Where is everyone?

[donv]

I haven't been flying because, well, I haven't had my airplane for a while (hopefully that will change soon)!

But what about the rest of you? What has everyone been up to?

[SKYFLYER]

Clearly you are suffering from flight withdrawal

So how many hours do you expect will be put on your Commander when you get it back?

[donv]

They said 20 of flight testing, although I don't know if it's actually flown that much. Then time to get it there and back. Probably 30 at most.

[schrambow]

Hi Don,  i can't remember what upgrades you are doing with your machine again?  quickly refresh us here.  20 hours of testing on your machine before you get it back?  that is alot?  You putting in a parachute and/or autoland system?

My 150 hour is coming up in end of jan. i already have about 75 hours on the machine this year, will be close to 90 or more i am guessing before the 150 hour inspection, which is the most I have done per year on one airplane.
I need to chat with Bruce also to ask him if he thinks I am nuts, as I am considering a G600txi screen (10")for an upgrade, even though everything is working pretty nicely.  Is it nuts to do this if I don't have a problem with any of my existing instruments? I know Kent Titcomb is doing this as we speak also i think, need to pick his brain as well. Just wondering all of your thoughts regarding an upgrade like this also.
MSP went up 3% this year again, 244 a side for each hour,  about 290 hours until first hot section inspection now!  Its is almost like i can't wait until the first hot inspection, so i can possibly get off of the MSP,  i guess i am crazy, lol.

Still haven't sold my 310 yet, going through annual again now, and will advertise it much better once it comes out of annual,  my marketing and sales skills might need some work as i thought the machine would sell itself as it is a real nice machine!  Maybe i was asking too much also perhaps, but was just trying to copy others with the same equipment on the other sites that are selling theirs also?

[donv]

I found out that I'm not supposed to talk about what my airplane is doing, but if you search the forum, you can figure it out.

I think if you have the old mechanical instruments, the G600Txi makes a lot of sense. I already have a G600, and it's been very worthwhile. And I admit I had to think about it at the time, because my airplane had the nice big Collins ADI/HSI from the factory, and it was hard to give those up. But it was definitely the right thing to do.

[kent4142]

Hey Corey,

This is a tough crowd so I don't post too much.  My father told me something years ago, I am sure you have heard this advise.  "keep quiet and let people think you are stupid, instead of speaking and removing all doubt."

With that preamble - I love the old steam gauges in N840AM - (we changed the tail number last year).  It is an emotional thing - I like the looks, and I grew up with them.  However - technology marches on.  I don't need to tell you all the tricks that the G600 MFD can do - it is just amazing, synthetic vision, just being one of so many - but also screen space.  I have, like so many people the 750 / 650 combo and in the Commander panel space is a premium.  With the MFD's I can put more information  up and I don't need to push so many buttons to see it all at the same time.  RE Nexrad, weather radar, navlog data for my waypoints coming up, distance, time eta, time ete, etc.  I love having every piece of information available at the same time at a glance.

Let me digress a minute.  Years ago we had a C414 with the standard Cessna avionics.  I remember when my Dad (we all flew the airplane) wanted to get a Northstar M1 Loran.  I remember (being a young business school graduate) thinking "what a waste of money".  How much faster will we get to our destination.  How much money will that little black box save?  I thought 2 minutes, 5 minutes.  Why bother.  My Dad didn't listen, he bought the M1 and had it installed.  We all LOVED it!  After we flew with it a while - we thought "how could we ever go back?"  In my OLD OLD  OLD AGE, I have come to see this technology as an never ending avalanche of improvement.  An extremely expensive avalanche.  But of all the things I get to do in this life - flying is one of the most fun, and flying my 840 is one of the most fun airplanes I have ever flown.  The G600 is just plain cool and fun!

Now let me say a few more things.  We have a Cessna 210 that my sons fly.  It happened to have a 750 / 650 G500 panel when we bought it.  It didn't seem right that the 210 have a better panel than the Commander - right?  On a more serious note - I do believe having some systems commonality in the panel makes some safety sense.  Right?

And now in my final argument.  The GPSS steer has never worked in N840AM.  Not that I "neeeeeed" it.  But I like stuff to work, and the 210 does the coolest GPS approaches with the autopilot.  (I am guessing that is what Don is getting, by the way.  Rumor has it that he is the launch customer for the Genesys 3100 autopilot.  Am I allowed to guess that on line?). So any way, There is a data port on the old DG that is supposed to send heading information out to the rest of the avionics.  That data port, or cabling does not work.  So a lot of stuff in the airplane doesn't work just right with the 750 / 650.  Sooooooooo, I do have some "broken" stuff in the airplane - and it only makes sense to upgrade to the G600txi.

Okay okay, my final final statement.  What else are you going to do with the money?  If you can get your wife and partner to go along with it - upgrade.  You won't be sorry.

[donv]

Two other things to consider when looking at going to a G600 or Txi, or whatever.

The first one is that I believe it really does make you safer. It gives much better situational awareness, especially with synthetic vision, and things like the force vector display and winds just add to that.

Second, it is actually a cost-saving move in the long run. I remember when Aero Air went to all G600s in their air ambulance Commanders. It had nothing to do with safety or fun or anything else-- they projected the maintenance expenses going forward on the old systems and concluded that the G600s would be cheaper in the long run. Period. Of course, they did get the G600s at cost (they are a Garmin dealer) and had their own labor to do the install, but still.

I just started a thread in Avionics about putting in a Garmin G5 or something like that to replace my old air-driven standby gyro. That's probably less defensible, but I'm starting to think it makes sense from a safety point of view. I know I would certainly prefer to have the G5 in the event that my G600 gives out versus the old air-driven attitude indicator.

[schrambow]

Hello kent,
we sure missed you at the commander gathering down in South Carolina back in October. I sure like the Carolina's weather during that time of the year and we had a great time getting away from our day to day type of stuff up here!
I want to go visit your installation project maybe later this month just to get out of my state and look at something interesting. 
I agree with you and Don completely regarding to upgrading our Commanders at some point in time.
I want to get my plane on a mid summer schedule for the 150 hour inspection eventually, as we use our machine much more in the winter, fall, and spring and having it down during the summer makes much more sense for us, but currently we are on a winter 150 hour inspection schedule. i sure miss our 681 Commander inspection based on just 100 hours and no time inspection schedule, we sure were spoiled with that program, lol.
Regarding for us to upgrade to the TXI600 unit, I am told it would probably be about 8 weeks of down time extra to perform this extensive project on top of our normal 150 hour inspection.  While a few things can run concurrently with a standard 150 hour inspection, the upgrade to the TXI is pretty labor intensive and those guys don't want to fight with the 150 hour inspection guys.  It makes sense the time needed for this extensive upgrade.
For me specific, I have a hot inspection coming up in 290 hours, ~ 3 years yet for us. I have no idea how long a hot section takes?, but it might make sense for me specifically to wait until a major downtime project like this to perform this type of upgrade while waiting for a hot inspection?  i could be wrong here, but in 2 or 3 years, our 150 hour inspection will occur in late spring/ early summer and being down 8 weeks might be eaiser to digest perhaps?
Just my immediate thoughts here as I am easily swayed one way or another I suppose.  But even if I push back my specific TXI upgrade, I still want to come down and see your machine Kent and spend some time looking it over and seeing your awesome machine. Another thought, are you planning on any visits down there in the next few weeks? If you are,  I could meet you there for a day to do lunch or just plane talk about commanders and/or anything really? 

[JMA]

Don are you truly not supposed to discuss the upgrades? 

[donv]

That's what I was told a few weeks ago. I didn't sign anything that says that, it was just a casual comment that I shouldn't be talking about it much.

[kent4142]

Hey Corey,

I am game for anything!!!!  You can come down here anytime.  The hangar is at the DeLand airport KDED.  We are just off the west end of runway 05-23, on the north side.  The hangar has SKYE over the door.

I was really hankering to go to the Carolina fly in, but alas, I "had" to fly some family back from Maine.  I think I was literally flying over while you'all were woopin it up.

DeLand is close to Daytona Beach, and about an hour to Disney, and of course Orlando.  I will even buy your lunch. 

Kent

I would love to hook up anywhere - just gotta figure out when and where.

[JMA]

Don are you bringing something new to the market is that why?

Kent- love you are based at DeLand, I went to Stetson University (many many moons ago) and our 980 has been there on multiple occasions.  They used to have a few jet commanders slowly dying on the tarmac down there.

[Bruce Byerly]

Corey - I don’t know anyone who flies with the Txi who regrets it. Doesn’t make it faster but it is fun to fly.  I remember enjoying flying your plane with the 530 and its perfect AP thinking “everything I need, nothing I don’t.” 

For the TXi; It’s modern, it’s nice for situational awareness, it eliminates mechanical flight director reliability issues (so many electric motors in those things), no waiting for flags to pull,  it gives you more buttons to push, the MFD portion allows for nexrad view while you are using radar, the TAS, Wind, traffic, and other toys like SVT are always displayed and charts and other WX when desired. Passengers like it.  The GPSS should be integrated which is a big plus. On both the plus and the downside, it gives an extra alt alerter as that is really the only AP function that’s not coupled with a legacy AP.  Obviously costs real money to properly install and couple, requires backup instruments (existing can work and really must with your pre-select system)  requires new panels (unless the 7” portrait version), etc.

Also, that remote control panel installed in the pedestal is super cool in case you don’t want to reach up to the panel to make your heading changes.

Seems like most planes selling either have it or are going to get a Txi.  The flighstream 510 gives you updates direct from your iPad which eliminates fumbling with SD cards, which is a huge plus to me. 

Looking for a pirep from Kent soon I hope ...

[Ndege]

Hi,
I bought my plane ( N383HC- Grand Renaissance 690A) in July 2020 in Texas, flew it up to the great folks at Winner Aviation in Youngstown, OH for the pre-buy and annual/150hr. Turned into a three weeks plus episode due to the many small issues that arose. Then back home to my base- McMinnville, Oregon (KMMV) where the aircraft is now hangered.
Have done several short trips up to the San Juan Islands and down to Sun River, Oregon - both great places to visit. Then some longer trips to Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Mainly to visit National Parks, and friends in California. Then the latest was the trip to various spots in Mexico. Despite the Covid restrictions have put about 80 plus hours on the airplane since August. Hopefully we will soon be shot of this Pandemic then I can do some real travelling.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a more normal 2021.
Cheers,
Peter Fraser

[JMA]

Welcome Peter.
We also service at Winner Aviation.  N515AM, 980.  Post a few pics of your bird if you can.