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Letters 05/99

GPS Costs
I have a question about GPSs that I was hoping the staff at Aviation Consumer could help with. Ive been looking at handhelds and wondering why the aviation models are so much more expensive than the similar sports models. The Garmin GPS III, for instance, sells at the sporting goods stores for around $300, while the GPS III Pilot is in the $650 to $700 range.

In reading through the documentation, the only difference Ive seen is that the aviation models accept Jeppesen databases and allow for database updates, while the geographic databases in the sports models are not changeable.

Which brings me to my second question. Do you have any experience with add-on s…

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In Living Color

Were not sure if GPS moving maps in living color top every pilots wish list. But wanted or not, here they come. In the panel-mount world, color maps are somewhat old hat, with impressive models from ARNAV, Avidyne, Argus and, recently, Garmin.

At $7000 to start, however, none of those products are exactly the sort of must-have or impulse purchases that drove the handheld market into a pitched frenzy four years ago. Inevitably, color displays had to find their way into portable maps and the first serious entry comes from AlliedSignal in the form of the Brit-designed Skyforce Skymap and Tracker.

Skyforce has been around for a while, marketing mono and color moving map GPS units in…

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Letters: February 1999

Six Place Step-Up
I continue to be amazed by all I have read concerning the difficulty of flying T-tailed Pipers, particularly the Turbo Lance.

I bought a 1979 Turbo Lance the day after my private checkride with fewer than 60 hours in 172s. By the third landing, I was proficient. The statement that on the T-tailed aircraft: Nothing happens until 80 knots when, whoop, the stabilator comes alive is patently false. Anyone who cannot fly these airplanes after a little practice is simply sloppy.

Mike Rapoport
via e-mail


Not all T-tail owners agree with that point of view. We don’t either, having experienced the T-tail Lances occasionally odd runway…

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Upholstery Redos

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Along with black holes and where missing socks go, one of the great mysteries of the universe is how to pick the right shop to do a mega-dollar upgrade on old Dobbin.

Engine overhauls cause the most agita, followed by ferreting out a paint shop and, last, finding someone to redo the interior.

In some ways, the interior choice is less anxiety laden. For one thing, unlike engines, upholstery redos arent always all or nothing. You can do just the seats and carpets, or the carpets and the sidewalls or some other spruce-up short of the full Monty.

You can do the entire job yourself or farm it out to a competent local upholstery shop, using materials from a kit or off-the…

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Letters: January 2001

Traffic Avoidance Feedback
What a coincidence. On the very day I decided to spring for a collision avoidance unit, I came home to find the latest article on the subject in the November issue of Aviation Consumer.

However, the unit I had just ordered was not mentioned: The TPAS-RX-100 from Sure Check Avionics. It would be interesting to see what you think of this unit considering it has a digital distance readout and is approximately half the cost of the Monroy ATD-200.

Daniel L. Roper
Fort Walton Beach, Florida


Youre right. At the time we conducted the tests, TPAS wasnt available. Were told by the company that one will be shipped to us for editorial…

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Bendix/Kings KLN 94

[IMGCAP(1)]Just as buyers awaiting new-generation navigators from Honeywell Bendix/King had all but given up the company for dead, the long-awaited KLN94 color GPS has finally arrived.

Cleverly, Bendix/King has designed this as a pin-for-pin, slide-it-in replacement for the top-selling KLN89B, a sweet deal for owners who waited patiently rather than opting for Brand Bs color mapcomm. (Okay, we’ll say it; many of em dumped the 89B for Garmins GNS430.)

Was it worth the wait? Generally, we would say yes. Although its not necessarily an over-the-fence homer, we think the KLN94 is a credible product, with definite improvements over the 89B and some operating features that match the Gar…

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Letters: June 2000

Garmin Woes
All of the press rants and raves about the Garmin 430 and now the 530 units. I traded in my KLN 89B, Argus 5000 CE-equipped Mooney MSE for a new Mooney Bravo with dual Garmin 430s in December.

There’s no question that the 430s software architecture is light-years ahead of the competition when it comes to approaches. However, I believe your readers should hear a few negative comments about Garmin and the 430s.

On the return flight from the Kerrville Mooney factory to my dealer, East Coast Aviation near Boston, I noticed that the Shadin fuel computer fuel to destination readout was way off. East Coast Aviation said that the problem was with the Garmin…

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Light-Light Twins Compared

[IMGCAP(1)]After one too many nights in the clag over the mountains or the Great Lakes in a single, youve finally decided its time for a twin.

Yes, operating costs will be more than twice that of a single of comparable speed and your new twin may not even haul the same load as that single.

However, you want a fighting chance when an engine quits at night, over water, with instrument weather below you. Sounds reasonable to us. But which twin to buy?

Three assumptions here: A $900,000 new Baron isn’t in your future; youre shopping used. Second, youre not after a cabin class cruiser to start but a light-light twin having fewer than 200 horsepower per side. Well treat l…

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Rockin Rollers

[IMGCAP(1)]When it comes to general aviation, I complain about products and services as much as the next guy. My pet peeve is the slow pace at which cutting-edge engine technology trickles into aircraft powerplants.

True, electronic ignition is making inroads but you still cant buy one and the valve train in your typical Lycoming-arguably the most wear-sensitive components of the engine-is little better than what youd find in the 1927 Massey Ferguson tractor your granddad left rusting behind the barn. Current aircraft engines are typically equipped with crude rocker arms with simple shelf or brass bearing insert material and a hardened rocker arm tip which directly contacts the val…

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Letters: August 2000

Light-Light Twins
In your article about light-light twins in the June issue, your chart didnt contain the most important element: Single-engine climb rate.

You mentioned Pipers book value of 240 FPM for the Piper Apache.Was that for the Apache 150 ?I know they also built the Piper Apache 160 and a 235 that became the Aztec. What about the other twins, Travel Air, Dutchess, Comanche and Cougar?

Because all the engines of the light twins have 2000-hour TBOs, a single-engine rate-of-climb comparison would be more meaningful to your readers.

Egon Grothe
Brookfield, Wisconsin


Youre right, we should have provided more information on single-engine…

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Apollos MX20

[IMGCAP(1)]The big aviation tradeshows have much in common with their automotive counterparts. Which is to say manufacturers often launch trial balloons-concept cars in the auto biz-that sink like stones.

When UPSAT/Apollo (then IIMorrow) unveiled its MX20 big screen multi-function display a couple of years ago, it had a concept-car whiff to it. Nice, we thought, but will it ever happen?

Indeed it has and despite blistering competition from Garmin and other manufacturers, UPSAT/Apollo has persevered and produced what we think is the best all-around choice thus far in a multi-function display market that hardly lacks for choice.

That said, were not ready to anoint the MX20 with t…

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Cockpit CO Detectors

[IMGCAP(1)]Remember the great radon gas scare of the 1980s? No one had ever heard of the stuff and seemingly, overnight, you could buy a radon gas testing kit at the corner 7-11, along with a six-pack and a gallon of milk. Just as quickly, the panic over radon faded.

Worries about carbon monoxide (CO) have followed a similar path. Not to suggest that the household CO threat should be understated. Carbon monoxide poisoning is said to be the leading cause of accidental poisoning in the U.S., with some 1500 deaths annually. Its deadly serious.

The inevitable aviation connection is that aircraft heaters rely on scavenged exhaust heat and thus CO can get into the cockpit. As noted in the…

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