With the ADS-B mandate creeping closer, were seeing more aircraft owners pony up for the minimum compliance of ADS-B Out when transponder work is needed. That satisfies the FAA, but does nothing for receiving weather and traffic information in the cockpit. We flight tested two units that get it done for rock-bottom pricing.
Great article on pulse oximeters in the September 2017 issue of Aviation Consumer. I have been using them for almost two decades and keep one in my turbocharged Bonanza and another in my glider. I routinely fly in the teens and I always insist that passengers use the pulse oximeter every half hour or so just as I do.
As we go to press in early August, Lycoming, field shops and owners were struggling to clarify a service bulletin that requires inspection and possible replacement of connecting rod bushings in hundreds of Lycoming engines. The mandatory service bulletin-SB632-was announced on July 17, just ahead of AirVenture. Two weeks later, shops tell us they are still fielding calls from worried owners trying to understand the scope of the bushing issue.
I read Larry Anglisanos First Word commentary about the shrinking ANR headset market in the August 2017 Aviation Consumer and was sur- prised that the $895 David Clark DC One-X, launched in March 2016, was not mentioned among the others in the premium headset category. In developing this headset, it was cer- tainly our intention to target the premium ANR headset market and the success of this product, as we’ll as the response from the pilot community, con rms that we hit the mark.
While all eyes were on TruTrak and Trio this past year (both were knee-deep in earning STCs for experimental autopilots), Garmin was quietly working on its own retrofit autopilot. Actually, the company already had two: the one thats integrated within the G3X experimental avionics suite, plus the impressive GFC700 thats built into the G1000 and G3000 integrated avionics.
Our monthly perusal of NTSB accident data reveals a smattering of accidents caused by hypoxia and many more that could be. We simply lack the data to know for sure, but now that you can buy a pulse oximeter for the price of a good lunch, there’s really no reason you cant monitor your own blood oxygen saturation on flights where its warranted.
Amongst the bumper crop of avionics at AirVenture was the surprise announcement from Dynon that its heretofore experimental-only Skyview HDX glass suite will be available for certified aircraft. Dynon is launching an entire product line called Dynon Certified to support the equipment.
Been in a new car showroom lately? Youll be hard pressed to find a lowly incandescent bulb in so much as a dome light. The same is true for new aircraft. Not many are sporting old-school filament lamps for landing, taxi and position lights. As a byproduct of an avalanche of LED manufacturing, weve found more applications for these lamps than ever for legacy aircraft.
In addition to oil lab analysis, weve always recommended cutting open the spin-on filter for physical analysis. If the engine is shedding certain metals, you could spot them in the filter, especially ones that have trap magnets.
On the verge of extinction nearly 10 years ago, the standalone navcomm radio barely soldiers on today. While there are few choices for new ones (there’s a much larger market for standalone comm radios), a navcomm installation could make sense for basic panels and for advanced ones to back up a GPS. Hang on to your wallet. If the panel hasnt seen a radio upgrade in a while, you could shell out more money than you anticipated to upgrade the antenna system and gut out old wiring.
As for whole-airplane parachutes, Ive given quite a bit of instruction in a Flight Design CT LSA and once found the sky ahead filled with seagulls and wondered if I would shortly need to pull the red handle, but Im ambivalent about it when Im flying the Diamond. For me, the cost of servicing the CAPS in the Cirrus was one of the negatives in buying a used one.
If youre shopping the light jet market and the near $5 million HA-420 HondaJet doesnt fit the budget, there are other choices that might be more palatable. To find out what they are, we talked with several business aircraft sales brokers and the model that came up in every conversation is the Cessna 525A CJ2+. While it may not be an exact apples to apples comparison with the HondaJet, its arguably the closest competing used jet in the class.
