For those of you in the east, and especially southeast, our Mooney is currently in Lafayette, GA, getting an Aspen installed by Gann Aviation. The price before the $1000 drop was $10400 installed; not sure if it will go down any now because I haven't asked. Tim Mathison is the aviation tech (actually, he owned the business before Mr. Gann bought him out), and he's done Bonanza Aspen installs before. They do good work. The avionics shop number is (706) 638-7921. They'll put in a G600 for about $24k, if you're so inclined. Carlus Gann is an A36 owner (a 350hp Machen conversion), a T-34 owner, aircraft hose manufacturer, custom engine rebuilder, and overall gearhead. You could eat off his shop floor. The engine shop's number is (706) 638-3034.

The bottom line w/my A&P. $9995 installed ($8995.00 unit an $1000 install). He probably is getting the unit for a net $8100 and install is really $1900....who knows.

Penn Avionics was $11,551.00. Penn's quote broke down as follows:

$8176.95 Unit

$3000.00 Installation

$ 93.10 Parts

$ 181.75 some other charge

$11,551.00 and included removing DG/HSI, install sensor and interface w pitot/static, slave to Century III, etc

Last evening I attended an Aspen open house, hosted by my favorite avionics shop, Ron Collins Aviation Electronics. Ron sold his company to four of his employees, the rest continuing as employees. They moved the company from Evansville across the Ohio River to Henderson Kentucky. They are working on their 18th Aspen installation.

The Aspen folks showed the unit to me, and answered my questions. I watched their promotional video and Powerpoint presentation, and participated in a Q&A. At the end of the program, I asked several more questions on behalf of several of you.

The current product is a PFD. The Multi-Function Display (MFD) will be out next month. The units are physically identical, just different software. Each contains a battery for backup and should last five years. Because of the factory maintenance policy of some companies, I asked about battery replacement. Less than $50 and is field replaceable. They don't want to be in the refurbishing business.

If the PFD fails, the MFD reverts to PFD mode. The PFD has airspeed and altitude tapes, VSI tape, and full RMI functions for dual VOR and dual GPS. ADF and DME support in a couple of months. The VSI tape appears when the airplane is climbing or decending, otherwise it disappears. The PFD incorporates all of the annunciator functions required in any GPS installation.

GPSS (Roll Steering) is standard, as is an altitude alerter. Display of MDA or DH is an additional and separate displayed item. Standard OAT sensor allows the continuous display of wind direction and strength, in addition to a wind arrow. If your autopilot has a flight director, the command bars are displayed on the PFD.

The PFD provides the HSI functions to just about all the King, Century, S-Tec autopilots. It does not provide attitude information to the autopilots for two reasons. First, the FARs require a backup of Attitude, Altitude and Airspeed for all EFIS systems, and second, Aspen would have to certify their attitude (AHRS) for each autopilot. They have petitioned the FAA that their reversion to PFD ability provided by their MFD should satisfy the requirement for backup. Aspen says that the FAA has agreed and the paperwork is pending with the FAA.

The KI256 (KFC200) emulation is ready for release as soon as the approvals are in hand. Century attitude will follow. Understand that autopilot support is provided now for the HSI, even if you only have a DG. To get rid of the attitude indicators, King first and Century next, will require both PFD and MFD installation (about $17k total)

Larry O. asked about Track Up in Arc mode. Yes and no. Track Up can be pilot selected for the MFD, but not on the HSI portion of the PFD. They may incorporate HSI Track Up in a later release. They did say that there have been a few requests for Track Up on the PFD HSI. One Aspen fellow recalled a request from a retired Florida airline pilot, another from a fellow from Kenosha. The other Aspen guy recalled requests from a windsurfing print shop owner and another from a real estate guy. In any event, it will do what the EX500 does not. Each unit is powered independently. The displayed data, nearby airports etc all come from the GPS. If airports are shown on the 430 or 480, they will be displayed on the Aspen.

Bob S. commented that the display appeared cluttered. Press the TPS button, the airspeed and altitude tapes go away, showing a nice clean and large attitude indicator. Another button toggles between 360 and Arc mode for the HSI. Bob also commented about the unit sticking out from the panel, flush mount is an option. They had pictures of the flush mount.

Because the PFD comes with a GPS receiver standard, it allows for an interesting feature. Although the pilot cannot program the GPS or do anything with it, should our panel GPS die, the Aspen will retain the last flightplan in memory and use the VFR GPS to complete the flight.

In case of a total electrical system failure, the Aspen internal battery will power the unit and it's GPS receiver.

CK L. asked about Synthetic Vision. It is working on their demo unit and will be released 2Q2010, possibly sooner. Jeppview should be ready in early 2010 and Jeppesen airport diagrams will be ready later this year for the MFD and will be geo-referenced with the airplane progressing along taxiways.

Jorge D. asked about 3D terrain for Argentina and the rest of South America. The Aspen folks says that depends on what Jeppesen offers. Jeppesen provides data subscriptions, not Aspen. The decision has not yet been made about where the terrain database will be stored.  It may be loaded onto a memory module or left on a mini SD card and kept in the port as in the Garmin 430/530.

I really liked the unit but would like to see the Garmin offerings (G600).