AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 42

PILOT BRIEFING
AVIONICS

|

Obsolete panel made modern
More awareness from fewer instruments
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

42 | AOPA PILOT May 2020

Maury Patkin-but its VOR-based KNS80 navigation system was obsolete, an
aftermarket Apollo GX60 GPS was so
dated that getting database updates was
nearly impossible, and its Argus 5000
moving map seemed to belong in an avionics museum.
Patkin donated the airplane to AOPA
in 2019 with the stipulation that the association use it as a business aircraft to
advance general aviation. AOPA is giving it the distinctive N number 4GA, and
began using it for its intended purpose-
but it was obvious from the start that the
panel would have to be updated in order
to fit in the modern IFR environment.
I was in the airplane with AOPA
Air Safety Institute Executive Director
Richard McSpadden on one of its first
cross-country trips for the association
when the airplane's primary vacuum

CHRIS ROSE

SHOULDN'T THERE BE more instruments in this panel? Did the avionics shop
forget to install something? The first impression of the avionics overhaul in
this Bonanza A36 is that something must have been left out. There don't seem
to be enough screens, knobs, or instruments-and vast areas are as barren as
the Sahara.
"No, this is everything you need, and everything you ordered," Ben Travis,
owner of Smart Avionics in Donegal Springs, Pennsylvania, said in answer to
the impertinent, but inevitable, "Is it all there?" question. "This airplane has
more and better IFR instrumentation than it's ever had-and it's 125 pounds
lighter."
The entire right side of the panel is gray metal, and most of the round
instrument holes on the subpanel are filled with plugs. The round-dial, analog instruments that used to be there are just gone.
The left side of the panel is populated by a 10-inch Garmin G500 TXi
primary flight display/multifunction display, and a back-up G5 attitude instrument. The center stack consists of a GNS 750/650 combination, a Garmin 345
transponder (with ADS-B In and Out), and a GFC 500 autopilot head with a
blue Level button.
The digital instrument panel is a massive change for this 1989 model
airplane that came from the factory with all the avionics options. The airplane had been pampered and lovingly maintained by its one and only owner,



AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - BB1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - BB2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 8
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - Cover4
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