Earthstar Forums

N394DM is now living in Greenville, SC, after a good friend of mine flew it from Plano, Texas yesterday and today. A total flight time of ten hours. He reported the flight went very well and that the aircraft is a delight to fly. The HKS won him over the first hour of flight.
Having had bypass surgery six weeks ago, the docs had a devel of a time getting my heart rate down below 110-120 bpm. Cardioversion failed, so Monday they did a cadiac ablation which did the trick. Having a pulse that high for so long wore my butt out, but better days are ahead. Sure made me feel like I was rhode hard and put up wet!
I'd be interested in knowing if any of you have a Mode S or C in your aircraft. I'd like to put one in this bird, but would like some input as to what works and you're happy with. Also, what is the best product to use on the windshield.
It's going to be November or December before I'll fly again. That's a bummer. But at least I wonn't have to worry about my body's engine crapping out in flight.
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and advice in the past. Thanks to Mark for spending time talking to Tim, my pilot, the other day. He said it helped him a lot.
All the best,
John

Hi John,

A huge hurray for you and also your plane and pilot. That's got to speed your
recovery greatly.

I put a Trig Mode S in my JT2. My plane never had a transponder and coming from
the GA world, I felt naked without it. Also in Southern California, there's a
lot of airspace that's closed if you don't have a transponder. Not only was the
Trig (Aircraft Spruce sells it) the cheapest solution for a new transponder and
encoder (the encoder is built-in), I think it also used the least panel space
and was overall the lightest. The panel portion is basically the control,
display and encoder. The real work happens in a box that I mounted easily on the
floor under my seat.

The avionics tech at Fox Field in Lancaster, CA, who did the certification of my
installation, said he'd put several of them in gliders and everyone has been
happy with them. Mine is certified to 20,000 feet, by the way.

A couple extra features: It sends a traffic position signal to my Garmin Aera
500, which will be displayed on my GPS screen. The signal comes from ATC radar
interrogations of mode C, as I understand it. I haven't been in airspace with
enough traffic to see how well it works, but the technician said it works. I
don't think its going to be as effective as the high-end ZAON system, but its
free if you've got a late mode GPS that accepts the signal.

An advantage, or disadvantage depending on your point of view, is that mode S
displays my N number automatically on ATC radar, but also a performance
category. So not only am I visible on radar, I'm a known quantity. Controllers
don't have to guess what my performance capacity is when they are pointing me
out to other traffic. And it may make it easier for me to get flight following
when I want it.

The other thing is that Trig says it intends to offer an add-on that will make
the system compliant with the new traffic control system that FAA has mandated
for 2020.

As for the windshield, I get great results with Pledge. Much better and way less
effort than Meguiars aircraft window cleaner and polish system. But the first
thing I do is wash thoroughly with plain water.
 Dick O'Reilly