Letters: 05/08

I found your article on affordable panel upgrades a realistic and refreshing alternative to the “We Fly The Latest Glass!” articles appearing monthly in the aviation glossies. For unfortunate souls whose budget for goodies has been depleted by the price of avgas, your functional and affordable GPS options for IFR operations make a lot of sense.

I fly a light twin with a variant on your Option 1: a panel mount IFR-certified GPS (Apollo GX 50) complemented by a panel-mounted Flight Cheetah 210-a bigger screen cousin of the Garmin 496. With this arrangement, I handle frequent hard IFR with confidence, weather smarts and situational awareness that I couldnt even imagine while earning my instrument rating an avionics generation ago in an aircraft with nothing more than two VORs and an ADF.

My only comment concerns your cost comparisons for IFR-certified GPS options, which assume that the aircraft owner is starting from scratch. I suspect a common situation involves the aircraft owner or prospective purchaser of an aircraft that already has a first or second generation IFR-certified GPS installed. The question is, do I add a Garmin 496 or equivalent and/or upgrade to a 430W/530W unit? In this case, the cost numbers diverge considerably, favoring the portable GPS addition.

So what do I give up not having a Garmin 430W in my aircraft? As best I can tell, three things that collectively didnt add up to the $10,000 step-up premium over my Option 1 alternative:

WAAS approach capability, the procedures button and the convenience of roll steering, vertical guidance and single-route entry. Like most things in life, convenience comes at a price and for me, the price of a new 430W can buy a lot of avgas, even at todays prices.

Len Sherman
Via e-mail

Your article on affordable panel upgrades said the KLN 90 or 94 cant talk to the Garmin 396 or 496 handhelds. After some lengthy internet searching, reading forums and blogs, there might be a way to have the Garmin handhelds display routes from the KLN 90/94. Not being an avionics expert, it was hard for me to decipher the data. Are you absolutely sure the Garmin and KLNs cant talk to each other?

Jim Duke
via e-mail

Garmins aviation units output via RS232 with a label specific to the software in their portables. Were told that while you might get some action out of Garmin portables using Bendix/Kings RS232, you’ll also likely get a hiccup and flightplan data that lags or freezes, given the mismatch in serial addressing. If you want to risk the cost and effort of accessing and modifying it, it might work. Let us know if it does.

Zulu Correction

Thank you for an excellent review of our Zulu headset product in your April magazine. The focus group tests plus your own analysis show us performing at or better than Brand “X” in most every area…a lofty but honest result that thousands have affirmed in the first six months of availability.

With all your excellent coverage, there was one mistake that Id like to point out. The Zulu product warranty is five years, not one. You have, over the years, highlighted our exceptional service and no-cost repair policy that extends we’ll past any stated warranty so maybe the actual length is not significant.

Id also like to add that several of the little issues you pointed out in your review are already improved in our production models. Nearly 2000 units past the model you tested, we have adjusted the threshold levels of both the noise gating and music muting to make operations more seamless with all audio systems.

We improved the comm quality (and volume levels) in passive mode. New Zulus are