Hi all knowledgeable electronic wizzards,
my new aircraft had a (defect) Garmin GPS 55 installed that will be put to use as a paper weight. But the aircraft has a nice watertight old Garmin GPA antenna on the nose:
Now my question: Do you know, by chance, if there are devices that enable me to use this antenna for tablet navigation, or would you discourage the use of this antenna? I have found a lot of information about external antennas but they either point to complete different antennas (for what I know) or are too complicated for me to easily digest and understand (with just basic electronic knowledge). I had thought of useing internal GPS recievers, but I figured it is hard to feed a XPDR for ADS-B out with my tablet.
In addition, I have a rough Idea of good additions to the panel (VOR, new COM, Mode S), but what would you say were good investments for this panel?
Cheers,
Used 430 for 8,33 khZ COM/NAV/GPS out of one box.
GTX328/330 or other Mode S transponder.
Perhaps a digital engine indication system.
I think we’re installing a Collins 351, a TRT800A and a Trig TY91. My Tablet will serve as GPS display and Skydemon can display traffic if I install a PowerFlarm or similar. This way flight preparation, navigation updates and plates are much easier to update. The plane will be VFR only for the forseeable future so I’ll save a used 430 for the IFR guys…
I like the JP EDM 730 and the EI CGR-30P based on the information found on the net, but that has to wait. It would free space to mount the tablet though.
What about a PS engineering PAR200 and a trig transponder?
Trig are supposedly bringing out a NavCom any time soon. No idea of price mind.
I like the PAR200. Do you know any (real) retail prices of the box by chance? (Spruce is always way too expensive in their online catalogues..) We already have a Collins NAV and the Funkwerk transponder and so wen tend to use these. ELT needs to be installed, too, although I’d prefer a PLB in this case (Not really many options to stay with the aircraft if an emergency happens on the sea, I suppose).
Does anyone use a bluetooth GPS with his tablet and has it connected to an installed GPS antenna?
I used the GNS2000 BT GPS with my iPads, but no more – because I found out that the internal GPS is just as good. No failure in one year. (Now is use the GNS2000 in my second car that doesn’t have navigation … )
I don’t see how you could use the external GPS antenna with the tablet.
Nice airplane, what exactly is this? Never seen one before.
With powerflarm you can use an external GPS antenna, and you could reuse your antenna. Both Flarm(?) and ourselfs have an adapter to make powerflarm available on WIFI. Your tablet software should support this functionality if you wish to use this.
I guess for your operation Trig TY-96 and Trig TT-31 would be nice, added with a powerflarm and Garmin 695 GPS for example. The Trig TY-91 and TT-21 could also fits your needs, these are smaller, require a little more installation time, equipment pricing is lower though.
The TRT-800A is not the best transponder available, so I wouldn’t install that one, you might be able to sell it?
I wouldn’t recommend to install the Collins VIR-351. These units are over 40 years old, you are likely to get issues with this. You wouldn’t need an audiopanel at all, just an intercom would make sense.
Thank you, @Jesse. The aircraft is a lake Buccaneer:
Tablet software is SkyDemon and that should be okay to show everything, at least the manual says it will be able to couple with PowerFlarm.
The VOR is basically needed for Night VFR capabilities, I don’t think the Tablet will meet the requirements, and since we still have some “in stock”, the Collins was my first Idea. We have some King KX175s floating around, but they aren’t better than the 351s and take up more panel space :-)
What easy/low-cost option would you recommend? I don’t have anything against 430s or similar devices, just not the financial options to spend that amount of money for something I range in the area of “Nice to have but not really necessary”. The same goes for an Aspen, Avidyne…
Seems like a lot of fun. Can you do waterlandings in Germany?
mh wrote:
The VOR is basically needed for Night VFR capabilities,
Not for the upcoming Part NCO IMHO. It can be pratical though for places where there is ATIS on NAV frequencies, should you fly to those places.
mh wrote:
What easy/low-cost option would you recommend?
For the lowest cost / best quality would be a Trig TY-91 combined with TT-21 with Sigtronics SPA-400 intercom would do the job. TY-91 has intercom, but 2 seats only, this solution takes some more time to install due to remote boxes.
For best quality / more practical the Trig TY-96 COM combined with Trig TT-31 with Sigtronics SPA-400 intercom , TY-96 has also only 2 seat intercom, so requires the SPA-400 as well. This solutation has a bigger user interface and will be easier to operate, pricing will be higher.
For low pricing only, you could at ATR-833A to your TRT-800A, ATR-833A has 4 seat intercom, so no need for external intercom. Quality and support is on a different level when compared to Trig though. Quality wise, I wouldn’t recommend installing an ATR-833A or TRT-800A.
No need for an audio panel, all of these solutions have an auxilary input for NAV audio, should you require the NAV / NAV audio.
Waterlandings are possible in sea-law, but not unproblematic in air.law as we have the “Flugplatzzwang” and need an official exemption for every landing site. Do you know how the Netherlands handle these aircraft?
We already have one plane with the TT21/TY91 combination and are very satisfied. They work together with a KMA24 and a FlightCom MC401.
Since I like to keep the sea radio (the one with the phone reciever) and have space for a tablet, my panel space is limited… so the big Trigs are not the best Option I guess. But the Collins and the small Trig Com could be installed side by side, and there would be space left for a MC401 or similar – that was my Idea at last.
There are nice small Becker VORs, but they are rare and I don’t know if they make them anymore.
