Scott spung for a Aspen PFD. Lanmar Avionics in Groton (GON) installed it in his Cherokee and we flew out in the Mooney yesterday to take delivery of his airplane after the modifications. He also had them dial in his Autopilot and add the WAAS options on his Garmin 430's so it was a great deal of work. This is on top of the Mode S transponder and traffic and terrain he had installed last time.
First impression - its bigger than I thought. It sticks out from the panel about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. There is also a big honking EFIS Master switch that fills the hole where his ST-180 controls were. I don't know if this is a mandated switch type or if it is a Lanmar thing. The switch is huge. I'm wondering where it would go on my Mooney.
The plan was to fly around the the patch a few times at 2000 so if anyting was remiss we could decend to pattern altitude and make a normal approach and landing.
It seemed to have a nose high pitch with about a 3 to 5 degree up indication. We took off with that and compensated for the new picture. After a couple of tracks around the pattern we loaded the GPS 5 approach into the Garmin and let the autopilot fly the approach.
The approach overlay was immediately depicted on the Aspen. The display was a little small for me but the horizon and hsi were big enough to be confident controlling the aircraft in clouds from the right seat. I'm sure if I was sitting directly in front of it the size would be appropriate. I'm actually wondering if that feature is pilot definable.
We selected Mondi as the Initial Approach Fix and the Stec 55X flew the plane there. We were coming from the opposite side and the garmin depicted a teardrop entry to the procedure turn/hold. We intervened and disconnected the AP when it tooks us to far east of course and reengaged it when we were established again on our way inbound.
The GPS 5 in GON is a LPV approach so the glideslope came alive outside of the intercept point and was centered when we encountered the FAF @ Pinet. We engaged the ALT and VS modes of the Stec and the autopilot flew us down the glideslope better than we could have done it ourselves.
Scott circled at 1000 and we landed on 23. They adjusted the nose up poition a bit as his instrument panel was not completely square to the datum.
I'll write more about this as we have an opportunity to fly it more. Scott wants to take it to Sun and Fun but Judy wants me to fly 58V down and camp so...
Christy at Microsoft asked me to take some pictures of the flight. All I had was the camera in my blackberry. I posted these to a photo gallery
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