Grretings All!
While Airventure is still fresh in my mind I thought I would pass along some
of the interesting
finds in avionics.
1) Dynon Development has a device which combines essentially all flight
instruments into a
single 3.25" panel hole display. It is based on solid state gyros,
accelerometers and magnetometer and does AI, DG, Airspeed, AOA, Altimeter,
VSI, Turn Coord with Ball,
and G meter. All for $1995. I would pay real money for this one if it
actually ships!
2) I-K Technologies has a new engine monitor system with colored LED bar
graphs, numerics, and full time labels. To me it looks much more ergonomic
than the competing numeric displays.
3) BlueMountain Avionics is shipping their EFIS. Also solid state sensors
plus a GPS for a moving map. The moving map uses scanned sectional and WAC
charts. About $9000.
4) UPSAT's MX-20. Having seen it in action, now I understand why the
Aviation Consumer gave it a product of the year award. About $7000 not
including a panel mount GPS. Beautiful vector-based display with VFR, IFR,
Terrain, Approaches, etc.
5) Airmaster's new control unit for the electrically adjustable prop is much
smaller and refined than the previous unit. It has both automatic settings
for T/O, climb and cruise as well as manual pitch control plus feathering.
On a different subject, I thought I would report my further progress on A224
Trike XS.
In four full working days at FlightCrafters and under Russell's (close)
supervision, I started and completed the phase 2 kit, i.e., both wings! We
reduxed, weighted and taped both wing skins
down by 7 pm of the 4th day. The only small mods I made were replacement of
the plastic
pitot-static system with aluminum tubing out to the mounting bay, addition of
a thin walled plastic conduit in both wings to the wing tips for a later wire
pull, and glassing in whelen 600 type lighting
fixture mounting templete on the tips. My only complaint with the kit was
that the wing skin's reinforcing foam cutouts were not aligned with the
counterweight box locations. I had to carve the foam out and bid reinforce
the area, nicking through the skin slightly in the process.
Needless to say, without Russell and Bob's expertise to guide me, I would
still be puzzling over the aileron bellcranks! Thanks guys!
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