Finally - the Bonanza is back with new avionics!

Martin Pauly

Martin Pauly

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Dec 27, 2011
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Cedar Rapids, IA
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Martin Pauly
A long journey is coming to an end - my Bonanza N70TB is back home in the hangar after ten months of upgrades and development/certification work. Let me give you a tour of the new setup, which is centered around the Aspen Evolution MAX flight displays and Garmin's GFC600 digital autopilot. The system also contains two Garmin GTN 750 Xi GPS/NAV/COM units, a GI 275 backup instrument, remote-mounted Garmin audio panel, transponder and active tragic system. For engine monitoring, I kept the JPI EDM 930 from my old setup.

The installation was done by Karl Gardner and his team at Gardner Lowe Aviation Services in Peachtree City, GA (Falcon Field). Garmin and Aspen have worked together on a digital interface between the Aspen PFD and the Garmin autopilot to enable features such as altitude preselect; these features are not yet enabled at the time this video was made because the FAA is still reviewing the new software version. Once it's approved, I'll get those features added to the Bonanza as well.

 
good to see you joined the garmin dark side.
 
Very nice. Hopefully the squawks and STC issue are both resolved quickly.
 
I'm about to board a commercial flight so no time to watch the video now...curious why dual 750's vs just one?
 
When you get a chance, fly an ILS. On my aircraft, it is a lot more work than an LPV. I have a G500TXi/GTN750Xi with an Stec 60-2. I have to load and activate the approach on the GTN, swap the Nav frequency for the localizer from standby to active, and when on the intermediate leg use the G500TXi CDI switch to select LOC1, then press Nav on the Stec to track the localizer and intercept the GS. The extra step in my Bonanza is to change the CDI on the PFD as it does not change on its own, even though the GTN750Xi does the change from GPS to VLOC.
 
The question is, knowing what you know now, would you do it again? I assume there was some free hardware involved which makes it less painful, but being without your plane for 10 months had to be brutal, and it's still not "done".
 
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I was wondering the same.... must be such a huge disappointment. You'd think for such a huge give on your part in giving up your plane for that long that they would have ALL the bugs worked out...and give it a good wax job to boot before giving you back the keys....well except for that AP certification issue that they can't control. But then I suppose that depends on how much discount they gave you on all those nice toys.
 
I can see the squawks being somewhat understandable considering the number of times it’s gone back and forth between OEMs. How it’s resolved is more important to me.
 
Jim K said:
The question is, knowing what you know now, would you do it again? I assume there was some free hardware involved which makes it less painful, but being without your plane for 10 months had to be brutal, and it's still not "done".
Click to expand...
Is anything ever "done"?
 
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