ADS-B - Biting the Bullet

As you may know, our youngest, Marybeth lives in Lynchburg, Viriginia.  She went to school at Liberty University and we knew there was a 50/50 chance she would meet an American, fall in love and...you know the rest.  Her husband Chris is from Maryland and they were married in 2010.  We tried not to like him, but we love him to death.  They have 2 little boys, Lincoln and Nolan.

That being said, we have made a lot of trips to Lynchburg over the years and hope to continue to do so.  We generally travel there every 4-6 weeks.  Needless to say, the ADS-B mandate in the US is looming large.  The deadline to equip is Jan. 1, 2020 and a lot of guys are leaving it to the last minute which means the avionics shops are getting jammed.  I wanted to avoid that hassle.

After researching solutions, I settled on the GTX 335/WAAS transponder from Garmin.  My old Narco AT150 was on it's last legs anyway (although still working well) but everything is digital now, so it was a bit of a no brainer.

The big gotcha with any kind of avionics upgrade is the temptation (and almost the necessity) of upgrading the rest of the radio stack, once the plane is opened up.  Everything in there gets disturbed and if it's old and brittle, it can break.  So the general consensus is to bite the bullet and do what needs to be done all at the same time.

The radio stack in DKX is ancient.  I haven't touched a thing in 26 years.  My Nav/Com, a Narco Mk12D has soldiered on faithfully for, I'm guessing, 30 or more years.  It still works but I've been told there is significant noise in the background when I transmit.  Part of it is alternator whine, but there's other, radio induced stuff as well.  It's clearly time for an upgrade.

I would dearly love to install an IFR certified GPS navigator like the Garmin GTN650/750 series.  Coupled to the TruTrak autopilot, it would be dream.  Flying LPV approaches to 200 ft minimums would be freaking amazing.  But ain't going to happen.  That equipment is way beyond my pay grade.  So DKX will remain basically a VFR airplane with one VOR to make it legal for IFR, but just.

So, a new radio is a must.  I'm going with a Garmin GTR 225 COM only radio.  Since no one uses VOR's anymore, or hardly anymore, I don't need the expensive NAV capability.  I'll keep the Mk12D as my #2 COM, along with it's NAV capability for those rare moments I need to tune a VOR ( and to stay legal for IFR, as mentioned above).

I had hoped to leave my King KMA20 Audio Panel as is, but the avionics guy said he wouldn't touch it--too old and it won't play with the modern digitial boxes.  So I've elected to go with a Garmin (what else?) GMA345 Audio Panel complete with Bluetooth so you can stream music to your passengers.  Big deal.

So from top to bottom in the stack it will be:

Garmin GMA340 Audio Panel
Garmin Aera 660 Portable GPS in an AirGizmos panel dock
Garmin GTR225 COM
Narco Mk12D NAV/COM
Garmin GTX335 Transponder

ADS-B requires a fixed WAAS GPS source so you can't use a portable receiver.  The GTX335 has an optional WAAS GPS inside which requires an external GPS antenna.  I'll mount that on the cabin roof, probably in the same place my current ADF antenna is (which I will no longer need).  The existing transponder antenna under the plane will work with the new equipment.

I've elected to go with only ADS-B Out capability for the Transponder to save on cost.  For ADS-B In, I can use a portable receiver, like the Scout which I have, which displays FIS-B weather and traffic on Foreflight on my iPad Mini.  Since I live in Canada and FIS-B weather is for the US only,  I have a subscription to SiriusXM weather (which I have used for years and swear by it).  For that, I recently purchased a Garmin GDL51 receiver, which streams XM weather to both the Aera 660 and Foreflight.  Works great and as I have said elsewhere, has saved my bacon many times.

So that's the hardware lineup.  The cost...wait for it...$7100US plus HST.  And that's just for the boxes.  Installation is the next thing.

Based on a recommendation from Chris my mechanic, I elected to go with Eagle Aviation in Parry Sound as my avionics shop.  They will supply the boxes above, as well as fabricate the wiring harness and ship the completed assembly to Edenvale.   Chris and I will then install everything in the plane.  Once up and running,  I'll fly the plane back to Parry Sound and Eagle will certify the install, including the paperwork for the ADS-B.

I really like the idea of installing the equipment myself, under Chris' supervision.  I can save a lot of money that way and I really enjoy working on the plane.  I can use Chris' heated hangar which is a big bonus seeing it's February in Canada.

I must admit though, avionics work kind of freaks me out.  I've dabbled a bit under the panel installing some basic stuff and it's a huge spagetti mess of wires under there!!  I've also seen planes pulled apart in the shop with avionics partially installed and the number of wires and connectors and components is a freaking nightmare!  I sure I hope I can pull this off.  Thankfully, Chris is there as a backup and he's done this many times before (or so he tells me).

Cost for the wiring harness and certification?  $2800 CDN plus HST.  In addition, I will need to pay Chris for his time helping me with the install, and probably doing a bunch of stuff where I'm over my head.  I'm guessing $2000 CDN.  I sure hope it's no more than that.

So all in, I'm looking at $15-16K CDN.  That is a small fortune, but one that simply has to happen if I want to keep flying.  Along with an engine overhaul, a panel upgrade is the other big way to spend serious money on a little plane.  I've done 2 engine overhauls since I've owned DKX, at about $25K a pop, but spent nothing on the panel and/or radio stack.  So I guess it's time.

I placed the order for the radios last Monday (along with a $4000US deposit) and Dave McDevit at Eagle tells me it will take 3 weeks to complete.

The trigger has been pulled.  Here we go!!  I can't wait!!!!