Tru Trak vizion

simtech

simtech

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Simtech
I installed the tru trak vizion in my cherokee under the watchful eye of my AP. It took about 26 hours of my time. That included removing my old in-op century system and the adf boat anchor antenna and wiring. The ground check worked out fine and today I did the flight test with my cfi.

It was bumpy out and the AP held alt and course pretty darn well. Everything worked fine but on the rnav it was doing s turns. Not sure why called TT and they gave me an adjustment to try. So I will next flight. The nav data is coming from my GX60 and I took off and set 3k ft and direct to a nearby airport. It climbed up and leveled off all while turning direct. It was great. Lots to learn.

look at that stuck Alt! Hahaha
 
nice! I'm sure you'll get the kinks worked out.
 
Does the TruTrak track a heading yet or just GPS course. Curious.

For me flying a heading based on ATC vectors is helpful.
 
Just a GPS track...if you have an aspen E5 then it will track heading. What I did today was if I needed to change course I'd press the CWS switch and make my heading change then release and then it tracks the new trak. Not perfect but gets it's close.
 
simtech said:
Just a GPS track...if you have an aspen E5 then it will track heading. What I did today was if I needed to change course I'd press the CWS switch and make my heading change then release and then it tracks the new trak. Not perfect but gets it's close.
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Thanks for sharing simtech... Looks pretty sweet.
 
NordicDave said:
Thanks for sharing simtech... Looks pretty sweet.
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Any time...I couldn't find a while bunch of info out there so if I can help with what I know id be glad too.

One flight in and I like it so far. Alot to learn though and I'm glad I took my cfi up for the flight test portion as I was head down alot and fumbling through the steps and he was my watch out and helped as well. For under $5500 it can't be beat as far as I'm concerned.
 
Simtech, I had a chuckle initially reading your post "It was bumpy out and the AP held alt and course pretty darn well." First read, I thought your A&P was on the test flight and he did the alt hold. Like well, why did you get an autopilot then? :biggrin:
 
simtech said:
Just a GPS track...if you have an aspen E5 then it will track heading. What I did today was if I needed to change course I'd press the CWS switch and make my heading change then release and then it tracks the new trak. Not perfect but gets it's close.
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So is the Aspen E5 a part of the plan? Also is this STC'd for Piper Arrows?
 
and what about the garmin G5 thingy, can u tie that to the tru trak and have a heading bug?
 
what the...…..

well then I guess you'll just have to magenta line it.
 
So you're saying the Tru Trak tracks true? It would seem the Vizion is not in your field of vision.
 
Jack C-137 said:
So is the Aspen E5 a part of the plan? Also is this STC'd for Piper Arrows?
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Only way I would do the aspen is if my whole vacuum system fails at once and I mean everything associated with it. Haha

Yep arrows are on the STC as well as long as you don't have a g1000. Why it states that I don't know.
 
eman1200 said:
what the...…..

well then I guess you'll just have to magenta line it.
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Nope again. I have flown one in a Cessna 177B, you can dial in GPS track on the AP control head much like a heading bug on a gyro. If GPS is not available it will hold wings level very well and you can dial in degrees of bank left/right to make it turn using its internal AHRS.

OR!

Hold the CWS button down, turn to desired heading and release the button, it will now fly that GPS track (if GPS is available)
 
asicer said:
So you're saying the Tru Trak tracks true? It would seem the Vizion is not in your field of vision.
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It tracks a GPS track and it has a built in solid state gyro if you lose GPS and it will lock on a given track.

It's not in my immediate field of view but easily seen and easy to make adjustments. Where it is is where my old century autoflite head unit was and Trutrak said they have had a nothing but positive feedback for that mounting location. I was concerned with visibility but it's really a non issue.
 
bnt83 said:
Nope again. I have flown one in a Cessna 177B, you can dial in GPS track on the AP control head much like a heading bug on a gyro. If GPS is not available it will hold wings level very well and you can dial in degrees of bank left/right to make it turn using its internal AHRS.
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hhmmm, how is "dialing in a gps track" not flying the magenta line?
 
eman1200 said:
hhmmm, how is "dialing in a gps track" not flying the magenta line?
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No waypoints needed to get a GPS track. Magenta line requires waypoints in a flightplan.

Its hilarious because that 177B is hooked to a cheap ass boat anchor GPS that doesn't even have a nav database in it.
 
pburger said:
TruTrak says they're working on G5 integration, and that it should be coming soon.
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That smells interesting! The GAD29B outputs analog L/R in just about any flavor so hopefully they come up with something.
 
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Congratulations on the new AP! I’ve been flying my C177 for 8 months now with the TruTrak and absolutely love it.

One tip to offer if you haven't already figured it out; when doing constant speed descents using altitude preselect, set your target altitude and vertical speed, make a preliminary reduction of the throttle, then use the trim up/down indicator to fine tune your throttle setting instead of adjusting the trim. (i.e. when you get the trim down indication reduce throttle slightly, trim up indication increase throttle slightly) This technique is also very handy to follow a glideslope on a coupled LPV or LNAV+V (vertical advisory) approach. (Pretty sure you can't do those with the GX60 though)

If I'm assigned vectors by ATC I set the new track using a couple of methods depending on the amount of turn requested. Since mine doesn't respond very fast to shallow turns of less than about 90 degrees (TruTrak is looking into it), I'll use the CWS button to turn to the new heading using the DG and then release the CWS, which locks in the new track to match the desired heading on the DG. Otherwise, I turn the track selection slightly past the new heading and then turn it back to match the current track display once I'm on the new heading. From there I just monitor the DG to make sure it stays on the assigned heading and make small changes to stay on the desired heading, which usually doesn't change much.
 
Legally you are limited to 700’ which makes LPV approaches (most I’ve seen go down to 200’) not legal.
Also didn’t see GX60 in list of approved gps units.
 
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teejayevans said:
Legally you are limited to 700’ which makes LPV approaches (most I’ve seen go down to 200’) not legal.
Also didn’t see GX60 in list of approved gps units.
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Why would having to disconnect it for the last 700’ make it not legal to use for the rest of approach?
 
Dbarbee said:
Why would having to disconnect it for the last 700’ make it not legal to use for the rest of approach?
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Well, since you can’t fly the approach as written, technically doesn’t that make it illegal? Don’t know, but since you mentioned LPV, I thought I should add the little known caveat so others would know.
 
teejayevans said:
Legally you are limited to 700’ which makes LPV approaches (most I’ve seen go down to 200’) not legal.
Also didn’t see GX60 in list of approved gps units.
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The GX60 is not on the list but I have submitted the appropriate paper work to trutrak to get it added. I talked with them in great length about it before I bought it. Plus if a dang old Lawrence airmap can drive it my approach certified panel mount GPS should be no problem. So the GX60 will be added soon.
 
teejayevans said:
Well, since you can’t fly the approach as written, technically doesn’t that make it illegal? Don’t know, but since you mentioned LPV, I thought I should add the little known caveat so others would know.
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Nope, just can't use a/p below the limiting altitude. There are plenty of big airplane autopilots that have limits like that, just gotta click it off before you get to the limit.
 
Thanks for sharing! We are putting an Aspen E5 in the club 172 and eventually plan to put in an AP. I am pushing strongly for this one!
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
What’s the installation cost, typically?
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They say 20 to 30 hours so depending on your shops rates. I did the install myself with my A&P oversight and it took me about 25 hours and that included removing my old in-op century unit. It wasn't a hard install at all
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
What’s the installation cost, typically?
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The shop that did my install charged me $2,500 and estimated it took him about 30 hours. (A little more than he originally estimated but way more than TruTrak’s overly optimistic estimate for a first time install.

Besides a missing part in the kit (which TruTrak promptly overnighted so it didn’t delay the install), my install was pretty straight forward and uneventful.
 
The GX60 is now on the approved GPS list. For those that have the GX60 and the TruTrak, you must enable MovMap extended data to get the TruTrak into GPSS mode. The GX60 is unlike others in that it puts GPSS data out over the RS-232 instead of the Arinc 429. So far Im really liking this AP, it flies really well and holds on altitude and track dang well in the south east bumpy weather.
 
FYI, We just had a TruTrak Vision aka BendixKing AeroCruze 100 installed in our C-182Q. We are very happy with the installation. So far we are very happy with the installation and operations of the AP.
 
MJW_Pilot said:
FYI, We just had a TruTrak Vision aka BendixKing AeroCruze 100 installed in our C-182Q. We are very happy with the installation. So far we are very happy with the installation and operations of the AP.
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Can you please give us more info? Total installed cost? GPS source? How well does it work? Negatives?
Thank you
 
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