Busy weekend

pat · Post by **pat** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 6:21 pm

Working on planes but not flying them. Consulted a friend on his 46 piper clipper restoration, bled the brakes on another friends C-182 and put several hours into the finish wiring of the RV. Good thing I get as much satisfaction working on planes as I do flying them

Pat

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:54 am

Pat, Sounds like you had a great weekend too!

I didn't get any work done on my plane but I did fly the -6 down to see Vlad in New Jersey! Three planes in all.

Maybe Vlad will post some pictures up for us to see.

3.4 hours total time yesterday for me. It was a fun day!

CJ

What did everyone else do? It has been too quiet here lately. Let us liven it up a bit, huh?

Post by **bullojm1** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:14 am

CJ-

You made the trek all the way to Jersey and didn't let me know?

I didn't realized I insulted your manhood as much as I did at The Otter when I devoured that prime rib which was twice as big as the one you and Michelle shared!

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:12 pm

I flew my new G3X panel!

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:18 pm

bullojm1 wrote:CJ-

You made the trek all the way to Jersey and didn't let me know? I didn't realized I insulted your manhood as much as I did at The Otter when I devoured that prime rib which was twice as big as the one you and Michelle shared!

HA! It was the same size! Besides... I had eaten that portion the last TWO TIMES I had been there. My ride-along nurse denied me to do it again! hahaha

Yah, well... I didn't know that you were up for the trip! I didn't know that you were still flying that hangar queen of yours!

We plan on making it a regular trip so I will clue you in next time!

CJ

Bri, Gotta love the G3X huh!?! Hows it werkin'!?!

pat · Post by **pat** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:28 pm

Hey Brantel while the carnivores discuss eating raw meat at the Otter can you tell us why you picked the G3X over AFS, GRT et al.

Pat

painless · Post by **painless** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:52 pm

Surfaced from my sawdust in the basement and visited 3 of my 4 offspring that live in Madison.

Just about ready to start framing up my first of four wings for the Hatz. This has been WAY too much fun so far......

Prime rib?? Did somebody mention......prime rib???

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:30 pm

captain_john wrote:
Bri, Gotta love the G3X huh!?! Hows it werkin'!?!

So far so good...Only a short flight so far. It was nice to see the end of the hard work and it all come together.

So far it is an amazing system but all of the latest models are amazing!

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:12 pm

pat wrote:Hey Brantel while the carnivores discuss eating raw meat at the Otter can you tell us why you picked the G3X over AFS, GRT et al.

Pat

Oh it is not raw, only mostly raw...I have to honestly say however that is the best Prime Rib I have ever had! I am ready for mine again this year right now!

Dynon is still catching up to the game. The Skyview is an amazing platform hardware wise and eventually it will have most of the features of the other guys. It is bright, clear, high res and has an awesome look and feel to it. It has the highest terrain resolution out there. However, I can't stand the fact that they left no upgrade path for the guys with the legacy stuff. The only thing that works with both systems is the AP servos and even for them, you need to add more wires to get them to work. Then you have the fact that they put the ADAHRS on the DSAB bus. My experience is that the DSAB bus is not reliable enough in an aircraft environment to be used this way. Now I know they have dual buses and all but the types of things that can take down the DSAB bus are the types of things that most likely will kill both of them at the same time. They also went and put the AHRS in the same box as the Magnetometer. This means that more hoses must be ran thru the airplane and more weight added to the tail. They also will not integrate with third party AP's and still have not added any sort of vertical coupling modes to their built in AP. There are some personal reasons I parted ways with them as well but I will keep that to myself.

GRT was never in the running for me because at the time I was making my decision, they had not released their latest and greatest yet. Even still I am not sure I like the way they are overlaying stuff on their main display at this time. GRT makes some awesome stuff but their graphics have always looked like an 80's arcade game. It looks like they are improving that however. It is time for GRT to retire the EIS box and replace it with something more modern. To be honest at the time I thought GRT was in trouble since one of the large avionics dealers made mention that they did not even send them any demo gear for Airventure 2012. Looking at the situation now however it seems that they were doing fine. If I had known what I know now and the HXr had been shipping, I might have took a long hard look at GRT.

MGL is too far outside the box for me. Rainier is an awsome person and must be a real Einstein but their stuff is just different. It apparently works fine and lots of people like it. I just don't know enough about their stuff...

AFS is the exotic sports car of the experimental avionics. There are a few things that they don't do yet as it relates to the fine integration with the GNS/GTN series GPS's but it won't take Rob and his team long to figure it out. They are some smart dudes! His gear is amazing and he knows what the end user wants and needs because he gets out there and flys the software himself. AFS was a close second to my choice. I was already invested somewhat with Garmin and I sort of like the three smaller portrait type screens a little better than two big screens and that is what sealed the deal for me. I was . close to going with AFS however.

Garmin has been nothing but a pleasure to work with. Ever since Garmin created the Sport Aviation/Experimental team within, they have been like a totally different company. Steve and Matt are top notch guys and they know what the homebuilder wants and needs and they have the know how and resources to make it happen. The G3X system along with the GDL39, GTX23ES and the GTN650 is simply amazing as a complete system. Who knows better how to integrate to a GTN box other than Garmin themselves? They are also blazing the way with this ADS-B out stuff and have been doing some really neat stuff with that. Garmin listened to their customers and radically lowered their prices once they figured out they were in this market to stay. If you really get an accurate quote and you go apples to apples, they are just as competitive as any of the other guys. They have even created new database packages to lower the cost of ownership long term. Steve answers questions at all hours on the forums and will follow up to make sure you are happy. Matt is the guy writing the code so if you don't like something, you can talk directly to him about it. The G3X hardware is a very nice piece of engineering and is basically the G300 system that was made just for the Cessna Skycatcher. The manuals are all written to the certified level and are as complete and as detailed as they get. The whole system just works and works well.

The bottom line is that all of these guys make amazing systems and I doubt anyone can go wrong with any of their latest offerings. Dynon still is lagging behind a little bit.

Here is a list of things that I really wanted my new panel to have:

Full dual band ADS-B IN and a 1090ES enabled mode S transponder
Full integration with the GNS/GTN series WAAS GPS's including drawing all the flightplan, procedure turn and holding info on the map from the GPS.
Synthetic vision
Geo referenced approach plates
IFR charts
Airways
Tight integration with a third party autopilot with full coupled approach capability both LPV and VOR/LOC/GS
Velocity Vector/Flight Path Indicator
Tight integration with the VP-X Pro
EMS system that uses the new solid state pressure sensors
A manufacturer that fixes bugs quickly, takes advice and recommendations from their customers, and post manual updates at the same time they post updates
A manufacturer that is in it for the long haul and that has the resources to stay around for a long time

I am sure that there is more but that is what I can come up with off the top of my head...

pat · Post by **pat** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:13 pm

Brian, thanks for the write up. I went with AFS for all the reasons you noted.

Has anyone looked at the highlander from justaircraft.com? I see Jeff is building a Hatz so it made me think "what's next". I'm going to need the low and slow plane.

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 2:32 pm

My youngest came home with his girlfriend for the weekend. We replace all the brake pads on my tundra, then had time to run out to the airport. It was his first ride in an RV.

Post by **bullojm1** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:10 pm

captain_john wrote: I didn't know that you were still flying that hangar queen of yours!

Ha! Hangar Queen. I would argue against that statement but it's a fairly accurate statement for this winters flying. Spike can confirm one of my few winter trips. I ran into him at a lunch flyout to Pottstown, PA in mid-Janurary. He saw my one landing that I was legally able to log 3 landings for!

painless · Post by **painless** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:14 pm

Pat:

Friend of mine went for a demo ride at the Highlander facility. He was impressed. Apparently it takes off and lands on a dime. When he went there, he was wondering where their strip was. He said it was like they took off from their parking lot!

pat · Post by **pat** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:28 pm

Jeff, I checked out your Hatz build site, looks like your learning a whole new skill set. Having been involved with biplane builds I know the passion. Keep putting in the time! Two words of advice: don't add up the receipts , biplanes require a-lot of an hardware and don't rush the build, they are as much art as plane! When it's time I will glady help cover or stitch. Build on my friend!

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 8:01 pm

bullojm1 wrote:
captain_john wrote: I didn't know that you were still flying that hangar queen of yours!
Ha! Hangar Queen. I would argue against that statement but it's a fairly accurate statement for this winters flying. Spike can confirm one of my few winter trips. I ran into him at a lunch flyout to Pottstown, PA in mid-Janurary. He saw my one landing that I was legally able to log 3 landings for!

Yah! I have never skipped on landing... EVER!

CJ

painless · Post by **painless** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 8:50 pm

Yeah, Pat.... A few skills not used in the RV build for sure!

Definitely taking my time with it. Sure has been a blast so far. I'll take you up on that rib stitching!