AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013 - 30

BRIEFING

VIEW THE

DEBONAIR SWEEPSTAKES

VIDEO

PROGRESS REPORT

Avionics home stretch
Strapping on the electrons
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, the AOPA sweepstakes
Debonair should be making its way to the Sun ’n Fun
International Fly-In and Expo at Lakeland Linder
Regional Airport. That event will run from April 9
through April 14, and it will be the first time the public will get a close-up look at this remarkable airplane.
As this issue goes to press, Santa Fe Aero Services
is busy installing the many new components in the
Debonair’s panel. Topping that list is Aspen Avionics’
three-screen Evolution 2500 display system; Garmin’s
GTN 750 and GTN 650 GPS/navcoms; Electronics
International’s MVP-50P engine and systems analyzer;
Alpha Avionics’ angle-of-attack indicator; R.C. Allen’s
standby attitude indicator; CO Guardian’s combination carbon monoxide detector/clock/cabin altitude
alerter; PS Engineering’s PMA 8000BT audio panel;
and an iPad capable of receiving ADS-B-In data from
Garmin’s GDL 39 GPS and datalink antenna. Other
sources of ADS-B information—both traffic and
weather—will come from Garmin’s GDL 88 dual-channel datalink receiver.

THE NEW PANEL will be dominated by Aspen Avionics’

three-screen, Evolution 2500 display system.

Of course, that’s not all that’s aboard. National
AirParts Inc. provided a new, 70-amp alternator conversion. Wentworth Aircraft supplied a new alternator
bracket to replace the earlier bracket, which failed.
All those new avionics will require more than the 55
ampere/hours that the previous unit put out, so the
National AirParts upgrade was a necessity. Electrical
power increases are not new to the Debonair line. Early
models came with 35-amp Bendix generators, which
weren’t sufficient from the start, according to National
AirParts’ Al Petrone. So, many owners opted to move
up to 55-amp Alcor alternators, one of which was in the
Debonair when it was purchased. During one flight,
that alternator’s bracket failed in two places, causing
the alternator belt to slip. This made power output sink
to the point where the landing-gear motor (the gear
system is all-electric) didn’t have enough oomph to
retract the gear on one occasion! So it’s good riddance
to that wimpy bracket.
In addition to these updates in AOPA Pilot, there
is blog coverage of the Debonair sweepstakes project
in the “Sweepstakes Logbook” section of AOPA’s website, and I’d encourage you to check the site frequently
for more news. Just go online (www.aopa.org), scroll
down the left side of the homepage until you get to the
“Blogs” section, and click away. We’ve posted slideshows of the work being done on the airplane under
the “Sweeps Home” button on the logbook page, and
videos will be posted there as well. AOPA’s weekly
webcast—AOPA Live This Week—also features stories
on the Debonair’s progress. Before long, you’ll be seeing videos of yours truly flying the newly embellished
panel, with in-flight demonstrations of all its capabilities. I can’t wait.

panel work
involves
painstaking
attention to detail
in making new
wiring bundles and
connectors. All of
the 50-year-old
wiring has been
replaced with
brand-new leads.

EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org
WEB

30 | AOPA PILOT April 2013

A LOT OF the

Read the blog (http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/)

http://www.aopa.org http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/

AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2013