Avionics News September 2015 - 25

LEFT: After
Premier Avionics
finished installing
the Avidyne
IFD540-based
ADS-B system in
the partnership's
Twin Comanche,
there is plenty
of room left for
future upgrades.
BELOW: Like
many airplanes
its age, the Twin
Comanche's
panel sported an
amalgamation of
avionics before
the upgrade.

AFTER

Photos courtesy of Courtesy of Premier Avionics

the two partners sold their shares, "we decided that we
didn't want to surrender the 540 deal in case the new
partners decided they didn't want in on the Avidyne," said
Cook, who bought their shares of the 540. That, indeed, was
the case, "until I won the AEA's ADS-B drawing at EAA
AirVenture in July 2014 and offered to apply the $1,000
award to the IFD540 installation."
When he got the call that he'd won the Aircraft
Electronics Association's random drawing, Cook was
seriously contemplating surrender in the face of his
partners' reluctance and getting a refund on the IFD540.
Before taking this final step, he offered the 540 to the
partnership in a Cessna Cardinal he's been a member of
for more than 20 years, but they were even more cost
conscious than his Twin Comanche partners. The AEA and
AirVenture 2014 turned everything around.
A long-time EAA member who is contemplating the
construction of a Zenith CH750 that will take him into
the 800-foot grass strip near his lakeside cottage north
of Grand Rapids, Cook has been attending AirVenture
for years. He always visits the AEA booth because "it is
the best source of information about upcoming avionics
technology." In 2014, his questions focused on solutions
for meeting the ADS-B mandate, "and they mentioned that
I should enter the drawing."
One of Cook's reluctant partners, a retired airline pilot,
also attended AirVenture 2014, and he got hands-on with
the IFD540 at the Avidyne booth. "He really liked its
flight management system interface," Cook said. "It was
what he was used to in the airlines, and that (along with

BEFORE
the AEA award) put us over the edge of what was a
$25,000 install."
The decision made, Cook sent a detailed request for
installation proposal to 20 avionics shops in Michigan,
Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana that were AEA members,
Avidyne dealers and within a day's flight from Grand
Rapids. The project would install the already purchased
IFD540, Avidyne's AXP340 transponder and AMX240
audio panel, and the associated antenna and localizer/
glideslope indicator, and integrate the system with the
Piper Altimatic IIIB autopilot. "We went with a full
Avidyne stack to ensure that the key components would
all talk to each other," Cook said.
It would remove the Narco DME-190 and its
neighbor in the lower left-hand corner of the panel,
the KT 76 transponder. Also on the way out were the
BendixKing BS2000 ADF system, the BendixKing KI
214 VOR/LOC/GS indicator and internal glideslope
receiver, the BendixKing KMA 20 audio panel, the
Apollo VFR GPS, and the TKM MX 170C nav/comm.
The McCoy MAC-1700 VTX, linked to the existing
indicator, would become the No. 2 nav/comm.
Continued on following page

avionics news

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september

2015

25
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News September 2015
