- Joined
- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 3,301
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Thanks to Orest, a couple years ago I put money down on an Avidyne IFD440. Seemed like a good deal--swap out an end-of-life GNS430W for a brand-new unit with essentially zero installation cost. After selling the 430W, the whole upgrade would have only been a couple AMUs or so.
But the longer it took Avidyne to certify, the longer I had to think about things, and the farther that initial expenditure receded into the distance. I eventually decided to upgrade to the larger-screen IFD540...only an AMU or two more, plus the panel mods required to make it fit.
But that decision was made over a year ago, so I still had plenty of time to think about things, and during that time, I saw other planes with shiny new panels (like Orest's--thanks a lot again!!
), and I started talking to some of the shops in the area...
So over the weekend, I dropped off my plane to a shop that's going to install a shiny new aluminum panel with a bunch of new stuff in it. In addition to the horse's shoe that started me down the path to losing this war (IFD540), I'll also be replacing the audio panel with an AMX240 and stepping up to a (soon-to-be-)2010-compliant ADSB-out AXP340 transponder (both also Avidyne units). The cherry on top will be a DAC GDC31 GPSS roll-steering driver for the autopilot.
With the new audio panel, I'll be getting stereo-wired headset jacks, and my beautiful homemade audio jack box (which has worked out very well!) in the rear seat area may get replaced with something nicer...we'll see.
It doesn't really make economic sense for me to spend this kind of money on this airframe, a '73 -180...but then, there's nothing about this hobby that makes any sort of economic sense. I've decided that this is the plane for me for the long term, and this is what I want, so there you go.
So, I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy and fend off the next recession--you're welcome. (And don't forget to thank Orest, too!)
The shop is a 3-hr round-trip drive from my house, so I won't be visiting every day, but the shop has promised to take progress photos and I will be visiting at least once or twice during the job to see how things are going, so I'll try to post some progress reports along the way.
But the longer it took Avidyne to certify, the longer I had to think about things, and the farther that initial expenditure receded into the distance. I eventually decided to upgrade to the larger-screen IFD540...only an AMU or two more, plus the panel mods required to make it fit.
But that decision was made over a year ago, so I still had plenty of time to think about things, and during that time, I saw other planes with shiny new panels (like Orest's--thanks a lot again!!
), and I started talking to some of the shops in the area...So over the weekend, I dropped off my plane to a shop that's going to install a shiny new aluminum panel with a bunch of new stuff in it. In addition to the horse's shoe that started me down the path to losing this war (IFD540), I'll also be replacing the audio panel with an AMX240 and stepping up to a (soon-to-be-)2010-compliant ADSB-out AXP340 transponder (both also Avidyne units). The cherry on top will be a DAC GDC31 GPSS roll-steering driver for the autopilot.
With the new audio panel, I'll be getting stereo-wired headset jacks, and my beautiful homemade audio jack box (which has worked out very well!) in the rear seat area may get replaced with something nicer...we'll see.
It doesn't really make economic sense for me to spend this kind of money on this airframe, a '73 -180...but then, there's nothing about this hobby that makes any sort of economic sense. I've decided that this is the plane for me for the long term, and this is what I want, so there you go.
So, I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy and fend off the next recession--you're welcome. (And don't forget to thank Orest, too!)
The shop is a 3-hr round-trip drive from my house, so I won't be visiting every day, but the shop has promised to take progress photos and I will be visiting at least once or twice during the job to see how things are going, so I'll try to post some progress reports along the way.
