ADS-B Install Experience

[TJS]

I got a loose quote for for $17g can. no details. its like pulling teeth to get a straight answer from them.

[TJS]

were you happy with their work Colin?

[pietromarx]

For that kind of money have the work done in the US. My install was ~7,500 and included a fair amount of other hooey.

[Colin]

I was going to have other hooey installed on my plane, but my budget was limited.

Was I happy with the work? It was *months* behind schedule. The budget *did* remain fixed, which was important to me. A lot of the work seems really well done, which I would expect from the factory which is invested in the planes being well-crafted. The factory, at the time, was short-handed. That was the primary driver behind the late delivery. And it also meant that when I showed up to collect it, even though I was showing up a few days later than originally planned (weather), and even though I arrived the night before and said I'd be there early in the morning to get it... There were still four people crawling through the plane doing touch up, including actual touch-up paint on the door sill.

And when I was doing a checklist for pre-flight I found out the co-pilot seat would recline, but did not return to upright. Why would I *possibly* be the person to catch that? (A few weeks later I had to make two visits to my local shop to get them to fix the pilot seat as well.)

My AHRS failure took place *after* all the work at the factory. Eventually my mechanic traced it to five bent pins on the connector to the LRU. Was that a problem created by a work crew hurrying to get it finished? (That page is on my blog, but there's no public link. It was for the various people at the factory and Garmin who were trying to diagnose the problem.)

The emergency batteries up under the nose luggage area were disconnected. My mechanic said that it was impossible for the spade connectors to have come loose on their own. Not all connectors on both batteries. The factory said, "That *can't* be us, we have a checklist to specifically check those connectors." Well, it was less than 20hrs after the factory work that it was discovered. They were definitely *disconnected* at the factory. I'd been with the plane the whole time since (maintenance was done with me standing there trying to learn about this complex machine).

But they *really* know the plane. They found all sorts of little things that the shop that did the annual missed. They had things that they knew would be good to tweak now, rather than letting them go to when they would be a problem. They suggested painting the nose cones to match the lighter blue of my new striping pattern, which really makes the plane stand out. They have a tight relationship with the regulators for doing things like the STC to removed the right hand stick. So I think some things were just easier. They are able to call Garmin and get things straightened out in a way that a little shop cannot.

I don't know. Your mileage may vary.

There are two things that I need to do in the next year: replace the fuel hoses and put the new wheels and brakes on. I plan on doing those at my regular shop in Long Beach. The NEXT big thing would be in a few years replacing the engines. I will see how the reports are from the factory at that point, and how many my shop has done by then. (So far, my shop has done a few and seems to have it down.)

[kelson73]

I would say about $12k CDN for a GTX345R w/WAAS into a DA40 with a WAAS G1000. My problem in Canada is the non WAAS machines with our shop anyway, and adding the new WAAS GPS antenna to the composite airframe. Some shops may be able to do this with experience and scope within their capabilities but with me, and a other places too, this is a bit of foreign territory. There is data from Diamond on doing a repair to the composite but with a repair there are no holes left behind! The US has other means to accomplish things like this too with Field Approvals and 8110 structural approvals etc that help the process.

[Diamond_Dan]

There is data from Diamond on doing a repair to the composite but with a repair there are no holes left behind! The US has other means to accomplish things like this too with Field Approvals and 8110 structural approvals etc that help the process.

I believe somebody installed at GPS/NAV/COM combo unit in place of their top NAV/COM, but I can't find the post. If I remember correctly it does require an additional hole, but may be easier than starting from scratch.

http://www.cobham.com/communications-an ... t/docview/

[kelson73]

The factory has done this by changing the Com to a Com/GPS (no Nav, that antenna is burried in the horizontal stab) but they did a composite layup on the area. Other companies may have the confidence to just add another hole too but in my situation here I need some data to reference to be able to add the hole.

[kelson73]

Here's a list of approved antennas:

Model Description Connector Type Manufacturer Part Number
GA 35 GPS/SBAS TNC Garmin 013-00235-( )
GA 36 GPS/SBAS TNC Garmin 013-00244-( )
GA 37 GPS/SBAS/XM TNC Garmin 013-00244-( )
A33W, WAAS TNC Garmin 013-00261-( )
GPS / VHF TNC / BNC Comant CI-2580-200
GPS / VHF TNC / BNC Comant CI-2728-200
GPS / XM / VHF TNC / TNC / BNC Comant CI-2580-410
GPS / WAAS TNC Comant CI-428-200
GPS / XM TNC / TNC Comant CI-428-410

[rwtucker]

I believe somebody installed at GPS/NAV/COM combo unit in place of their top NAV/COM, but I can't find the post. If I remember correctly it does require an additional hole, but may be easier than starting from scratch. http://www.cobham.com/communications-an ... t/docview/

A slight change of topic but a VSWR of 2.5:1 (the antenna above) is pretty lossy; 2.0:1 or lower is a better worst case for COMM antennas covering the 118-137 MHz range, lower than that for GPS antennas. I notice that the sharply angled belly mount COMM antennas tend to be higher VSWR which might explain the differentials in range that some of us see between COMM units. Just for comparison, a VSWR of 1.5:1 is about 96% efficient and 2.5:1 is ~82%. This is especially relevant to transmitting power. A good COMM antenna will achieve 1.5:1 or better in the transmitting portion of the COMM and VOR range.

[kelson73]

The CI 2480-200 isn't on the approved antenna list anyway. I believe the factory uses DM C63/1A which is 2.0:1 for comm #1 on top of the fuselage.

I'm confused on the VOR wording. VOR doesn't use this antenna but the horizontally polarized one inside the stabilizer on the DA40 and is of course receive only.