(December 13, 2008) -- About 50 members of the Minnesota Wing of Van's Air Force met today at SteinAir in Farmington, Minnesota. For an hour, Stein Bruch held court, surrounded by thousands -- tens of thousands -- of dollars in instrument panels and equipment his team is assembling.
Here's what we learned in Stein's own words:
Everyone's buying EFISes. We do panels that go for $10,000 when they're done, and some that go for $130,000 and everything in between. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of what we build is for the experimental market.
FLYING IFR
There's always a lot of stuff on the Internet with opining about what you need to fly IFR. You don't need a certified altimeter to fly IFR. But what you use has to meet the specs of the certified altimeter. I've yet to see EFISes fail. The GPS does need to be certified if you fly IFR. The (Garmin) 696 is superior to many of the certified GPSes, but you can't use it for an IFR approach.
Minimum requirements for IFR: You don't need two of everything. It's a good idea to have two of some things, but you don't need two of everything. If the engine monitor quits working, your engine doesn't quit.
Things like
the Dynon are extremely popular for IFR VFR pilots.
I wouldn't do it with the Dynon as the primary/only flight instrument.
I despise the light IFR vs. heavy IFR classification. You're either
in a cloud or you're not. If you're going to fly in the scud,
the Dynon is probably not the best choice if you're flying around
in the clouds.
The hardware that makes up these boxes is insanely different. The Dynon is a damned good box, but if any salesman tries to tell you that this box is the same as a higher-end EFIS, they're not even close.
How much do you have to spend? You're not going to do it for $10,000, even if you do it yourself because you're going to need a radio with a VOR on it to shoot an ILS. That's $3,000. A transponder, a gyroscopic device. It's far cheaper to buy the electronic boxes than many instruments. Starting point for an IFR panel is $18-20,000.
We built gyro airplanes and it was good for what we had, but if you try to spend that money now, it's not even close. Most EFISes have batteries for backups, but the autopilot is a big deal. When I built my airplane there were no autopilots. I flew an RV and thought "I don't need an autopilot," so we flew ours for years without an autopilot, but now I've decided it will be the first thing I put in an airplane. Even a single-axis wing leveler, you wouldn't believe the difference. You can take a swig of soda or look at a chart.
Dynon has a new autopilot. They just started shipping in the last weeks. The jury is still out, so I can't make an opinion whether they're good, bad or ugly. It's probably a great add-on to your Dynon but it's going to be hidden in the box so if you have a problem with the box, you'll have a problem with the autopilot.
MOVING UP
Middle of the road is the Advanced Flight Systems and Grand Rapids units. Advanced has made unbelievable progress in EFIS development. They've put a lot of money into research and they have a lot more to put in. It's one of those companies where you won't have a care in the world. They can be configured almost any way you want. For the money, those guys are pretty darned good. It's the most popular stuff we sell.
Garmin. Nobody comes close to them on quality,but nobody comes close to them on price either. It'll cost $50,000 to $150,000. We don't do many panels that cost $150,000, but we don't do many that cost less than $80,000 either.
ANTENNA ADVICE
Comm antenna - Put it on the outside of the airplane and don't worry about it. Put it somewhere else and it'll work... in the pattern. If you get more than 10 miles away from someone, they won't hear you. Put a whip outside and it'll cost you only 1.2 knots. NAV antenna in the wing tips will work fine.
If you have a WAAS GPS, try to put it somewhere where it can see 360 degrees around you. If you bury a WAAS antenna under a cowling or wingtip, it'll work in some directions, but not others. Sit it on the back of the airplane where it can see all around you and you'll be good.
NAV antenna can be split a number of times and it won't care. You can buy a splitter for a com antenna but it's over $1,000 and it's cheaper just to buy another antenna.
ELT antenna probably should be on the outside, but nobody does that because ELTs don't work and the only reason we have them is because we have to. Most of us have the antennas inside even though they won't work there.
The ICOM A210 - We don't like it. It's difficult to install and take out. There's a little ribbon connector connecting the plate to the box. Ribbon cables in aircraft are not going to get along well in an airplane five years from now. The person who doesn't take these out often will have a hard time. We like the SL40 instead.
Audio panels - Buy a good intercom and be done with it. PS Engineering is at the top of the heap. Don't buy an old audio panel on EBay. They work, but don't put it with your new avionics. It amazes me that someone will spend 50 grand on avionics and 50 bucks on an audio panel.
Q/A SESSION
Q: Who's better: Advanced or Grand Rapids?
A: We get that a lot. It's six of one, half-dozen of the other. Advanced has the edge on size and brightness and technical. They're within percentages of each other install-wise. Both companies are great to deal with. Same lead times.
Q: How durable are Dynons?
A: It's been
very good. Dynon is finicky when it's very cold. If you turn it
on when it's cold, the screen will be black. Below 15 or above
120, same thing. You can't leave it parked in the sun. That's
just part of what you're getting for two grand. The software for
the most part has been bullet-proof.
Dynon uses
pitot-static as their "aiding", not as the sole source
of attitude information. They have to have that combined with
the internal sensors to keep everything level. There is enough
internal sensors, just not of the type that can keep the plane
upright without the use of pitot/static air data for aiding.
Most of these
systems don't work well when volts drop below 10.
Q: What's the rumor on a deal between TruTrak and Advanced?
A: It's not a rumor. TruTrak is building an autopilot for Advanced Flight Systems. It will allow the AF EFIS to communicate with the autopilot without you needing to touch the autopilot. AF has a flight director which does you no good unless you have an autopilot attached to it. It will replace DigiFlight II. It will allow you to put the flight plan in your EFIS and shoot approaches without ever touching the autopilot. You'll probably see a working model at Sun 'n Fun. It'll be a separate unit in the panel if you want to shut your EFIS off.
Dynon will come out with a combo system - EFIS, moving map, radios all built into one box. It doesn't exist yet, though. The engineering hasn't been done on it. I won't consider it an option until it ships. These companies tend to announce things long before they're available. Grand Rapids' HX was a year behind schedule. AF was a year behind schedule. Unless your airplane is two years away from flying, completely ignore announcements from these companies.
I'd be cautious. People have tried the all-in-one system (Blue Mountain) before.
Q: How rapid is the move to solid state?
Vertical Power has been quite popular. We don't sell one a week, but perhaps one a month. When you consider the cost of circuit breakers, if you go with VP-100, the cost could be a wash.. If you're wiring your airplane yourself, it'll save you money. You have to do a load analysis that accounts for every circuit, they then send you a harness that you take out of the box and run to your landing lights and flaps etc. It's great if you're comfortable w/technology.
Bernie Weiss and Alex Peterson talked briefly about traffic systems. "There are a lot more airplanes out there than you think," Bernie said..
"I find it important to note where they are," said Alex. "If I see one indicated at my altitude, I'll climb to get out of the way and then look for them."
The new Zaons will integrate with EFISes. They'll give you altitude, it's got its own pressure altimeter inside so it knows where it's at it and then listens for other transponders. "I've been out in the middle of nowhere and this thing beeps at you and and I look around and there's a plane," Alex said. "If it's alarming you, it's close."
"I laughed about traffic systems until I flew with Tim Olson in his RV-10," Stein said.."I didn't notice 75 percent of the traffic that's out there. A few more years and the cost of TCAS will be down to where weather is right now."
