AFMS, I find autopilot disconnect tone, Airspeed! voice annunciation for ESP under/overspeed, and Engaging autopilot! voice annunciation for ESP autopilot LVL mode activation. I cannot find a mention of the 200'/1000' altitude tones. Skip Thanks for looking that up! It sounds like the reason you didn’t get it when you tried with the g3x off is because your audio comes from the g3x. If a setup just has g5s, audio comes from the gfc500 controller, which isn’t documented as having the altitude alerts, but might actually have it as indicated by the folks above. As you mentioned before, the documentation isn’t perfect… 1 Quote
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