Avionics Upgrade for 280FX

[carlmeek]

I'm in the market for a 280FX a bit later in the year.

What sort of avionics upgrades can be fitted without jumping through too many hoops?

I'm just keen to replace the traditional transponder and radio junk :)

[FlimsyFan]

Carl,

I would think that an Aspen PFD/MFD could be fitted along with a Garmin GTN 6xx/7xx series NAV / COM box which should be quite straight forward to get STC'd for UK.

A really good port of call would be Jimmy at Sharman Avionics based at Sywell. Really knowledgeable and will walk you through the steps required for certification.

I have had some dealings there, if you want more info, feel free to PM me.

FF

[carlmeek]

Thanks - that's really helpful. I've made contact.

I think a PFD is likely to be out of budget, but a GTN650 would be a great way forward.

Cheers,
-C

[rick1128]

Carl,

If you do the GTN 650, you really should look at the GTX345 transponder. This combo will also give you ADS-B and the GTX will attach by bluetooth to your iPad. You can use either the Garmin Pilot app or the Foreflight app.

[Paul Cantrell]

rick1128 said:

If you do the GTN 650, you really should look at the GTX345 transponder

I'll second that - we just upgraded our SPIFR Bell to the 650. The GTX345 wasn't announced until the week our installation was complete so we had to go with a couple of the older bits of gear to get the same thing, but the result is the same thing: ForeFlight with synthetic vision, traffic and radar. It's really really nice, and a very modest expense considering what it would have cost you just 10 years ago to get the same thing (if you even could have).

I especially find the traffic display helpful (if disconcerting just how much traffic there is out there). It might have saved my butt a couple weeks ago.

I was flying into Hyannis on Cape Cod Massachusetts. There's a PAVE PAWS radar there with a restricted area that tends to concentrate the traffic. I was getting VFR advisories from Cape Approach. I'm looking at my iPad and I see traffic closing on my 5 o'clock (really impossible to see out the window) at a very fast clip. My first thought (stupid) was that it was some crazy interference from the PAVE PAWS because this guy was essentially at my altitude, and the trend vector showed him intersecting me, and approach wasn't saying anything about him. I asked approach if he could see someone at my altitude closing from my 5 o'clock and he says "yes, that's a twin (something-or-other) blah blah blah... I decended and got a nice look at the belly of that twin. Thanks for all the help, approach! :=

When I'm VFR I'm usually low enough that ForeFlight can give me the radar via the cell phone connection in the iPad, but when I'm IFR I'm always too high for a connection so getting the (low resolution) radar via the Garmin is very helpful.

Also, in case you don't know, you can upload/download your flight plans between the Garmin and your iPad. You can have a complicated flight plan in ForeFlight and in a couple seconds load it all into the Garmin. Very convenient.