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For fair-weather flying and practicing approaches, drop-in uAvionix instruments and a Garmin GPS add just enough utility without breaking the budget.

WEIGHING IN ON UNLEADED AVGAS After reading your commentary on unleaded avgas in the April 2023 Aviation Consumer, I can only say, as we did in the sixties, “right on!”  It’s hard to even tell who’s on our side in this fiasco. I recently read Mark Baker’s editorial in AOPA’s magazine to the effect that […]

GARMIN GNS NAVIGATORS Chopping the master switch and watching the Garmin GNS 430W power down after a recent trip through the clag and an RNAV approach, I couldn’t help but think of the good utility these units offer—even though the first GNS was introduced over 25 years ago. Yes, the display technology shows its age […]

The good thing about old airplanes is also the bad thing about old airplanes. Some airframes seem immortal, but the companies that built the instruments for them are anything but. Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics sees market potential in that conundrum and its solution—like everything else—is driven by rapid advances in display and processing technology. As […]

The PC-12 turboprop single turned out to be more versatile than perhaps even Pilatus envisioned. Thats because it works just as we’ll hauling dirt bikes (were talking motorcycles, by the way) as it does corporate executives and charter passengers, thanks to a posh rear cabin thats configurable in several seating arrangements. Formed in 1939, Pilatus is hardly a newcomer to the aircraft market and the PC-12 has been to market since 1995. That means there is a healthy selection of used PC-12s to choose from.

The Sporty’s Learn To Fly course covers Private, Recreational and Sport Pilot certificates. It uses a modular format, with each of the six main sections focusing on a different phase of training. The main sections are further divided into short video lessons ranging from one to 30 minutes. Most lessons have an associated review quiz that can be retaken as desired. Students can click on the “Explanation” link in the quizzes to jump directly to the part of the video that addresses each question.

As we reported in the June 2019 Aviation Consumer, Garmin also earned an STC for installation of the G3X Touch integrated avionics suite in over 500 aircraft models, is nearly completed with the G5000 integrated avionics suite for Cessna Citation XL/XLS jets (the system was recently certified for Beechjet models), plus Garmin designed and earned a TSO and STC for a new series of standalone GPS navigators. This is the GPS175 and the GNX375-a navigator with built-in mandate-compliant ADS-B Out.

HUDs are simple in concept, but not so simple to engineer and install. They’re basically an optical projector that displays an informationally compressed flight data display on a glass screen called a combiner. The idea is that the pilot can look through the display and see critical data such as attitude and airspeed while avoiding the distraction of looking down at the panel. The display has to be engineered in such a way that the data appears almost at infinity, so as to be an aid, not a distraction.

The Dynon Certified retrofit glass system started life in the experimental market as the HDX, but now has an STC for installation in Cessna Skyhawks and soon, some models of the Beech Bonanza. The company has plenty of other airframes on its STC to-do list. But while the Skyhawk STC has been in place for a while, not many have been installed, likely because there are just two shops authorized by Dynon to do it: Thrust Flight in Texas and Merrill Field Instruments in Alaska.

For almost two years the market has been dazzled as Montana-based uAvionix introduced smartly designed ADS-B mandate solutions that seriously curtail the installation effort and cost. As weve been reporting, the first product aimed at the masses is the skyBeacon, a wingtip LED position light with internal WAAS GPS, L-band antenna, an ADS-B transmitter and wireless Bluetooth. With a two-wire interface (power and ground) and a mounting footprint thats the same as many existing incandescent position light housings, the $1849 bolt-on skyBeacon is about as simple as ADS-B Out installs get. uAvionix has been selling the skyBeacon to the experimental market while it soldiered through the TSO certification process, which was awarded as we go to press.

You know, Ive been trying to keep my mind open to Jet-A-burning diesels finding their way in the U.S. GA market, but so far its been easy to shrug off the notion that the typical engine buyer has a real need for one. Most recently Textron canceled production of its diesel-powered Turbo Skyhawk JT-A, not a year since earning both FAA and EASA certification. The 155-HP Continental CD-155 turbodiesel powerplant is still offered to buyers directly through Continental as an STCd installation for existing Skyhawks, but whether Textron had buyers or not for the JT-A Skyhawk, its still a tone-setting setback. Officially, Textron said the decision will help streamline its production process. Its not tough to read between the lines.

As its been since it started life in 1963 as the model 205 (a fixed-gear version of the wing-strutted 210), the current HD T206H turbo Stationair is neither fast nor slow and its no looker on the airport lunch ramp. But what it lacks in sexy styling it more than makes up with in utility-lots of it. It works we’ll on floats and on oversized tires and it easily carries a cargo pod on its belly. We know of more than one Stationair owner who loads motorcycles in the cabin.