With the general aviation fleet aging across the board, pilots shopping for that "new used bird" may face renovating its radios, too.The avionics' age isn't the only thing to think about - technology has advanced at warp speeds since your prospective airplane rolled off the assembly-line about two decades ago.
Approaching a sizable avionics investment requires a good amount of due diligence. What's a reasonable budget for the airplane and the type of flying you normally do? Will radios purchased today be legal and functional for future operations and technologies? What brands and models have reputations for reliability, serviceability, and marketability? Where will you have them installed and what is the cost?
If electronic toys and gadgets are personal passions, rest assured you can rack up a suite of avionics that could cost more than a fixed gear, single-engine airplane itself. A panel-mounted IFR GPS alone can cost more than $8,000 when you add the cost of installation and certification. Add a horizontal situation indicator, a three-axis autopilot, or a flight director, and the bill could easily top $25,000. Top it off with standard items such as navigation and communication radios, ADF, transponder, and an audio panel - and you're at $35,000 plus.
If you fly VFR only, the package can be scaled down to suit your unique flying needs. A nav/com, transponder, and handheld GPS might suit your needs perfectly. If you don't fly a lot of IFR - or if you will earn your instrument rating in the airplane - you might think about investing in "meat and potatoes" equipment that will allow you flexibility and redundancy in navigation and communication. This rack includes dual nav/com radios plus all of the associated gear to fly precision and non-precision IFR approaches such as VOR and glideslope indicators, marker beacon, and antennas. If you fly a lot of IFR, especially in challenging weather, you might think about getting more of the high-dollar goodies, such as an HSI and autopilot.
The communications side of the buying decision is fairly simple. You need something with at least 720 channels, and "flip-flop" frequency selection (active and standby channels) is handy. It's the state of navigation technology that will cause more than a little head-scratching. GPS? VOR? ADF? Do you want it? Do you need it?
As with computers, you have a natural consumer fear that this week's purchase will be obsolete next week. With aircraft ownership, avionics obsolescence can be precipitated by the advance of the state of the art and/or the regulatory machine.
Airplane owners have no way of knowing what avionics manufacturers have up their sleeves until they put out a press release. Thus, you have no guarantee that the acquisition of a goody-box for the panel today won't be upstaged by a gizmo that's better, faster, more user-friendly, and cheaper tomorrow. Eventually, you simply have to jump in and hold on.
Regulatory requirements are easier to read. "There's nothing really significant on the rule-making horizon that we know of which could negatively impact the legality of light aircraft radios and systems," says FAA Avionics Inspector Glen Whitefield. "I'm referencing the kind of regulation that, for example, rendered all the old 90- and 360-channel nav/coms obsolete for use in the ATC system. Years ago, there had been some talk about requiring all aircraft to use a Mode S transponder, which would allow for data links and enhanced T-CAS resolution, but such requirements today are generally limited to commercial aircraft. In short, I don't believe that re-outfitting a typical general aviation four-seater with equipment presently available will be disqualified from use in the near future because of any federal aviation regulation."
Deciding which brand to buy is a personal decision, and chances are good you've already formed some opinions - good or bad - based on the radios in the aircraft you've rented. Most avionics manufacturers have Internet Web pages, and this can be a good place to learn about and compare equipment.
You should also think about talking with a technician at an avionics shop. Many of them sell, service, and install several different brands, and the tech can fill you in on their features and capabilities. You can also learn how easy or expensive it is to install different units. For example, one unit might slide into the current connection and another might necessitate a lot of rewiring.
To learn how much value new avionics are worth when it's time to sell the airplane and move up, talk to someone who sells airplanes - or your lender. More than likely, both of them have access to industry resources, such as the Blue Book, which assign values to used aircraft. These people might also be able to give you an idea about current avionic installation trends.
Finally, you might think about looking in Aviation Consumer Magazine, which frequently reviews avionics equipment (and airplanes, and just about everything else). This magazine is highly regarded for its unbiased reviews of aviation-related products and services because it accepts no advertising (call 800/829-9081 for subscription information).
The navigation side of an avionics upgrade is more likely to generate some shopper anxiety and frustration simply because of the multitude of choices.
ADF can still be useful. Until GPS delivers the NFL and Garth Brooks, some pilots will continue to use ADF to tune in those clear-channel radio stations while droning along in the wee small hours. A stereo system with CD is an alternative, but an ADF can also give you a bare-bones back-up to GPS or VOR if those systems should fail.
VORs? One? Two? The word is out, of course, that the VOR system is headed for extinction as GPS becomes the "sole source" navigation system, but even the best predictions are setting a target date of sometime between 2005-2010. Jumping full bore onto the GPS bandwagon today with a panel-mount IFR box while forsaking two VORs may not be the prudent course. Two speculations are being bandied about in the industry.
One position is that GPS will be enhanced over the next several years through the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). This system, planned for implementation about 2002, will send "correction signals" to airborne GPS units and will enable IFR approaches to Category I minimums. Although impressive, the current GPS system is not precise or reliable enough to assure consistent accuracy to the 15-30 feet necessary for an ILS-type Category I approach. This is because of any number of errors, including some caused by the military (which owns the GPS system) that can intentionally degrade accuracy for security reasons. WAAS is coming, supposedly by 2001, and so are the receivers designed to use it.
The other theory is that the VOR system is really not destined for total extinction for practical reasons. At a recent symposium, former FAA Administrator Langhorne Bond suggested that a network of at least 500 VORs would be necessary indefinitely, primarily because of the vulnerabilities of GPS. Presume, for instance, that someone jams the GPS signal (at a recent European air show, a GPS jammer was advertised that could affect GPS reception up to 50 miles) or that the U.S. military needs to degrade GPS precision to thwart potential enemies who may be using GPS to target their weapons. The question is this - where do you go if you miss an approach at the time the GPS signal is degraded or satellites go off-line? If GPS evolves into a sole navigation source as it was originally designed and it goes off-line, the answer is, "Who knows?"
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) also theorizes that a system to back-up GPS is essential. The organization is lobbying to keep LORAN alive beyond the scheduled shut-down date in December, 2000. Indeed, the NAV system of the future may require receiving both LORAN and GPS signals.
It's a sound strategy to take advantage of GPS IFR technology today for its "direct-to/straight-line" enroute navigation and GPS instrument approach capability, especially at airports not served by a conventional approach system, but you should recognize that the system is still evolving. A GPS receiver you install today will not become totally obsolete down-range, but it will most assuredly not have the features and capabilities of future units.
ILS receivers and indicators are "musts" for the foreseeable future, as is the altitude-reporting Mode C transponder. You can, however, dispense with distance measuring equipment (DME) if you go with GPS, because it provides DME information as standard fare.
Deciding which way to go isn't easy, but the condition of your prospective airplane's avionics can help you make the decision. If the airplane's avionics are still serviceable, you can add a GPS and still have the benefit of VOR navigation. If nothing works and the airplane needs a whole new stack of radios, you have several choices. You can go all VOR, and face another upgrade when GPS/WAAS goes on line; you can split the stack with one VOR and a GPS, which gives you the best of both worlds; or you can dive into GPS. The choice is yours.
Once you decide what equipment to add, you have to buy it (assuming you've already bought your airplane). You have two choices. You can order your new avionics from a discount supplier, or you can buy it from your local avionics shop/dealer.
A number of supply houses sell radios off the shelf at less than retail. Close scrutiny of the ads in such publications as Trade-A-Plane reveals very little difference in prices of same-brand units between suppliers. This is because the manufacturers dictate the absolute lowest price a discounter can promote in print. Installation costs are not normally included in a discounter's advertised price. A major southeastern discount supplier quotes $2,500 to $3,000 to install a "meat and potatoes" stack of avionics - dual nav/coms, indicators, transponder, and audio panel.
Many of the discount sellers offer installation services, but it means you have to fly your airplane to them, fly home, and then return to pick up your airplane. To get an accurate cost of new avionics, you should include this expense into your computations.
Another logical question is whether the discount prices are substantially better than those at a local avionics shop? I compared a hypothetical "package" price and installation fee offered by the discounter with that of a nearby avionics retailer. The local tech came in $1,910.00 less than the large, well-advertised discounter for the exact, same package, including installation. The message? Shop around. The name of the game? "Let's make a deal."
Another option is to buy from a discounter and have a local shop install the avionics. You may, however, receive a chilly reception because the local shop probably sells the very same boxes and may treat you...and bill you...quite differently than if he sold you the sets in the first place.
No matter what, thinking about upgrading or replacing an airplane's radios is a pulse-pounding, gut-wrenching decision. But making it isn't impossible if you approach it logically. Separate what works from what doesn't, then decide what equipment will fill the holes and fulfills the requirements for the type of flying you do. And as you assess your flying requirements, don't forget to think about the future.
Related Articles
