A few observations from someone who has installed both KN63 & KN62a (KN64)
The KN62 is never a stand alone unit, as it needs something to display the data and something to tell it what to display you must connect it to at least one NAV box and preferably two NAV boxes.
If you want it displayed on a G500 you have to have a GA43e , Installing both the GA42e & connecting to both the NAV boxes is not a trivial task but in my view if you intend to keep the aircraft long term is the way to go as the other option is to use the KDI572. As Peter says above these units have issues with the display and getting this fixed costs almost as much as the GA34e…….. so if you are in for the long haul the GA42e is a more reliable and cheaper solution.
If you have the panel space the KN62a is an option, you could cheapskate and just fit the box and connect it to the audio but this will result in you not having the remote frequency feature . The KN62a & KN64 also don’t have the strobe output that is compatible with Garmin transponders so there is a possibility of interference with other L band equipment. Also these units suffer from a shortage of spare displays and eventually you will need a display replacment.
As always a good installation is not cheap and a cheap installation is not good.
They even had the KN63 in stock, but no time to do it until July/August. Is there any risk to the rest of the avionics if i get a different (not as reputable!) shop to do it? its a bit unrealistic to wait until August.
The only advantage of a single box DME is that it would be cheaper to fit really, but i would need to find some space which is in short supply.
It’s a few days’ work, to fit the antenna, wire it all up, the DME is probably a KN63, and the G500 connection should be the most trivial thing of all.
If not linked to the G500, where will you display the value? You could install a KDI572 but they are not all that reliable.
Or you could install a single box DME but then where will it go?
So i asked Bournemouth avionics about lead time to install a DME receiver, and they said July/August is the earliest ! They are known to be the best, but also i dont fancy waiting 5-6 months!
What would be the easiest way to install it? and do i need a fancy avionics company to install something so simple? i dont even need it linked to my g500 – id be fine with a standalone unit if thats what makes it much more complex.
My first GPS certified for IFR was the Garmin 155. At the time I thought it was so advanced.
DME DME in Light GA may be less effective due to the commonly flown altitudes rendering the range too small to be useful.
A_and_C wrote:
At about the same time Garmin introduced the GNS430, so enticed by a small moving map and lots of showroom performance the GA market fell in love with Garmin and NARCO went bust.
Other factors that made the GNS430 a hit was that it was an “all in one” navigator package including VOR, ILS, GPS Nav and a Com radio. BK, Apollo, and Northstar offerings kept the GPS only navigator as a separate box which complicated installation, panel space, and sharing of CDI/HSI. Also, VTF was added along with PT/HILPT. The KNS90B clunky approach UI and how to manage PT/HILPT was much less user friendly than just selecting an approach procedure by airport>approach>transition.
Back in the 1990’s NARCO produced a multi sensor navigation box called the STARNAV. This used GPS, VOR/DME with an optional LORAN.
At about the same time Garmin introduced the GNS430, so enticed by a small moving map and lots of showroom performance the GA market fell in love with Garmin and NARCO went bust.
arj1 wrote:
It is actually changing – for example, Shoreham is now RNP only and so on.
And sadly very slowly.
Peter might know the politics better but the the RNP replacing the NDB approach I would guess was driven to attract business traffic with the lower minima that an LPV gives. The other knock on benefit was for the integrated flying school as it would insure their IR candidates on test would get an ILS then an LNAV guaranteeing a higher pass rate and less hours teaching then an NDB.
Sadly the LPV has gone and so have the ATO.
As peter alluded to I find my Bendix King KLX-135A VFR GPS an excellent back up to the ADF.
The problem occurs where the State does not subsidise the AIP design e.g. in the UK. The airport then has to pay ~30k+ per runway end, and it needs to ask itself if it will recover this via additional IFR traffic.
An NDB IAP (which in reality is flown on a GPS) meets the requirements for an IAP, in various contexts including AOC flights (both airline and below; they merely need the NDB to ident and not be notamed INOP), and the service contract is not that bad. It is a cheap way of paying lip service to the regs 
Throw in a DME and you have a good usable IAP.
It’s interesting that none of the European avionics manufacturers came up with a modern compact DME (or, better yet, a compact DME/DME RNAV box) for light GA. There are nice COM, NAV, transponder, ADS-B in/out boxes, but no DME. No ADF either, but that’s understandable.
I think because the European mfgs just go for the really obvious simple low hanging fruit. Like the hugely obvious slide-in KX radio replacement which was "around the corner for, how long?
I looked at doing something like that but if you are not already established it is a lot of work.
Copying the King DME is easy; they produce beautiful MMs, and there is almost no software.
DME-DME navigation is common in big jets but it is used to fix up their INS (inertial navigation). It would work equally in GA but a box which does this would cost a good few tens of k… and with GPS being everywhere (well unless Mad Pootin has another go) there is no market.
