Avionics News July 2017 - 35

Photos by Frank Noelle

ABOVE: Marcia Noelle, her Cessna 182, and the canine breed that solved a problem with the paint.
OPPOSITE PAGE: To the panel of their 1974 Cessna 182, the Noelles added an Avidyne IFD540, AXP340 and, unseen, an MLB100. Above the 540 is the
FreeFlight Ranger ADS-B unit, which wirelessly connects to an Android tablet.

A handheld Lowrance GPS drove the RMS FlightSoft moving map on a laptop computer that Frank, who is not a pilot,
operated on their flights. When Lowrance stopped updating
the database, it was time to act on the future, to meet the
ADS-B mandate and the eventual reality every owner faces,
selling the airplane. "What would happen to the selling price
if the prospective buyer needed to install several thousand dollars of new avionics?" Marcia wondered.
At Oshkosh, the Noelles started their shopping trip by
attending an informational seminar on ADS-B, which is where
they learned about the Aircraft Electronics Association's
$1,000 ADS-B upgrade drawing. "We skipped out of the presentation a few minutes early and hightailed to the AEA booth
in hangar B before the exhibit halls closed" and filled out the
entry card, Marcia remembered. "On the last day, we got a call
that we'd won the last drawing. It helped, and it was greatly
appreciated."
But this was "the short story," Marcia said. They went
shopping for an ADS-B system with specific goals in mind.
"We're both retired IT people, and we value continued support
of products," she said. She became a pilot two decades ago to
make better use of her time as a software consultant for manufacturers of semiconductors. Living in Porterville, California,
"I was commuting 200 miles (one way) to Santa Barbara."

That changed when she picked up a man who flew his
plane to Porterville to examine the pipe organ at the church
the Noelle's attended. "Hmm. Porterville has an airport; Santa
Barbara has an airport; I should learn to fly," Marcia recalled.
By the time she'd returned from her next trip to Santa
Barbara, Frank had an instructor lined up.
Shortly after earning her private ticket, she bought her
Cessna, which sports a unique Dalmatian paint scheme, and
not just because they are, as Marcia said, "into Dalmatian
dogs." The black vinyl spots cover areas where the paint
didn't stick when the airplane was refinished several years
ago. With the dogs and their airplane, the Noelles live at the
Independence, Oregon, airpark southwest of Salem. There
she's seriously involved with the EAA, its Young Eagles program, the Oregon Pilots Association and has, for the past several years, led the airpark's annual EAA fly-in.
At Oshkosh, after attending the avionics seminar on ADS-B
and winning the $1,000 drawing at the AEA's booth, the
Noelles sought out the avionics manufacturers in the exhibit
hangars and began their conversations by asking each of them
about their policies on continued support of their products. A
number of manufacturers answered their questions with blank
Continued on following page
avionics news

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2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2017