GPSS installation complete.

[rbridges]

well, almost anyway. They had to fabricate a new center panel piece, but I should be able to test fly it tomorrow. It will be linked to my 430 and STEC AP. I can't wait to test it out on some approaches.

[DrBill]

I LOVE my GPSS. It is so cool to had have the a/c make the turns and even holds...

You WILL love it too.

BILL

[Marauder]

I LOVE my GPSS. It is so cool to had have the a/c make the turns and even holds...

You WILL love it too.

BILL

You are making me drool! I'm in week 7 of my avionics upgrade. Can't wait to see the GPSS in action.

[kris_adams]

Just curious who is doing your work?

[rbridges]

Just curious who is doing your work?

I was going to take it to the Griffin airport. They were the guys that did my pitotstatic check. I ended up going with someone at my airport. He came highly recommended by a lot of the local pilots.

[aaronk25]

You will love the gpss steer I put a gtn 650 in with gpss steer and rebuilt my century 3 autopilot and it adds a lot of utility. Enjoy!!!!

[Marauder]

You will love the gpss steer I put a gtn 650 in with gpss steer and rebuilt my century 3 autopilot and it adds a lot of utility. Enjoy!!!!

That's what I want to hear! I've flown with my STEC 60-2 over a decade and thought I had gone to heaven when it flew a coupled ILS (coming from a wing leveler). I can't wait to see this GPSS steering in action!

[rbridges]

just test flew the GPSS. awesome. it flew me to a nearby airport, and then we selected GPS approach at the home airport. Perfect turns and crabbed into the wind on final.

[DrBill]

I love that crabbing feature.. You have to remember that when ATC calls out traffic at 11 oclock.. If your're crabbing to the right it may be more like 930 or 10 !!

I see you're in Perry.. That's where my Sundowner went.. N9230S Red/White/Blue... I see from Flight Aware he's pretty active with it.

BILL

[rbridges]

I love that crabbing feature.. You have to remember that when ATC calls out traffic at 11 oclock.. If your're crabbing to the right it may be more like 930 or 10 !!

I see you're in Perry.. That's where my Sundowner went.. N9230S Red/White/Blue... I see from Flight Aware he's pretty active with it.

BILL

no kidding, I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

[fantom]

It's the autopilot with input from the GPS that flys a coupled approach and adjusts for winds, not a GPSS.

I don't get all the GPSS hoopla.

[Marauder]

It's the autopilot with input from the GPS that flys a coupled approach and adjusts for winds, not a GPSS.

I don't get all the GPSS hoopla.

I think the hoopla is the potential workload reduction. Anyone who flies Victor airways knows that you are transitioning from VOR to VOR. With GPSS, the entire flight plan can be automated, including the approach.

[fantom]

I think the hoopla is the potential workload reduction. Anyone who flies Victor airways knows that you are transitioning from VOR to VOR. With GPSS, the entire flight plan can be automated, including the approach.

That is what doesn't make sense to me.

The workload of adjusting heading at the end of a leg is minor and adds to situational awareness. Maybe GPSS eases procedure turns and hold paranoia for newer pilots not unlike the trend of having 3, 4, or more simultaneous GPS's working which really adds to workload and reduces eyes outside the cockpit.

I chalk it up to residual Cirrus "all a pilot needs to do is start the engine at the beginning of a flight and shut it down at the end" direction. Unless the GPSS comes with an Aspen or G500, better to invest the $ in a backup AI, or some serious recurrent fly the plane training, IMO.

Yes, YMMV ;-)

[Bennett]

It's just one more tool to use or not use. I use it (Icarus SAM) when I feel like it - generally on long flights with many waypoints (user as well as published) and I really enjoy the way it works.

[aaronk25]

Oh come on its kinda cool! To bad most of my ifr travels I get vectors to final so I really don't get to use it a lot.

[Marauder]

That is what doesn't make sense to me.

The workload of adjusting heading at the end of a leg is minor and adds to situational awareness. Maybe GPSS eases procedure turns and hold paranoia for newer pilots not unlike the trend of having 3, 4, or more simultaneous GPS's working which really adds to workload and reduces eyes outside the cockpit.

I chalk it up to residual Cirrus "all a pilot needs to do is start the engine at the beginning of a flight and shut it down at the end" direction. Unless the GPSS comes with an Aspen or G500, better to invest the $ in a backup AI, or some serious recurrent fly the plane training, IMO.

Yes, YMMV ;-)

I think you make good points but I look at it from another perspective. I have been flying IFR for 20 years. The first 5 years were with the Mooney wing leveler. I got really proficient at hand flying everything with nothing more than a couple of Nav radios and a portable GPS for situational awareness. At the end of a long flight, especially when I was in the clouds for long stretches, I would arrive at my destination tired, then faced with flying an approach. Throw in an occasional miss and flying to an alternate, it made for long days.

When I upgraded my wing leveler to a fully couple STEC, things changed. By letting George fly for a bit, I got better at checking for weather along my route and my workload went down dramatically, especially when briefing myself on an unfamiliar approach. I still hand flew a lot of approaches not trusting George completely. I slowly began letting George fly the approaches and I often found that he did a better job than I did.

Before I began my avionics upgrade I flew with owners who had different variations of what I was looking at (PFD/MFD) with GPSS. The decision to upgrade was easy after that (albeit the money side of it was never easy). Anything that helps stack the odds in my favor while doing single pilot IFR, is something I believe in. Now don't get me wrong on maintaining proficiency. I still hand fly a lot and will never completely trust electrons doing all of the work, all of the time.