This Cessna 210 started as a typical problem panel. The autopilot is old, but functional, so the owner did what many do: blended the old with the new for a budget-savvy upgrade.

by Larry Anglisano

See if this sentiment rings a bell: you own a nice Archer or a mid-1980s 172 and your shop informs you that the modest avionics upgrade you have planned will cost $35,000, fully half the value of the airplane. Without blinking, you ask the shop: when can you start?

This sort of thing happens every day, although the pace of high-dollar upgrades for modest airframes has slowed some. When our budget avionics upgrade article appeared in the September, 2004 issue, we were surprised at the number of owners who hadn’t considered what near cutting edge avionics upgrades cost and what they mean to the resale value of an entry-level…