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Aspen Avionics "Glass" Replacement Instruments
Ed Maybury
(7/7/08)
We just got N134Y back to the Jax Navy
flying club from Curtis Boulware and his crew at Baker aviation. For
those of you contemplating upgrading your old electric instruments,
as we were faced with recently, you may want to take a hard look at
a new product from
Aspen
Avionics. It allows you to replace two (or 4 or 6 ) of your
legacy instruments with a contemporary glass replacement for little
more than it costs to put in quality electric gyros. If you are
contemplating an HSI or GPSS you definitely want to look as this
unit as it is extremely cost effective in replacing those
instruments. You can buy the basic AI/DG unit and upgrade to the
AI/HSI unit when you are ready with no penalty for doing the upgrade
piecemeal. It "plays" very well with legacy instruments like the
KX155 that was stock when the B's were upgraded in the 70's as well
as new digital stuff like the 430. We left the IP as stock as
possible as we squeezed the new instruments in.
One of the best things about this system
is that it eliminates the mechanical gyros with an air data computer
using magnetic flux meters and air data and has an integrated backup
battery supply and GPS if the ships alternator and battery give up
the ghost. Hopefully it will prove to be as robust in actual use as
the designers hoped for. Besides the cool factor it should
significantly decrease the risk of instrument failure leaving you
guessing which way is up.
On Cutis's advice we also upgraded our
audio panel from the stock panel to PMA's 7000. It is every bit as
good as all of the reviews say. It is hard to believe that a voice
activated intercom can work in an environment as noisy as the T34's,
but it is fantastic.
Front cockpit July
2008 -- "glass" off
Front cockpit July
2008 -- "glass" on
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