HSI upgrade options

[joemoriss]

Hello fellow Mooniacs, I'm relatively new to the community having got my beautiful 1965 M20E this summer to do my instrument rating in and to fly fast. It came with an old but certified IFR panel and I was hoping to not spend a huge amount of money right now to upgrade anything as I haven't even gotten to first annual with it yet, which may reveal some expensive surprises. 

Anyway, I have an old Narco DGO-10 that has a weird issue where sometimes while turning the course needle, the mechanism will "grab" the compass card as well and rotate both together, which is very annoying. I doubt there is any avionics shop these days willing to fix it for cheap, so I figure I have a few options. 1. Buy a used and hopefully good DGO-10 on eBay for $300 and do a direct swap. 2. Dual G5s, quoted $11k all in. Eventually I'll buy an IFR certified GPS but that's not right now. Has anyone found an easy way to "unstick" a sticky HSI?

[EricJ]

Why did they think you need two G5s to replace an HSI?   I flew with a single G5 in the HSI spot for a few years.

[Utah20Gflyer]

I'm currently flying with just the GI 275 HSI although I have the AI on order and will get that installed as soon as the shop has time to fit me in.  

I would consider the GI 275 over the G5 as it has more functionality and much better backward compatibility.  Also two GI 275s replace the sixpack versus the G5 instruments only replace one instrument each.  

[Fly Boomer]

8 hours ago, joemoriss said:

Hello fellow Mooniacs, I'm relatively new to the community having got my beautiful 1965 M20E this summer to do my instrument rating in and to fly fast. It came with an old but certified IFR panel and I was hoping to not spend a huge amount of money right now to upgrade anything as I haven't even gotten to first annual with it yet, which may reveal some expensive surprises. 

Anyway, I have an old Narco DGO-10 that has a weird issue where sometimes while turning the course needle, the mechanism will "grab" the compass card as well and rotate both together, which is very annoying. I doubt there is any avionics shop these days willing to fix it for cheap, so I figure I have a few options. 1. Buy a used and hopefully good DGO-10 on eBay for $300 and do a direct swap. 2. Dual G5s, quoted $11k all in. Eventually I'll buy an IFR certified GPS but that's not right now. Has anyone found an easy way to "unstick" a sticky HSI?

Welcome!  You already have some good guidance here but, if you want more info, keep asking questions.

[Pinecone]

Agree with the others about just replacing the DG with a G5 or GI-275.

And an WAAS GPS is a very good thing.

[Greg Ellis]

To second @EricJ, I flew with a single G5 as an HSI for a while.  I upgraded to the second G5 attitude indicator when I had the GFC 500 autopilot installed but did just fine with the one G5 HSI.  As mentioned, you could also do the single GI-275 as well.  It will save you some money now and get you going then you can put in whatever you want when you upgrade in the future.  Listed on the Garmin website, the GI-275 is about $900 to $1500 more expensive than the G5 depending on whether you get a G5 with GPS Nav interface or not.

[joemoriss]

10 hours ago, Utah20Gflyer said:

I'm currently flying with just the GI 275 HSI although I have the AI on order and will get that installed as soon as the shop has time to fit me in.  

I would consider the GI 275 over the G5 as it has more functionality and much better backward compatibility.  Also two GI 275s replace the sixpack versus the G5 instruments only replace one instrument each.  

Oh I didn't know that, thanks! That will save me the trouble of a failed steam gauge in the future. 

[joemoriss]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

Agree with the others about just replacing the DG with a G5 or GI-275.

And an WAAS GPS is a very good thing.

Thank you for the guidance, I agree but a waas gps is not yet in the budget.

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, joemoriss said:

Thank you for the guidance, I agree but a waas gps is not yet in the budget.

Do you currently have an autopilot?  What kind?  If you do, that’s a consideration between g5/gi275 because the 275 can drive older ones more thoroughly.  If autopilot isn’t a consideration, they have similar capabilities as an hsi.  Gi-275 has the same fit as legacy instruments though, so there’s potential small savings on installation.

[Utah20Gflyer]

3 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Do you currently have an autopilot?  What kind?  If you do, that’s a consideration between g5/gi275 because the 275 can drive older ones more thoroughly.  If autopilot isn’t a consideration, they have similar capabilities as an hsi.  Gi-275 has the same fit as legacy instruments though, so there’s potential small savings on installation.

GI 275 can also interface with old radios. I have mine connected to a King KX175b, an ancient piece of avionics.  I believe the G5 requires a modern digital Nav radio like an SL30, 430, 255, 650 etc.