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 for intercom/radio activity.
I've been practicing with the GX55 simulator, which fortunately runs under Wine on OS X. (And I thought the GNS-430 was new-user-unfriendly!)
Got a pair of $57 AO Original Pilot aviators for the trip. Now I feel like a real pilot.
Also got an extended battery for the under-wing GoPro, and a clamp mount (with adapter) to put the internal GoPro up on the garment hangar in the cargo compartment (dunno if that's the best location, but it's available and unlikely to vibrate; I've heard the ceiling panels on Mooneys aren't great for GoPros for that reason).
I also got a RAVPower FileHub Plus gadget to dump (micro) SD cards to a portable hard drive, so I wouldn't need to lug a laptop along, but I seem to have bricked it while following their firmware upgrade instructions. Support said they're sending me a new one, but haven't heard more on that yet. Anyway, it turns out I'll need to lug a Windows laptop along anyway (here's hoping VMware works), to update the database ($150 for a "one time" update from Jeppesen, with a 3-in-1 Skybound programmer I was lucky enough to find in the back of a drawer at my local FBO, who doesn't mind me borrowing it). But having GPSS for such a long trip will be nice to have... (Edit: My lack of understanding such things; the Mooney’s GPS unit was tied into the autopilot so that it would track a course once established, but it did not have GPSS...)
To say I'm excited would be a gross understatement. A trip like this is a Bucket List item.
I've been practicing with the GX55 simulator, which fortunately runs under Wine on OS X. (And I thought the GNS-430 was new-user-unfriendly!)
Got a pair of $57 AO Original Pilot aviators for the trip. Now I feel like a real pilot.
Also got an extended battery for the under-wing GoPro, and a clamp mount (with adapter) to put the internal GoPro up on the garment hangar in the cargo compartment (dunno if that's the best location, but it's available and unlikely to vibrate; I've heard the ceiling panels on Mooneys aren't great for GoPros for that reason).
I also got a RAVPower FileHub Plus gadget to dump (micro) SD cards to a portable hard drive, so I wouldn't need to lug a laptop along, but I seem to have bricked it while following their firmware upgrade instructions. Support said they're sending me a new one, but haven't heard more on that yet. Anyway, it turns out I'll need to lug a Windows laptop along anyway (here's hoping VMware works), to update the database ($150 for a "one time" update from Jeppesen, with a 3-in-1 Skybound programmer I was lucky enough to find in the back of a drawer at my local FBO, who doesn't mind me borrowing it). But having GPSS for such a long trip will be nice to have... (Edit: My lack of understanding such things; the Mooney’s GPS unit was tied into the autopilot so that it would track a course once established, but it did not have GPSS...)
To say I'm excited would be a gross understatement. A trip like this is a Bucket List item.
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