Utah20Gflyer Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 2 hours ago, Bobaran said: Very helpful to know I can switch the radios to check the MX170B. I know the KX170B nav does work with a CDI. Do these navs only act as radios which transfer the signal to the CDI? Sent from my SM-A526U using Tapatalk Yeah, your plane probably had two King KX 170 radios and then someone replaced one of them with the TKM MX 170. This was a popular upgrade because you slide the King out and slide the TKM in and you’re done. Kind of like upgrading a Garmin 430 with the Avidyne 440. With no install it’s very appealing. Only downside is the TKM radios have a rep for not being very durable. When I sent mine in to get repaired they said it was not repairable and offered to sell me a new one for 2500 or 3000. I ended up putting in the Garmin 255 because I wanted a modern radio that had an internal ILS receiver and was concerned about how long the new TKM would last. I thought that might be a KI 214 CDI but wasn’t sure. If that’s the case then it gets the localizer/VOR signal from the radio and the ILS receiver is inside the KI 214. I also had a KI 214 in my plane when I bought it and it was bad. I also understand from my research that they are not repairable. KI 214s like the TKMs seem to have lots of problems. If you swap the radios yourself be careful of the locking lug that you have to loosen to remove it. If you turn it the wrong way too hard you can actually damage the radio. If you need to replace the king radio I have a kx 175b I’d sell you for 250, I’ll throw the ILS receiver in for free. The 175 is the certified version of the 170, they are interchangeable. 1 Quote
MikeOH Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 9 hours ago, gwav8or said: Absolutely. I had Ed at kx-155.com do the work. I would not hesitate to send another radio to him. Very good work. Ed specializes in the kx-155 and has decades of experience. I sent my radio to him and a couple days later he sent me videos of the issues that he found with the radio. I approved the repairs and again a couple days later he sent me a video of my repaired/overhauled radio. The radio looks and performs like it's brand new. I believe the cost was right around $2k. I knew what the cost would be going into it and felt like it was 100% worth it. To get a Garmin radio purchased and installed, the price would have been at least 3x what I paid to have the kx-155 repaired. I feel like if I even get 2-3 years use out of it, it will still be worth it. @gwav8or Thanks! I wondered if Ed was where you sent yours; I've thought about using him and now I will The KX-155 is still my favorite COM radio; works when the Garmin 430's doesn't. Not sure if it has more power, or what (frankly, I think the RF engineers at King were better than any Garmin has ever employed, IMHO as a EE). Mine's just getting a little long-in-the tooth; NAV knobs are getting 'crunchy', a couple of display segments are going out, and I get an occasional 'buzzing' that may or may not be something in the rack connectors...time for a 'tune-up'! $2K sounds reasonable to me. Quote
hammdo Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 Ditto for Ed, he did the same for mine… knows his stuff… -Don 1 Quote
hammdo Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 My repair was estimated at $1350 after he inspected things. Can vary depending on what he finds - mine looked like new afterwards… -Don 1 Quote
gwav8or Posted July 1 Report Posted July 1 (edited) On 6/26/2024 at 5:03 PM, MikeOH said: @gwav8or Thanks! I wondered if Ed was where you sent yours; I've thought about using him and now I will The KX-155 is still my favorite COM radio; works when the Garmin 430's doesn't. Not sure if it has more power, or what (frankly, I think the RF engineers at King were better than any Garmin has ever employed, IMHO as a EE). Mine's just getting a little long-in-the tooth; NAV knobs are getting 'crunchy', a couple of display segments are going out, and I get an occasional 'buzzing' that may or may not be something in the rack connectors...time for a 'tune-up'! $2K sounds reasonable to me. @MikeOH IIRC the Garmin 430 COM transmits at around 8w. From what I was told (could be completely inaccurate) they had to reduce the transmit power to avoid interference. I believe the kx-155 transmits at 10w. Edited July 1 by gwav8or 1 Quote
Bobaran Posted July 2 Author Report Posted July 2 Does the other nav radio and CDI work correctly? The two radios you have are slide in replacements for each other which is helpful because if the other radio/CDI combo works you can swap the radios and determine if it’s the radio or CDI that is bad. You need an ILS receiver if you want ILS capability but you don’t need it for IFR. In particular if you get a WAAS GPS which will allow you to do LPV approaches. You used to need ILS capability to satisfy the precision approach requirement of the Instrument checkride but you can use LPV approaches now. You also need two non precision approaches which could be RNAV, VOR or Localizer. The GPS will provide DME functionality so you wouldn’t need the old INOP one. Personally I like having the option of ILS, but it’s not A must. Ultimately the decision on what goes into a IFR panel is determined by what you are willing to fly into instrument conditions with. Technically you could fly IFR in a plane with a single nav radio and CDI as long as you had your pitot static, Transponder and VOR check current. Few people would want to do that though. You might consider taking a couple flights with a CFII in your airplane and a few different rental planes and see what you think you need after comparing them. I switched radios yesterday and found that the MX170B NAV radio is not sending a signal to the CDI. The KX170B does properly light up the glideslope /CDI. So that is a good discovery. Thanks for your help since I didn't know the radios could be swapped. Sent from my SM-A526U using Tapatalk 1 Quote
Raymond J1 Posted July 18 Report Posted July 18 On 26/06/2024 at 15:34, Pinecone said: Oui, mais, à mon avis, c'est une fausse économie de dépenser de l'argent (et du temps) pour l'achat et l'installation d'une pièce d'avionique qui pourrait avoir une panne d'écran la semaine prochaine et ne convenir qu'à la poubelle. Il y a une ÉNORME différence entre utiliser quelque chose qui fonctionne dans l'avion et installer quelque chose qui est presque en fin de vie. Et qui n'est plus pris en charge par le fabricant. Et dont certaines pièces principales ne sont plus fabriquées. Là, vous parlez de l'avion tout entier ?... Quote
bigmo Posted July 19 Report Posted July 19 On 6/24/2024 at 5:43 PM, Bobaran said: As little as possible $. Sent from my SM-A526U using Tapatalk The Garmin GNC355 is really hard to beat for the money, but if $ are really tight, you might let local avionics shops know you're on the hunt for a used 430. If you find one in good condition, you can squeeze another 5 years out of it. But it's a gamble. The last time I was getting my pitot static test done, the shop had a few 320 WAAS units that still looked like new and they said they get $3K for them. Not cheap, but palatable. Quote
jamesm Posted July 19 Report Posted July 19 I have GNC255(Nav/Com), GNC355(GPS/COM), GNX375(GPS/XPDNR), GFC500 (Autopilot) and working on my instrument training. I finally figured out what works for me. I set the GNC355 to the Flight Plan page (Gives me DTK ETE Dist to the waypt in a tabular format) and then set my GNX375 as my GPS moving map which gives me a 2nd CDI (GPS Pink needle) and dist to destination airport and another 4 field that I can configured dist to destination, Xtke,2 other fields that escape me at the moment. I am curious to know if the GTN 650/750 or Avidyne 440/540/550 have a 4th column in flight plan page have an option for wpt Altitude for the flight plan page? Thanks, James '67C Quote
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