Aviation Consumer

November 2005

Piper Archer

Subscribers Only The PA-28-180 series is one of the most enduring GA designs. It’s a bit faster than a Skyhawk and carries more load, making it an ideal budget family airplane.

Pulse Oximeter Flyoff: Check Mate Prevails

Subscribers Only Nonin’s FlightStat is easier to use and read, but it costs $100 more and we were put off by the company’s high repair costs.

The Camshaft Coin Flip

Subscribers Only When specing an overhaul, you’ll need to do something with the cam. But here’s why a new one isn’t always the best choice.

WSI vs. Garmin: Customers in the Middle

Subscribers Only If you bought a WSI weatherlink box for your MX20, don’t count on advanced weather features. Both Garmin and WSI say what you see now is what you get.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms: CO Experts is a Top Value

Subscribers Only And so is the Pocket CO from TTI. SafeTest 90 portable is the best of the best, if budget is no factor. We like the panel-mount Guardians but they lack low-level sensing.

Are You Wasting Avgas?

Subscribers Only Probably. But at $5 a gallon, you might want to consider an even dozen ways to reduce fuel-related costs of flying.

Airborne Traffic Alerting: TIS Still the One to Beat

Subscribers Only While the FAA won’t expand it, Mode-S traffic alerting from Garmin and Bendix/King is the top value in panel-mount gear. Skywatch is the high-budget choice.

ADS-B: No Thanks I am the skinflint Bonanza owner referred to in “ADS-B Buy or Wait?,” in the August issue of Aviation Consumer and what I found out is that there’s no free lunch in avionics. After much teeth gnashing, I purchased an MX20/GNS480/GTX330/GDL69 set-up from Garmin. After looking at the GDL90, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe the FAA will follow though with a free-lunch program for GA. This was reinforced by a discussion I had with an FAA official at Oshkosh over breakfast at the hotel where we were staying. He spoke in flowery terms of ADS-B as the future of GA for $300 per airplane. He evidently hasn’t visited his local avionics dealer lately. Whe...

First Word: 11/05

Over-the-Top Fuel Prices If anything good for general aviation emerges from the massive twin disaster of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it may be high gas prices. You read that right. Sustained gas prices of over $3 a gallon may finally shock U.S. drivers and the auto industry into doing that which should have been done a decade ago: Insisting upon and forcing higher fleet mileage standards for cars and trucks. As gas prices recede from the royal gouging the oil companies gave us in early September, consider $3 gas a relatively harmless shot across the bow. The U.S. leads the world in transportation fuel inefficiency and since the government has shown no interest in a cogent...