October 2005 - American Bonanza Society

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EVACUATING A BARONABS member Robert Evans of New Orleans.Louisiana. had entrusted me to babysit his E55through the installation of a Garmin GNs-480. someradar repairs. some maintenance and a new paintjob. When hurricane Katrina hit. Robert·s airplanewas safely enclosed in the paint shop hangar. atFlying Colors in Leesburg. Florida. I was sche duledto deliver it to him in New Orleans on September 1.The job had not been going well. mostlybecause of "bad paint days' (rainy). But things suddenlyturned really critical when Katrina hit. I couldnot get Robert on the phone. but he could occasionallyget to me by relaying through a friend ofhis in Houston.Rj0bert indicated he'd sure like to have his airplane back,because he had evacuated from his home and his office. n uptown New Orleans to escape rising water. He wastrying to get to Baton Rouge and would let me know if hemade it!Meanwhile, I dispatched to the paint shop to do alii couldto speed up completion. By the time I arrived in Leesburg, thepaint shop had three mechanics and helpers putting in stainlesssteel screws, touching up paint glitches and cleaning up.I finally left the paint shop at 7 p.m. with an absolutepromise the airplane wou ld be ready for flight by seven thenext morning. I truly was less than confident that it would bepossible for them to have it finished, signed off and the weightand balance verified by sunrise.When I arrived at Leesburg at 6:45 the next morning, surprise!The airplane was ready and the chief mechanic hadspent the night on a couch in the hangar so he could inspect itwith me and help push it out of the hangar.A low, broken layer hovered overhead, with intermittentrain showers in all quadrants. (The last thing 1 wanted to dowas run a fres hly painted, but not-yet-cured Baron, throughthe rain !) After fueling and a very thorough preflight, I wasready to launch by eight.Robert called to assure me he had successfully made it toBaton Rouge and had spent the night at the Louisiana AircraftFBO at BTR, sleeping on a lounge chair he brought with himfrom New Orleans. He was extremely gratified that I wouldsoon be on my way.I avoided flying through most of the rain by some veryaggressive deviating. Later in the flight, as I approached theFlorida/Alabama line, Air Traffic Control began to deviate mesome more. I got three different changes in routing in aboutthree minutes!Finally, I was told that nonemergency traffic acrossMississippi and Louisiana was not allowed south of V-222(Monroeville, Hattiesburg, McComb). Hattiesburg Airport wasbroadcasting they were closed to all except emergency andMEDEVAC traffic. There was a steady stream of Lifeflight helicoptersand fixed-wing traffic going in and out.Nobody could tell me if Baton Rouge Airport was stillaccepting nonemergency traffic! After being vectored backand forth across the Mississippi River five times, I was turnedonto the Back Course Runway 4 approach.The Louisiana Aircraft FBO was a zoo. There were atleast 30 helicopters-mostly news and survey types buzzinglike bees. Fixed-wing airplanes of all types, ranging from Gfi ves to Super Cubs were going and coming. We were refueledright away, but it took nearly an hour to fight our way to thefront desk to pay for our fueLThere was a brace of cadaver-sniffing dogs and their handlerswaiting for helicopter transportation into the city. Therewere uniformed people from every conceivable federal , state,county and municipal government milling about. As aviationpeople are, everyone was calm and courteous to the staffworking behind the FBO desk. One of the FBO ladies wasbaking a steady supply of cookies and refueling the popcornmachine to keep all those who had no way to get to more substantialfood from going hungry.We were finally able to depart at about noon. The fli ght todeliver me back to my truck in Leesburg was uneventfuL Igave Robert a ride to the nearest McDonalds where he wolfeddown a chicken sandwich. When 1 left him back at the airport,he was pre flighting his beloved Baron to get "as far away fromwind and storm water" as he could before sundown.BACK TO AVIONICSAt the convention avionics seminar, in a discussion ofthe integration of avionics in your airplanes, I purposelydid not interject much structure mto the presentanon,desiring to let the group lead us into "a knotty avionics integrationproblem" such as those we are faced with every day.Picture this, for instance: A customer calls or walks intothe shop with a 1970s' vintage F33N35. It has a BendixKMA-20 audio panel, a pair of Bendix/King KX-170nav/coms, a KNS-80 Area Nav, a BendixlKing KR-87 ADFand a Bendix/King KT-76 transponder. Behind the panel is aremote encoder and a single-scoop cooling duct from the sideof the airplane.All of that is driving a PN-I OI HSI (#1) and a King KJ-
202 CDI (#2). The whole thing is feeding a Century ill aUlOpilotwith altitude-hold, but the autopilot sometimes takes anexcursion in either pitch or heading for unexplained reasons.This was considered a very good avionics suite in its day.What this panicular customer would like to have is: AGarmin or PS Engineering audio panel with a six-place intercomand maybe satell ite music or DVD player; a Gannin MX-20 multifunction display, a Gannin GNS-530 with terrainavoidance and a GNS-430 with remote stormscope and traffic;a new Gannin GTX-330 Mode-S transponder.He also says he wants to replace the HSI with a newSandel EHSI or maybe a Bendix/King EHSI-825. And finally,to round out the picture, he wants a new autopilot, like, say, aSTEC-55X with GPS steering and altitude capturelhold tosmoothly guide him on hi s way.My recommendationsOK, I say, to stan with, the KMA-20 has to go. "Why?Gosh, it's working perfectly and there's a two-place intercominstalled."Well, for one thing, looking ahead to when features suchas aural warnings of terrain or traffic are installed, the KMA-20 does not have an unswitched audio circuit. (The later modelKMA-24 does.) What this means is, either now or down theroad if you want a voice warning or a "barking dog," as someairline pilots call it, you will not be able to get it through yourheadset. We can wire it to play through the cabin speaker, butwhy not do it the right way while we' re doing it.Moving on down, the KX-170s need to go to make roomfor the new MX-20 multifunction display. If by now my customeris not suffering from sticker shock, I'll suggest keepingone KX-1 70 as the #2 NavCom. Then I'll tell you that if youdecide to keep the #1 KX-170B, we can use a splitter on yourglideslope antenna to give you dual ILS/glideslope capability.Now, if you are a Baron owner and want radar on yourMX-20, the only radar compatible with the MX-20 is theBendix/King RDR 2000 family of digital radars. Most vintageBarons from the 1970s have the older but more powerful analogradars, such as the Sperry, Collins or BendixlKing units.More recommendationsI usuall y recommend replacing the King KNS-80VORlDMElGLlDESLOPElRNAV with the Garmin 430 or480. Dimensionall y, they are the sanle size and fit into thesame space in the panel. You'll lose your DME, of course, butthe GPS units wi ll provide DME-like distance measurements.And we may as well take out the ADF. The GPS unitshave every ADF-outer marker locator stored in their database,so they can be navigated to if needed. In those areas that usethe ADF transmitters to broadcast ASOS or related information,you' ll lose that capability.The decision on whether to go for a Garmin GNS 430,480 or 530 is dictated more by size of the unit and price thanby differences in capability. The GNS-480 arrived at Garminfrom its former manufacturer already loaded with WAAScapability. Gannin plans to incorporate WAAS next into theGNS-530, and "sometime later" into the GNS-430.Planned improvements to the Garmin family of GPS/multifunctionunits clearly point to the GNS-530 as the "flagshipunit" of the three. All are capable of displaying Mode-Sderived traffic data and stormscope weather. With the arrivalof the Garmin 'GDL-69 data receiver, all are ab le to receiveand display NEXRAD satellite-transmitted weather.If any confusion is present here, to repeat, the MX-20 is aMultifunction Display only that also requires an input fro m aGPS to do its magic.What about the transponder?The presently installed one is probably a King KT-76 anda remote-mounted encoder. Why should we replace it if it isworking? Well, if you are really that attached to it, then we canleave it and save some of what promi ses to be an astronomicalavionics bill.So why change it? The FAA has shut down some of theirMode-S receiver-transmitter sites due to lack of funds.However, in the long-range scheme of things, Mode-S is stillcoming. In those areas that are still Mode-S capable, it givesthe airplane the ability to see limited transponder-equippedtraffic. I'll explain the differences between Mode-C (such asthe KT-76) and Mode-S (such as the GTX-330 or the King KT-73) when we have more time and space.Due to time lost in fl ying to Baton Rouge yesterday, I'mout of time to get this to the editor to fill my slot in the magazine.I'll plan to finish this project next month, where we' lltake up the interface with the gyros and the nuances ofinstalling a new autopilot in an existing airplane.For you who were unable to attend the convention, especiallythose who were victims of the hurricane, I'm reallysorry. I hope next year goes better for you. Meanwhile, ourprayers and thoughts are with you as you struggle through therecovery period.Jim Hughes of Orange City, Florida, is the former chief pilot, corporate aviation forEmbry-Riddle Aeronoutical University. He now heads Marketing & ProfessionalServices, Q consulting firm specializing in flight support and avionics integration.His ratings include ATP and A&P licenses and type ratings ranging from Boemg10 Sikorsky helicopters. He has more than 22,000 hours, including more than3,()()() hours in <strong>Bonanza</strong>s, Barons, Dukes and Kmg Airs.
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October 2005 - American Bonanza Society

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