I reported on here this summer (I cannot find the thread, Peter feel free to move if better in the original post) on our upgrade to the Lynx L3 transponder and the Avydine 440 from our GNS430 which wasn’t WAAS.
Our Comanche is now fully ADSB in/out and things are working great from a traffic avoidance perspective seamlessly linking with the Aspen IFD PFD and MFD.
From a user interface perspective I find the Avydine a superior product to the Garmin we replaced. Much more intuitive and easier to set up routes and approaches and things link much better with the autopilot.
For the second time in a month I have now flown it in sub zero conditions on the ground. My plane is in a non heated hangar in the Alps where it does get cold. I’ve never experienced any issues with the Garmin on cold days, but the 440 has on both occasions struggled…
On Saturday’s test flight (had a magneto replaced, different story) it took 20 minutes until temps were warmer on the engine and 3 avionics restart to get a GPS and stormscope signal on the 440. Anyone else have any experience and or solution?
How does this issue manifest itself? Does the IFD440 not start up, does it show an error message, or is the LCD screen just blank but becomes visible at it warms up? Most LCD products do the last one; the screens don’t work at very cold temps and AFAIK certified avionics have some sort of heater behind the LCD (or used to have). In say -5C the old KLN94 is barely visible.
In my opinion avionics in general always have a hard time when starting up in cold or sub-zero temperatures.
My approach is to not only preheat the engine but to place another (smaller) heater inside the cabin which is directed towards the backside of the panel.
cessnatraveller wrote:
My approach is to not only preheat the engine but to place another (smaller) heater inside the cabin which is directed towards the backside of the panel.
Reminds me of an episode I witnessed: one flying club in Russia had a very old huge ex-military kerosene/diesel powered heat cannon with several flex ducts about 20 cm each. On an especially cold day (must have been something like –20°C), someone “ingenuous” tucked one of these ducts into the cockpit of a Yak-52. The guy had to spend several days repolishing the canopy.
By the way, for the engine they did not use the heater alone. The procedure was to drain the oil into a bucket after a day of flying, and the first thing to do in the morning of the next flying day was to put the bucket on a stove and heat up the oil to 90-100°C concurrently with preheating the engine itself with hot air.
funny enough, the 440 starts up fine but displays an error message to say it is not receiving GPS signal and lightning information.
And the issue fixes itself as the temperature rises, without you doing anything?
Have you tried turning on the stormscope and letting that warm up and then turning on the IFD440 to see if the stormscope data acquisition is still delayed?
Peter wrote:
And the issue fixes itself as the temperature rises, without you doing anything?Have you tried turning on the stormscope and letting that warm up and then turning on the IFD440 to see if the stormscope data acquisition is still delayed?
The issue has fixed itself on both occasions after a restart of the avionics when both plane and engine were warm. The stormscope automatically starts up with all the avionics only the EFIS is on a different switch. The stormscope displays on the 440. The reason I think the problem is with the 440warming up is that the L3 automatically on start up displays traffic when the 440 only does once eveyhting else (gps signal and stormscope) are displaying after it has warmed up.
