Avionics News July 2014 - 24

It's all relative, and relative most of all to the intent and
value perception of the pilot. For the pilot upgrading for
his or her own utility, for an airplane that's their "keeper,"
straying into higher-dollar upgrades may not be a deal
breaker.

IMMORTAL AVIATION
Continued from page 23

Market price, owner value
It takes less than an investment genius to fathom an owner
hesitating to put $30,000 worth of avionics into an aircraft
worth barely $20,000. Despite the popular image, owners of
Upgrade-path options
such aircraft routinely add new capabilities and newer avionics
Peering into the cockpit of the typical 1950s to 1990s
to their 20-, 25-, 30-, 40- and 50-year-old aircraft. Operational
single typically takes the viewer time traveling back to
requirements prompt some; utility needs drive others.
those eras. No avoiding the reality: Equipment in those
But in the end, it's less about whether
old stacks often lasts as long as the
the owner can ever recoup the investairframes carrying them - albeit not
ment. No, in the end, it's all about satalways with the same level of utility.
THE OWNERS AND PILOTS OF
isfying the owner's ambitions, desires
The FAA is retiring most non-diand needs, and there's a bit of relativity
rectional beacons, and the time is not
OLDER AIRCRAFT, OFTEN FLYING
to this.
long off before only those reliable old
ON ORIGINAL-EQUIPMENT
For example, a $20,000-aircraft ownbroadcast AM radio stations will offer
INSTRUMENTS AND GYROS,
er sets his value expectations based on
an NDB a signal to point toward. The
reviews of used-aircraft advertisements,
VOR (VHF omnidirectional range)
REMAIN PRIME CANDIDATES
in print, online, and if a realistic thinker,
network will shrink.
FOR SERIALLY UPDATING OLDER
aligns that value judgment with ads that
Some older analog-tuned VHF
AIRCRAFT AND, IN THE PROCESS,
most-closely match the owned aircraft.
comm radios work on only half the
Consider a basic four-seat single, sevavailable U.S. frequencies and can't
HELPING REPAIR SHOPS BUILD
eral thousand airframe hours, mid-time
be used at all in other jurisdictions.
LONG-TERM RAPPORT WITH
engine, 40 years old or older, with vinAnd the continued presence of oncetage 1960s avionics; but it's airworthy,
AVIATORS WHO COULD BECOME
state-of-the-art Loran C navigators
in annual, and up-to-date on airworthistill baffles; Loran C shut down in the
LONG-TERM CLIENTS.
ness directives and service bulletins.
U.S. years ago, rendering the navigaStrategizing an update for this panel
tors dead weight.
offers considerable latitude on how to
Of course, we've yet to touch on
update. For the pilot flying behind a couple of analog, waferthe prospects for upgrading flight and air-data instruments -
switch-tuned nav/comms with no storage or memory and no
an entirely different level of options and considerations.
flip-flop capabilities, a step up would be a model a decade
We touched briefly on the prospects for improving an
newer with digital tuning displays and, at a minimum, flip-flop
older panel with a decade-forward step in nav/comms. Confrequency selection.
sider these other areas where the pilot and aircraft could
For low-four figures, the pilot gets a modern radio. Ditto for
benefit from more-modern equipment.
a second-generation IFR GPS in place of a VHF nav or, better,
a now-useless Loran C.
Area navigation: For now, it's all GPS
Step up a level in audio panel and, without breaking into
The earliest IFR-approved GPS navigators hit the general
five figures, the smart-shopping owner and helpful avionics
aviation market 20 years ago, something Garmin celebrated
repair shop can give the old airplane significant new capability
in February of this year. It was February 1994, just two
and utility.
months after the FAA declared initial operational capacity
As a package, this can be accomplished without breaking
for the GPS network. With the GPS 155 TSO'd, pilots for
into five figures, according to estimates from a number of
the first time could use GPS as their primary guidance for
repair shops contacted in the blind. And the high-four-figure
an entire IMC flight - departure through en route phase,
still constitutes a step up but without the long five-figure leap
approach and landing.
of jumping into one of the newer all-in-one GPS/MFD/nav/
Other models and other companies quickly followed,
comm boxes.
and though WAAS GPS approved under newer TSOs offers
24

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Avionics News July 2014

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