June 2011
Used Aircraft Guide: Socata TB-20 Trinidad
Subscribers Only When the so-called Caribbean line from Aerospatiale first appeared at the Paris Air Show in 1977, the U.S. general aviation industry was booming, building mainly tried-and-true, if staid, designs like the Cessna 172 and the Piper Cherokee line. Against that backdrop, the new TB-20 was a splash of cold water. It’s not that the airplane was terribly innovative—it wasn’t, sporting the same Lycoming engines we had all been flying behind for years. But it had something no Skyhawk ever did: a sleek and stylish European panache. Ultimately, this didn’t help much with sales, but the thing sure was—and is—good looking, what one aviation writer famously described as a Cherokee done over by Club Med. The Trinidad is the top of the line of a small family (five) of single-engine aircraft developed and built by Socata in Tarbes, France, from which the TB derives.
Dynon DX15: Compact, Capable
Subscribers Only It’s more or less a given that carrying a handheld VHF transceiver in the airplane is a good idea, for ground frequency monitoring, pre-start clearance getting and as a back-up comm. The market hardly lacks for choice and now it has one more to pick from. At Sun ‘n Fun, Dynon Avionics announced the DX15 VHF air band transceiver to compete with Icom, Vertex and Sporty’s at a price point of $156 that we think is competitive with other radios. The DX15 itself is a compact and credible product, in our view. It’s the smallest, lightest VHF portable we’ve tried, but that size comes with compromise. It doesn’t have some of the higher end features that the Sporty’s SP-400 or Icom products do, such as built-in VOR or localizer/CDI capability.
Replacement Plastic: Aftermarket Saves Big
Subscribers Only Like bargain wine and crotchety magazine editors, plastic gets touchy with age. Sunlight is the biggest enemy, but even tucked in a climatecontroller hanger, the compounds that give plastic its flexibility outgas, leaving the remaining material prone to cracking or shattering from a stress it would have sloughed off 10 years prior. Everything aviation costs roughly an order of magnitude higher than an analogous non-aviation part, and plastic interior pieces are no different. The small redeeming point with interior plastic is that parts for the majority of GA aircraft can still be had, and that you can save a bit by doing the installation yourself, if you’re so inclined.
Bluetooth Audio Panel PM8000BT Does It All
Subscribers Only PS Engineering is compulsive when it comes to perfecting and adding new features to otherwise well-engineered aviation audio products. The result is a product line that remains cutting edge and a step above the competition. The newest talent of the line is the PM8000BT. The six-seat-capable PM8000-series audio system earned top-dog status in our audio panel review (Aviation Consumer, August 2009), and that status has held up under long-term testing. We didn’t think it could get any better until company founder Marc Scheuer took it to the next level with the logical addition of Bluetooth connectivity—an industry first.
Eastman’s CH750: Super STOL LSA
Subscribers Only If the world of manufacturing offered such a thing, it would have to issue a special award to the light sport aircraft industry for sheer, blind tenacity in the face of hopeless market conditions. Dozens of companies persist in peddling so-so designs with no chance of achieving enough volume to survive, much less prosper. The smarter companies are figuring this out and are re-jiggering their business plans into hybrids whose sales rely not just on flightschools and owner operators, but other business lines entirely.
Going Vacuumless: Say G’bye to the Pump
Subscribers Only From the moment light singles started shipping with no pneumatic (vacuum or pressure) instruments, it’s been the dream of many an owner to yank out the maintenance-hungry vacuum pumps and replace the pneumatic instruments with electric ones. Doing away with pneumatics makes even more sense after a glass panel upgrade where the only item left is usually a vacuum-driven attitude indicator doing duty as a backup. A dry-vane vacuum pump with over 500 hours in service is of questionable reliability. Many pneumatic instruments last over 1000 hours, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. There are also the filters to check and replace.
Upgrading to a GTN: What Makes Sense?
Subscribers Only As the fanfare fades, we still think Garmin hit a homerun with the GTN 750 and 650 navigators. As we reported in the March issue of Aviation Consumer, these state-of-the-art navigators offer huge amounts of capability, if at a higher cost than their GNS-series predecessors. But as far as we can determine, these units aren’t exactly flying off the shelves. A thriving economy or a factory trade-up program would probably change that picture, but neither is true today. Here’s a look at some hurdles and tough economics that tag along with Garmin’s new star of the avionics world and how you might justify buying in … or not.
Prop Replacements: Growing Competition
Subscribers Only Coded into the DNA of every aircraft owner is a grim acceptance that engine overhauls are a fact of life. But prop overhauls and replacements tend to be last-minute, kicking-and-screaming add-ons and with costs up and flight hours down, there are probably more substandard—if not dangerous—props in the field than ever. At least a couple of prop shops we’ve talked to report that the overhaul business is down, suggesting owners are stretching prop TBOs more than they used to. That’s bad. But the good news is that the competition in the new prop market is hotter than ever and getting even hotter, thanks to MT-Propeller’s aggressive push into both the OEM and STC replacement markets. This has forced the established manufacturers, Hartzell and McCauley, to respond in kind, although those two companies don’t agree on where the market will move in terms of materials choices.
Letters: June 2011
Subscribers Only Since Shell’s W100 Plus is probably the most logical alternative to the additives that you and Mike Busch praise from the same script in the additives review in your April issue, it would have been interesting to hear your observations, research and/or opinions as to its relative value. Busch says nearly equal but don’t use both, without clear definition of why. I have been running W100 Plus in an 1100-hour engine with recent new cylinders. Not flying it often enough. I purchased Camguard since you both think it is great. Not cheap.
First Word: June 2011
Subscribers Only One of our jobs at Aviation Consumer—really the most important one—is to review products and make recommendations for our readers. In a nutshell, that’s why we exist. The process to arrive at these recommendations is straightforward, if not always simple. We gather facts, examine and try the products, then make our recommendations based on disclosed fact.