Garmin GMA 350/35 vs PS Engineering PMA 450

iamtheari

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My 310 has a GMA 340 now. I’m not entirely happy with the audio quality. I’m going to overhaul the panel soon, so now is my chance to go with a remote audio panel or stick with the panel cutout and slide in a new audio panel when my bank account heals a bit.

Can anyone here give a PIREP from direct personal experience, comparing the audio quality and squelch between the GMA 340 and the various replacement options? If it helps to make comparisons, my other plane has a GMA 245R so that is also a valid reference point for my understanding.
 
I have the 450A and am very pleased with the sound quality and many features. I have no comparison with the 340.
 
Can't compare with any Garmin, but I went from the PMA8000BT to the 450B. Much better audio and a much more reliable Bluetooth connection. I make phone calls on the ground for clearances and it just works. The 3D audio to listen to two different audio streams simultaneously (e.g. Approach and ATIS) works pretty good. The main loss is Telegence - Garmin's voice command - only works with a Garmin panel.
 
No experience with Garmin audio panels, but I have an 8000 in the Sundowner and a 450B in the 182. Both are excellent, with the 450B being better and more feature-rich. I have not gotten the spatial audio set up. The bluetooth works well.
 
I upgraded a while ago, but I don’t recall a difference in sound quality, I upgraded to get the features.
If you have sound quality issues, I would think it’s a wiring/connection issue.
 
I have a 350c and love it…esp splitting the two audio streams (com1 and com2) into separate ears.
 
I had a GMA 340 in my 310. When I did the panel upgrade I went with the GMA 350c. Love the panel and it works great. It auto connects to my iPad.

I can isolate the copilot and pax and split comm1 and comm2 in my
Headset. I play XM radio with the push of a button. It has the audio callouts from the Aera 560, GTN650, and IPad. This is nice for terrain and traffic.

It also has a push speak feature. You just push a button and say something like “tune destination ATIS”, “Tune Tower”, etc.

I used a PMA 8000 in a rented 172 last year. Flew it for 10 hours getting a SE CFI. I did 2 two hour cross country trips with it to/from the DPE. I was not impressed with the PMA after being used to the GMA350c in my 310.


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I had a GMA 340 in my 310. When I did the panel upgrade I went with the GMA 350c. Love the panel and it works great. It auto connects to my iPad.

I can isolate the copilot and pax and split comm1 and comm2 in my
Headset. I play XM radio with the push of a button. It has the audio callouts from the Aera 560, GTN650, and IPad. This is nice for terrain and traffic.

It also has a push speak feature. You just push a button and say something like “tune destination ATIS”, “Tune Tower”, etc.

I used a PMA 8000 in a rented 172 last year. Flew it for 10 hours getting a SE CFI. I did 2 two hour cross country trips with it to/from the DPE. I was not impressed with the PMA after being used to the GMA350c in my 310.


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Dear Fracpilot, the PMA8000 was introduced in 2004 while the GMA350c was introduced in 2015. In 2006, the PMA8000BT was the FIRST audio panel that had an integrated Bluetooth device and sold for $1495 while the GMA350c is for sale on Aircraft Spruce for $2215.

PS Engineering patented our automatic VOX in 1997, the first to build a GA audio panel that had SPLIT mode, and even the "old" PMA8000 series had music distribution, something that some modern-day audio panels do not provide.

To be fair, compare the GMA350c with our PMA450C. Virtually the same price. Your use of the Push To Command function is a great tool, we do not have that. But except for that function, I think you'd appreciate all of our additional capabilities without a difficult-to-use interface. Dual Bluetooth modules, intuitive user interface, unprecedented distribution of 4 individual audio streams, and our implementation of USAF's patented IntelliAudio, are just a few examples of the benefits pilots get with our 450 series.

One more thing, when you changed out the GMA340 with the GMA350c, your shop had to remove the GMA340 backplate, rotate it 180 degrees, and then reinstall it into the tray. That meant they had to get to the back of the audio panel, sometimes not very easy to do. Why GARMIN did not make the GMA350c plug n play with their GMA340 I'll never understand, but our PMA8000 series and PMA450 series are 100% Plug N Play.

I have and will continue to dedicate my career to providing the best price/performance aircraft audio panels. I appreciate POA members allowing PS Engineering to have our voice heard!

I felt compelled to chime in.

Feeling better now ;)

Mark
 
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Dear Fracpilot, the PMA8000 was introduced in 2004 while the GMA350c was introduced in 2015. In 2006, the PMA8000BT was the FIRST audio panel that had an integrated Bluetooth device and sold for $1495 while the GMA350c is for sale on Aircraft Spruce for $2215.

PS Engineering patented our automatic VOX in 1997, the first to build a GA audio panel that had SPLIT mode, and even the "old" PMA8000 series had music distribution, something that some modern-day audio panels do not provide.

To be fair, compare the GMA350c with our PMA450C. Virtually the same price. Your use of the Push To Command function is a great tool, we do not have that. But except for that function, I think you'd appreciate all of our additional capabilities without a difficult-to-use interface. Dual Bluetooth modules, intuitive user interface, unprecedented distribution of 4 individual audio streams, and our implementation of USAF's patented IntelliAudio, are just a few examples of the benefits pilots get with our 450 series.

One more thing, when you changed out the GMA340 with the GMA350c, your shop had to remove the GMA340 backplate, rotate it 180 degrees, and then reinstall it into the tray. That meant they had to get to the back of the audio panel, sometimes not very easy to do. Why GARMIN did not make the GMA350c plug n play with their GMA340 I'll never understand, but our PMA8000 series and PMA450 series are 100% Plug N Play.

I have and will continue to dedicate my career to providing the best price/performance aircraft audio panels. I appreciate POA members allowing PS Engineering to have our voice heard!

I felt compelled to chime in.

Feeling better now ;)

Mark
Garmin seems to have a thing with planned obsolescence. But thankfully companies like yours step up.

Since you're here, can you tell me why one would choose between the 450c and 8000g? What does the 450 do the 8000g can't.

I doubt I'd use all the features of either one.
 
Bluetooth is one (there are several channels)....and the screen is easier to navigate to control and select functions. I traded up an 8000BT for a 450A. Honestly, the 8000 is wonderful....if I didn't have the 450.
 
Thanks for your kind words Racerx!

We will repair everything we have ever made. I understand a few months ago that GARMIN’s GMA340 with the suffix 00 will no longer be repaired and all others will be repaired as long as parts remain available.

We have never said no to a repair, even if it is 30+ years old. Some pilots get very attached to their PS Engineering intercoms/audio panels and we respect that.

With your statement that you probably would not use all of the capabilities, then I can easily recommend the PMA8000G. It’s has a great amount of functionality that will most likely meet most, if not all, of your requirements.

MAP $1795

Super easy to use

IntelliAudio

flightmate

Music distribution. This is important! Not so
much for music but rather for your Foreflight audio alerts. Be careful of audio panels that do not offer music distribution. With those audio panels, If the pilot wants to hear iPad audio alerts, everyone will hear the alerts (unless in Isolate or Crew modes).

10 watt noise free USB charger.

IMHO is great looking panel.

If you want to learn more, just give us a call, we love talking about airplanes and audio panels!

Mark
 
Thanks for your kind words Racerx!

We will repair everything we have ever made. I understand a few months ago that GARMIN’s GMA340 with the suffix 00 will no longer be repaired and all others will be repaired as long as parts remain available.

We have never said no to a repair, even if it is 30+ years old. Some pilots get very attached to their PS Engineering intercoms/audio panels and we respect that.

With your statement that you probably would not use all of the capabilities, then I can easily recommend the PMA8000G. It’s has a great amount of functionality that will most likely meet most, if not all, of your requirements.

MAP $1795

Super easy to use

IntelliAudio

flightmate

Music distribution. This is important! Not so
much for music but rather for your Foreflight audio alerts. Be careful of audio panels that do not offer music distribution. With those audio panels, If the pilot wants to hear iPad audio alerts, everyone will hear the alerts (unless in Isolate or Crew modes).

10 watt noise free USB charger.

IMHO is great looking panel.

If you want to learn more, just give us a call, we love talking about airplanes and audio panels!

Mark
Plane is getting an 8000g right now. But was having a hard time figuring out what else the 450 did that I might use. Coming from an old kma24 when Bluetooth was a pipe dream, I've got a learn to learn.
 
Plane is getting an 8000g right now. But was having a hard time figuring out what else the 450 did that I might use. Coming from an old kma24 when Bluetooth was a pipe dream, I've got a learn to learn.

My plane had a KMA24 with Telex intercom. Wholly guacamole was the PMA-450A a game changer. Christal clear audio, amazing bluetooth performance, simplified user interface.

The G340 is good, but clunky multi-button press interface to get to common functions. The 450A/B/C can be fully operated without a cheat sheet.

I look at the PMA450B or C verses the new Garmin audio panels:
  • Prefer the Garmin if:
    • G3X EFIS is installed as the touch screen on the G3X bypasses the clumsy audio panel buttons
    • Using GTN Navigators and want voice control over the GTN radios
  • Prefer PS Engineering if:
    • Added level of sound clarity
    • USB-C charging port (it does run an iPad while slowly charging it)
    • Simplified user interface with context sensitive menu buttons
    • Tech support on a Sunday night
    • 360º audio with both coms running (though some Garmin panels now do this)
One Sunday evening on the ramp, I called PS Engineering to leave a voicemail for Monday called back with a small problem. @mscheuer (Mark) picks up the phone on the 2nd ring and dives in! BTW, the issue was a Bluetooth connection question and Mark helped me 100% in less than 5 mins.

Call Garmin on a weekend trip and see what happen?
 
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I probably had the same BT question with the PS because of the 2 BT connections are treated differently.
 
I have the 450A and am very pleased with the sound quality and many features. I have no comparison with the 340.

Exactly the same here. I think the 450A is a great piece of equipment. PS Engineering's tech support is far and away better than Garmin. Whenever I've had a question, the folks at PS are very helpful (including Mark Scheuer, who sometimes picks up the phone!).
 
Full disclosure....I was interested in adding audio alerts to my 450A but now realize my Serial Number doesn't support "Flightmate". Not all units have these features.
 
I have my panel options narrowed down to the GMA 35c or the PMA 450B. I like that the GMA 35c has easy-to-understand volume and squelch controls for pilot, co-pilot, and passengers. It looks like the PMA 450B only has volume controls for the pilot/copilot together on one knob and passengers on the concentric knob. Is that accurate?
 
After reading more, I'm leaning more toward the PMA 450B. My panel will be done by a shop that isn't a PS Engineering dealer. So my plan is to keep my GMA 340 in the plane and swap in a PMA 450B later on. I know I won't have discrete inputs wired to trigger alerts but I wasn't going to use that feature anyhow. Are there any other disadvantages to my plan?
 
Why not have the 450B done with the rest of the panel? You can buy them at Spruce and elsewhere.
 
Why not have the 450B done with the rest of the panel? You can buy them at Spruce and elsewhere.
If it's a true slide-in replacement that I can do later on, then I can let my bank account heal a little bit between the panel job and the audio panel. That's the main reason.
 
After reading more, I'm leaning more toward the PMA 450B. My panel will be done by a shop that isn't a PS Engineering dealer. So my plan is to keep my GMA 340 in the plane and swap in a PMA 450B later on. I know I won't have discrete inputs wired to trigger alerts but I wasn't going to use that feature anyhow. Are there any other disadvantages to my plan?
Dear iamtheari, we now have the PMA450C that is less expensive (MAP $2295) than our PMA450B. We removed flightmate(R), our IntelliAudio(R) positions are fixed at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, and it does not stream out to a digital video cameras like GARMIN’s Virb. We also removed the count down timer. Otherwise, it does everything the “B” does. While it might only be a $300 difference, that’s $300 to offset the higher fuel prices while still having an amazingly capable audio panel
Mark Scheuer
 
Circling back to this. What recording devices are people actually using the the Bluetooth audio streaming, such as from the PMA 450B or the GMA 245R?

I have used the 245R in another plane to record audio to a VIRB camera. But the VIRB has been discontinued with no hope for a new version, and GoPro still doesn’t have a camera that can record audio from Bluetooth.

It seems like a bad idea to pay for a feature that isn’t compatible with any other product.
 
Circling back to this. What recording devices are people actually using the the Bluetooth audio streaming, such as from the PMA 450B or the GMA 245R?

I have used the 245R in another plane to record audio to a VIRB camera. But the VIRB has been discontinued with no hope for a new version, and GoPro still doesn’t have a camera that can record audio from Bluetooth.

It seems like a bad idea to pay for a feature that isn’t compatible with any other product.
Theoretically you could use a raspberry pi. I haven't tried it though. The second channel can be used for either in or out. Since my wife tends to like to listen to something different than me, I don't have it to spare anyway.
 
Theoretically you could use a raspberry pi. I haven't tried it though. The second channel can be used for either in or out. Since my wife tends to like to listen to something different than me, I don't have it to spare anyway.
Do you have any regrets at all about your audio panel? My primary concern is a good experience for my passengers so the reviews of people who actually fly with their wives or other people carry a lot of weight for me.

I’m honestly leaning toward the PMA 450B or C just because the GMA 350 and GMA 35c seem tedious to change isolation modes. One of the best features of the GMA 340 is that Pilot and Crew isolation are always one button press away. With the seats full, I can have my copilot be a liaison to the rest of the passengers. “Check on the back seaters for me.” Then tap Pilot so the copilot and passengers can talk while I am just on with ATC. Copilot taps Crew and reports that the rest of the people in the plane are still doing okay.

With the new Garmin audio panels, it seems like I would have to push two buttons instead of one for the same change (turn off the pilot/copilot connection and turn on the copilot/passenger connection, or vice versa). The PMA looks like it has one isolation button and you just tap it to switch between the three possible modes. While it could be two button presses, at least it’s the same button twice without any thinking about which buttons to press in which order.

The one thing I don’t know if I will like is the PMA 450’s single volume control for pilot and copilot. Have you ever run into issues with that? I often have different brands of headset in the front two seats of this plane, so I worry about it being hard to dial in the volume level of the intercom and of the radios in a way that will be pleasant to everyone.
 
Do you have any regrets at all about your audio panel? My primary concern is a good experience for my passengers so the reviews of people who actually fly with their wives or other people carry a lot of weight for me.

I’m honestly leaning toward the PMA 450B or C just because the GMA 350 and GMA 35c seem tedious to change isolation modes. One of the best features of the GMA 340 is that Pilot and Crew isolation are always one button press away. With the seats full, I can have my copilot be a liaison to the rest of the passengers. “Check on the back seaters for me.” Then tap Pilot so the copilot and passengers can talk while I am just on with ATC. Copilot taps Crew and reports that the rest of the people in the plane are still doing okay.

With the new Garmin audio panels, it seems like I would have to push two buttons instead of one for the same change (turn off the pilot/copilot connection and turn on the copilot/passenger connection, or vice versa). The PMA looks like it has one isolation button and you just tap it to switch between the three possible modes. While it could be two button presses, at least it’s the same button twice without any thinking about which buttons to press in which order.

The one thing I don’t know if I will like is the PMA 450’s single volume control for the pilot and copilot. Have you ever run into issues with that? I often have different brands of headset in the front two seats of this plane, so I worry about it being hard to dial in the volume level of the intercom and of the radios in a way that will be pleasant to everyone.
The small knob of the concentric control is the volume for the crew and the large knob is for passengers. Keep in mind that every headset that I can think of, has its own volume control, so it shouldn't be an issue if the pilot wants to hear the intercom louder while the copilot may want it lower. The volume control does not affect aircraft radio volume. I don't know of any GA audio panel (or intercom) that has volume controls Com volume.

Special mission audio controllers are different. These panels can connect to 6 or 8 coms. Those audio panels (our PAC45 series) do provide volume control for each radio! In addition, they also have a master Com volume control for all radios.

Something I don't think any other audio panel has is the PMA450B's ability to set the streaming audio volume individually for the pilot, the copilot, and the group of passengers. The pilot, copilot, and the group of passengers can select what they want to hear (BT1, BT2, Music 1, Music 2) PLUS the pilot and copilot can select two sources at the same time. Finally, each can select how they want their streaming audio to be muted.

IMHO, the PMA450B is probably the easiest audio panel to use! Even the most advanced functions will have at most, 2 button presses. But all of the primary radio and intercom functions are one button press.

I hope this helps a little and thank you very much for considering our audio panel.

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering
 
Do you have any regrets at all about your audio panel? My primary concern is a good experience for my passengers so the reviews of people who actually fly with their wives or other people carry a lot of weight for me.

I’m honestly leaning toward the PMA 450B or C just because the GMA 350 and GMA 35c seem tedious to change isolation modes. One of the best features of the GMA 340 is that Pilot and Crew isolation are always one button press away. With the seats full, I can have my copilot be a liaison to the rest of the passengers. “Check on the back seaters for me.” Then tap Pilot so the copilot and passengers can talk while I am just on with ATC. Copilot taps Crew and reports that the rest of the people in the plane are still doing okay.

With the new Garmin audio panels, it seems like I would have to push two buttons instead of one for the same change (turn off the pilot/copilot connection and turn on the copilot/passenger connection, or vice versa). The PMA looks like it has one isolation button and you just tap it to switch between the three possible modes. While it could be two button presses, at least it’s the same button twice without any thinking about which buttons to press in which order.

The one thing I don’t know if I will like is the PMA 450’s single volume control for pilot and copilot. Have you ever run into issues with that? I often have different brands of headset in the front two seats of this plane, so I worry about it being hard to dial in the volume level of the intercom and of the radios in a way that will be pleasant to everyone.
No regrets. The controls are not immediately intuitive, and they are a little wonky with the way the display and buttons don’t line up, but after using it two or three times, you don’t even notice. I honestly haven’t touched the volume knob since the second time I used the panel for the reasons Mark mentioned above.

On longer trips my wife likes to sleep in the back, and she loves that I can turn off the comms to her headset. Her favorite feature.
 
What I think I would miss is the individual control. With the GMA 340, you can adjust comm volume for everyone, headset volume so the comms are easy to hear but not deafening, and intercom volume so you can talk to each other.

The concern I have with a shared intercom volume knob is this: If one person talks loudly and another talks quietly, you run into a situation where you have to turn the intercom volume way up so the quiet person is heard, then turn the quiet person’s headset way down so she isn’t deafened by the loud person, and then the quiet person can’t hear the radios.

With separate intercom volume controls, you can adjust the loud person’s voice down or the quiet person’s voice up to match the comm radios.
 
What I think I would miss is the individual control. With the GMA 340, you can adjust comm volume for everyone, headset volume so the comms are easy to hear but not deafening, and intercom volume so you can talk to each other.

The concern I have with a shared intercom volume knob is this: If one person talks loudly and another talks quietly, you run into a situation where you have to turn the intercom volume way up so the quiet person is heard, then turn the quiet person’s headset way down so she isn’t deafened by the loud person, and then the quiet person can’t hear the radios.

With separate intercom volume controls, you can adjust the loud person’s voice down or the quiet person’s voice up to match the comm radios.

This feature, I have never seen.

But I am extremely satisfied with the PS Engineering products (I have an 8000B, am jonesing for a PMA450B), and their support is simply exemplary. No one can touch 'em (and I thin we've seen proof right here in this thread). In audio panels, PSE are the best, because they are the specialists.
 
This feature, I have never seen.
Just to clarify, I’m only talking about separate intercom volume controls which I believe is a common feature. For example, the GMA 340 has knobs for pilot volume, copilot volume, and passenger volume (accessed by pulling the copilot volume knob out). The GMA 35 has the same three volume controls. I believe the GMA 350 does, as well.

Here’s how I adjust things:

Turn Comm1 and Comm2 volume knobs so they sound good to me. If copilot needs them quieter, use the inline knob on her headset cord. If copilot needs them louder, turn them up and then lower the knob on my headset cord. Then adjust pilot and copilot intercom volume until we can speak normally with each other.

That last step is not possible on the PMA 450 line, so there’s a chance that my copilot will be deafened when I speak, I will not be able to hear her, or she will have to turn down her headset cord knob to the point she can’t hear the radios.

Everyone loved their PS Engineering intercoms. I have a portable one and my old plane even had one of their CD/AM/FM radios in the panel. Hopefully someone with a PMA 450 or similar can explain how you keep loud and quiet talkers from annoying each other or missing radio calls.
 
Just to clarify, I’m only talking about separate intercom volume controls which I believe is a common feature. For example, the GMA 340 has knobs for pilot volume, copilot volume, and passenger volume (accessed by pulling the copilot volume knob out). The GMA 35 has the same three volume controls. I believe the GMA 350 does, as well.

Here’s how I adjust things:

Turn Comm1 and Comm2 volume knobs so they sound good to me. If copilot needs them quieter, use the inline knob on her headset cord. If copilot needs them louder, turn them up and then lower the knob on my headset cord. Then adjust pilot and copilot intercom volume until we can speak normally with each other.

That last step is not possible on the PMA 450 line, so there’s a chance that my copilot will be deafened when I speak, I will not be able to hear her, or she will have to turn down her headset cord knob to the point she can’t hear the radios.

Everyone loved their PS Engineering intercoms. I have a portable one and my old plane even had one of their CD/AM/FM radios in the panel. Hopefully someone with a PMA 450 or similar can explain how you keep loud and quiet talkers from annoying each other or missing radio calls.
I turn it down and tell the quiet people we can’t hear them.
 
I turn it down and tell the quiet people we can’t hear them.
Translation: “Ari needs to ask his wife to help choose an audio panel.” :)
 
Did a slide-in upgrade from a 340 to a 450B last year. Can't say I've had any issues with quiet talkers; usually they just need to position the mic correctly. Other than that having per-seat bluetooth distribution has been awesome, the ability to replay transmissions has saved (minor) embarassment in flight, and the screen makes it super easy to navigate the options. A friend of mine has a gma345 and even though it has some similar features they often don't use them to their full potential because the interface doesn't expose them. Meanwhile the 450 makes it easy to relearn complex stuff by just bouncing around the menu a bit.

Mark was also amazing to work with and answered my emails about (minor) issues personally in rapid time. I'd definitely go with PSE again without hesitation.

Re: audio quality: while the panel replacement itself provided some audio improvment the quality is currently limited by the actual wiring in my plane. You might have similar results with a slide-in replacement.
 
A couple of updates on this. There is something other than the discrete inputs that you would miss if you wired for a GMA 340 and slid in a replacement: Unswitched (alert) audio inputs. The 340 only has maybe 2 while the PMA 450 apparently has 4. My panel needs 5 (insert grumbling about the redundant one here) so I’ll still need mixing resistors to bring 2 into 1 input, but at least it won’t be 5 into 2. I will probably put a PMA 450 in with the new panel rather than waiting, after all.

The second update is that I experimented with my iPhone recording audio from the GMA 245R audio panel in my RV-14. This works with the Virb, so presumably anything else it works with should also work through the PMA 450B since that one will stream to a Virb. Voice memos recorded the audio panel Bluetooth feed. A video did not, gathering only ambient noise. So you can apparently use an iPhone to record audio from your Bluetooth audio panel, but not while recording video.
 
make sure you check your unit's serial number. Not all have the features you mentioned. My 450A doesn't have the Flightmate...for the alerts.
 
A couple of updates on this. There is something other than the discrete inputs that you would miss if you wired for a GMA 340 and slid in a replacement: Unswitched (alert) audio inputs. The 340 only has maybe 2 while the PMA 450 apparently has 4. My panel needs 5 (insert grumbling about the redundant one here) so I’ll still need mixing resistors to bring 2 into 1 input, but at least it won’t be 5 into 2. I will probably put a PMA 450 in with the new panel rather than waiting, after all.

The second update is that I experimented with my iPhone recording audio from the GMA 245R audio panel in my RV-14. This works with the Virb, so presumably anything else it works with should also work through the PMA 450B since that one will stream to a Virb. Voice memos recorded the audio panel Bluetooth feed. A video did not, gathering only ambient noise. So you can apparently use an iPhone to record audio from your Bluetooth audio panel, but not while recording video.
Just wanted to let you know that the PMA450B can actually have a total of 6 unswitched/unmuted inputs. The ADF and DME can be reconfigured to be unswitched/unmuted inputs.
 
Just wanted to let you know that the PMA450B can actually have a total of 6 unswitched/unmuted inputs. The ADF and DME can be reconfigured to be unswitched/unmuted inputs.
Thank you. That’s very helpful information to make this decision. Happy thanksgiving to you and yours.
 
So, for those who have a PS Engineering audio panel with flightmate, are you happy/sad that you did/didn't wire up the flightmate system? What triggers did you use?
 
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