Bought a Dynon D1

[FloridaMan]

I purchased and installed a Dynon D1 as my backup artificial horizon. I had an empty hole between the altimeter and the G530 so I used the clip to mount it. After flying it for about 10 hours, I can say that I'm very happy with it. It seems to read true and be more responsive than the factory indicator. I have been able to get it to invert if I aggressively roll it around in my hands, but it took a lot of work and I'd say that I greatly exceeded the roll rate of any aircraft by doing so.

A couple nice things about it are that it stays in my line of sight when I'm working with the 530. I also found it very nice to have a GPS heading that I could see in my normal scan when shooting an instrument approach. Hopefully sales will be good enough for Dynon to port their Skyview synthetic vision into the same form factor for next year.

[scottfromiowa]

I would like to see a photo of the D1 on your panel. Glad you like it. Only siren calling me at this time....aviation wise that is.

[FloridaMan]

[steeplev]

Did you consider using the Levil mini AHRS unit along with an iPad? I'm considering going with a backup and had been leaning toward the iPad option. Just curious. Very nice panel BTW.

[FloridaMan]

I develop software for the iPhone/iOS. I don't believe the platform to be stable enough for a true secondary instrument. If you were to dedicate the device as a backup, by the time you purchased an iPod touch and a Levil sensor, you would only be a little shy of the $1425 price tag of the D1.

I think that Levil makes an excellent product, but I went with the Dynon as an alternative to a standby vacuum system or electric attitude indicator. If Levil offered a full self-contained, unit, I would have considered it.

I hope that Dynon will release their "skyview" synthetic vision product in a panel-clip package.