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Showing posts from May, 2017

The Mooney - Avionics

So I'm about to fly a 1966 Mooney M20E cross-country, from 0A7 to KSMO (by way of KSUS and KPPQ to see family). It's going to be a helluva trip. A friend is flying commercially into Lambert to meet me for the longest portions of the trek. The plane has been upgraded periodically, with the current avionics installed in the 1980s (two Terra TX720s, two Terra TN200s, two Terra Tri-Nav digital CDIs, a Terra TMA-230D audio panel) and early 2000s (S-Tec 30 autopilot with altitude hold; Apollo GX55 en route IFR GPS; GPSS module; WX-1000 stormscope). (There's also a PM2000 stereo 4-place intercom, and an EI-E1 single probe EGT display.) Coming with us will be a new-to-me Stratus 2 (after flying with the AHRS and synthetic vision on ForeFlight courtesy the GTX-345 in the Arrow, I'm spoiled and want the "backup glass cockpit" with us - especially flying >1700nm in a 51 year old steam cockpit). Also, tunes. The PM2000 has an audio input jack and handles soft-mute

Using a Bose Aviation headset with an iPhone

So I’m picking up a plane out in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and flying it back to SoCal. Flying out on a commercial red eye into Asheville. Problem: I want to take advantage of the fact that I’m lugging along a nice set of Bose Aviation X noise canceling headphones to drown out the jet noise and supply me with tunes, while riding steerage. Bose lists the impedance of the headset at 150Ω “off” and 400Ω “on.” The iPhone’s output impedance is about 5Ω , and ideally the output impedance should be about 1/8th the headphone impedance. Solution: An inexpensive headphone amplifier ($29 or so), with a couple of adapter cables ( 3.5mm male to male stereo ; 1/4" stereo female to 3.5mm stereo male ). I’m sure I’ll look like a dork, but at least I won’t be lugging around a second set of inferior and/or expensive headphones.