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Charles wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 9:47 pm Similar experience here. Got a GTX345 installed and supposedly wired to the Aspen 11 months ago. They still haven't figured out how to get traffic and weather to display on the Aspen. The GNS shows it without any issues so we know the data is there.

In my case not something I looked into, but where is it expected to feed from? Relayed from a GNS or direct feed from the 345?

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea and I'll admit that I haven't been pushing very hard on the shop. The traffic feature is marginally useful here in Canada due to the lack of an ADS-B mandate (most planes don't squawk mode S) and weather only works when close to the US border due the absence of FIS-B service here, so it's not a high priority.

In any case, the Aspen-GNS-GTX setup that I have is probably a very common configuration and a working recipe for installation must exist somewhere. If someone has details on that, I'm interested.

It's premature to call this an Aspen issue, but I have confirmed a problem capturing the final approach course on a coupled approach. This might be more a problem with the KAP 140 or something about gain settings in one or the other. The RNAV 28 into Prineville is an example. It happily tracks to NAXZY from the East, does the turn toward and tracks to IKZIV, but then either undershoots or overshoots the turn to the FAC. If I take over and manually get the plane set up on the FAC and at or under the GS, I can then set the AP back on APR, it flies the LP+V procedure just fine, all the way down. The reason I'm not sure it's an Aspen problem is I've sometimes seen a capture failure with the original HSI. But this is now happening 100% of 4 tries so far. Not a single problem in any enroute mode, GPS or VOR.
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Hand-flew 3 GPS approaches yesterday and the gizmo worked great. I find I really like the horizontal and vertical (GS) deviation pointers being displayed right on the attitude/airspeed/altitude screen. I just need to resolve the coupled approach issues. More tests on Tuesday - after these god-awful winds die down.

It looks like I may have figured out the coupled approach. To be definitive I'll work to confirm the wrong way and the right way. But as a preview, what I did today was:

1. On the leg from NAXZY to OKZIV, I left the AP in NAV mode. 530W was in TERM mode.
2. At IXZIV the AP started a turn to the left, but the 530W switched to LP+V and the AP quit turning, leveling the wings after maybe 10 deg of turn.
3. I switched the AP to APR mode and it made the turn the rest of the way to the proper approach course and "GPS ARM" appeared. Both the lateral and vertical deviation bars appeared.
4. Both indicators captured and the system flew the approach flawlessly in both dimensions all the way down to DA. The air was squirrelly all the way down and it's kind of ugly to watch since the AP is incapable of coordinated flight in these conditions.

Rich- Did the Aspen appear to make the KAP 140 work better, worse or the same in terms of tracking the approach? Bernie

blsewardjr wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:22 pm Rich- Did the Aspen appear to make the KAP 140 work better, worse or the same in terms of tracking the approach? Bernie

Probably better. Especially given the complicating atmospheric conditions. Plus that troubleshooting note in the installation guide affirmed what I suspected - that tweaking the roll-servo NULL setting would fix the behavior where the plane would track off to the right in HDG and APR mode. It did

Good to know. I'm considering going the dual GI-275 route, which is on sale right now.

Having flown with this a bit I find that Aspen has done a good job of making things you're more likely to tweak in flight quickly accessible, such as BARO setting and toggling GPSS on and off. I find having the approach deviation indicators on the attitude display instead of the HSI presentation more pilot-friendly. Another thing about the single-unit rendition is it brings the upper and lower displays noticeably closer together than the two separate units it replaces.

I must admit I'm still adjusting to the airspeed and altitude tapes in lieu of the adjacent gauges. Airspeed in particular does represent a mental paradigm shift, as airspeed presentation runs lower to higher as one move up the tape, whereas on the round dial the reverse is true in the airspeed range that matters. Of course this is basically the new standard and true for all the electronic tape displays and not unique to the Aspen.

I can finally put this upgrade successfully to bed, though the process was less than perfect getting here. By filing and flying the KRDM ILS RWY 23 to include the DME ARC and flying the published miss, I confirmed proper coupled operation of the ILS and GPSS control of the ARC and entering/flying the hold.