Aviation Consumer August 2017

F I R S T W O R D 2 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 L E T T E R S CONTACT US Editorial Office 860-614-1987 (EDITORIAL ONLY) Email: consumereditor@hotmail.com Subscription Department P.O. Box 8535 Big Sandy, TX 75755-8535 800-829-9081 Online Customer Service: www.aviationconsumer.com/cs Used Aircraft Guides: 203-857-3100 Email: customer_service@belvoir.com For weekly aviation news updates, see www.avweb.com DIAMOND VS CIRRUS I read the report on the Diamond DA50 in the June 2017 Aviation Con- sumer with interest. Diamond is ambi- tious and impressive. I also notice that the DA50 has a steerable nosegear. As a current Diamond DA40 owner who has experienced a pilot seat sliding back- ward in the seat rails while climbing out (in a Cessna), I very much appreciate the non-moving seats in my Diamond. The airplane came with a three-point seatbelt airbag and overall seems like an extremely crashworthy machine. As for whole-airplane parachutes, I’ve given quite a bit of instruction in a Flight Design CT LSA and once found the sky ahead filled with seagulls and wondered if I would shortly need to pull the red handle, but I’m ambivalent about it when I’m flying the Diamond. For me, the cost of servicing the CAPS in the Cirrus was one of the negatives in buying a used one. Will Hubin via email In your recent Diamond coverage you touched upon a pretty important point that could eventually give Dia- mond an advantage over Cirrus, and that’s autonomy. As you pointed out, Diamond has being flying with an autoland system in the DA42. As a charter pilot who has dealt with my share of skeptical passengers, the idea of an airplane being able to land itself could have more credibility than a whole-air- plane parachute, which on the sur- face is pretty crude by comparison. Chuck Loeberman via email MORE ON THE CESSNA CJ2+ As a longtime Aviation Consumer subscriber and the owner of a 2008 Cessna CJ2+ light jet, I agree with your conclusion in the HondaJet article sidebar (July 2017 issue) that the CJ2+ is a great value in the used light jet market. As for the Alpine Edition, Cessna announced it for the CJ2+, but to date has not had it certified. The company had one demo Alpine Edition CJ2+ flying, but none have been delivered to customers. What was not men- tioned is that Rockwell Col- lins recently certified and completed the first customer deliv- eries of the Proline Fusion in the Cessna CJ3. It is expected that the company will next be working on a certified Fusion interface for the CJ2+. The expected cost is around $350,000 and the Proline Fusion has ADS-B and WAAS LPV capability as standard equipment. The cockpit picture you used in the article was an older CJ2 panel with Garmin GNS530. The CJ2+ has Proline 21 avionics and the FMS3000 nav system. Finally, for folks shopping the Citation market, a valuable resource is the Citation Jet Pilots (CJP) owner pilot association. It’s at www.cita- tionjetpilots.com. Allen Wolpert via email IGNITION BOOSTING Sorry, but after reading Jim Cava- nagh’s article in the July 2017 Avia- tion Consumer about the Champion SlickStart ignition booster, I don’t get it. I have owned three turbocharged Piper Aerostars—a 601P, 602P and a 700P—and all three of them had the will-not-start-when-hot problem. In the summer, I timed my fuel stops with long lunches. Finally, by the time I owned the 700P there was a solution: a better starter. As an electrical engineer, it was clear to me that if the starter turned the ignition faster, the built- in stock magneto would put out more spark. A quick search found Sky-Tec starters, which work on nor- mal and counter-rotating engines. I found that since they spin so fast, my hot and cold starting problems were gone. My point is why further complicate last century’s design with an unnecessary bandage. The engine simply needs a modern starter. I have no affiliation with Sky-Tec (and Hartzell Engine Technologies)—I’ve never even spoken with the com- pany. I simply bought its starters and found that they just worked for me. Perhaps there should be another ar- ticle that digs deeper into my theory. Dennis Wisnosky via email We’ve heard similar stories from other readers, but also from ones who have fast- turning starters and still have problems with hot starts. We’ll dig deeper in an upcoming article. While the iStart product isn’t an ignition booster, product developer Damon Berry weighed in. “Engines with very slow-turning Delco starters may be part of the problem and might benefit from a faster turn rate be- cause there is prop momentum carrying it through when there is uneven cylinder fir- ing at the beginning of a start sequence,” he said. Remember that the real problem with hot starts is not necessarily getting it to fire, but instead getting it to keep running after it starts. A faster spinning starter won’t be much help. Find us on Facebook Badge CMYK / .ai August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 3 C H E C K L I S T Garmin’s ultramodern GNC255 is a cost-effec- tive alternative to a second GTN navigator. PS Engineering’s PAR200A includes two choices of transceivers in a feature- rich audio console. For older aircraft, budget modestly for antenna and wiring upgrades. In the stack at the top, the Garmin GNC255 navcomm backs up the GTN650, but ask yourself if you really need a second navigation ra- dio. A standalone comm is cheaper and easier to install. On the verge of extinction nearly 10 years ago, the standalone navcomm radio barely soldiers on today. While there are few choices for new ones (there’s a much larger market for standalone comm radios), a navcomm installation could make sense for basic panels and for ad- vanced ones to back up a GPS. Hang on to your wallet. If the panel hasn’t seen a radio upgrade in a while, you could shell out more money than you anticipated to upgrade the an- tenna system and gut out old wiring. In this upgrade guide, we’ll scan the VHF radio market and first talk a bit about upgrade strategies. BUY WHAT YOU NEED Before diving into a navcomm instal- lation, consider how you fly. If you haven’t dialed in a VOR frequency or flown an ILS approach in years, you probably don’t need a full-up Navcomm Buyer’s Guide: Equip For How You Fly If you use ground-based navs, Garmin’s GNC255 is a modern standout, while PS Engineering’s PAR200A saves space as an integrated comm and audio panel combo. by: Larry Anglisano navcomm. For VFR missions, tablet navigation apps and portable GPS navigators might be good enough to skip ground-based navaids altogether. But even for light IFR, you might- want two comm radios and will need one navigation radio with approach capability, including glideslope. Another upgrade scenario might be a well-equipped panel flown IFR with a modern primary system (maybe a Garmin GNS, GTN or Avidyne IFD navigator), which has a secondary navcomm that’s on the fritz. Maybe it’s an old Narco or King KX170B. Here you’ll need to decide if replacing it with a modern comm radio is all you really need. Save some money and shop the used equipment market. There are plenty to choose from, but know- ing what’s compatible is key. You’ll want to solicit help from a trusted shop because radios come in differ- ent voltages and various versions that might not have a glideslope receiver, audio amplifier or the circuitry to properly work with the existing OBS indicator. This is true of the vener- able BendixKing KX155 series—a popular used-market seller that falls in the $3000 price range for a newer model that’s been well cared for. As we’ll point out, a single bench repair can add $1500 to the investment. Maybe a WAAS GPS installation is the better choice and more so if an ADS-B upgrade is done at the same time. If you’ve priced an ultramodern navcomm installation like Garmin’s GNC255, you’ll know the price can soar above $6000. For that buy-in, it could make sense to consider a used Garmin GNS430W. It will cost more, but the ability to fly GPS approaches is generally worth the price delta, plus it’s an approved position source for interfacing with an ADS-B Out system. We’ve heard from buyers who scored decent ones for a $7000 investment, after install. If you determine that a standalone navcomm (or comm transceiver) fits your flying and budget, you’ll need to determine if it fits the existing stack without pricey rework. There are plenty of options for avoiding that. Here’s a rundown of the latest gear. GARMIN The two transceivers in Garmin’s lineup are the $1995 GTR225 and $4495 GNC255, which has a VOR, localizer and glideslope receiver. AVIONICS MARKET SCAN 4 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 Icom’s A220, top, was born from the company’s land- mobile product line and has durable controls, a bright display and a smart feature set. The PS Engineering PA- R200A, middle, chan- nels the Trig TY91 remote transceiver, bottom. The transceiver is also channeled with Trig’s miniature control head, shown in the middle. The internal comm and nav boards trickle down from Garmin GTN- series navigators. We like that the ra- dios have chassis-mounted cooling fans, USB ports on the bezel and are available with 16-watt transmitters (10 watts is standard) for high-flying applications. This higher power spec is common in the jet world where talking longer distances is a require- ment. You won’t find touchscreen on these radios. Instead, they use tradi- tional buttons and knobs that have a rugged feel. The volume control, squelch control and navigation radio IDENT control layout and function- ality is carried over from Garmin’s old GNS430 and 530 navigators. Both radios are the same size, measuring 1.65 inches high by 6.25 inches wide by 10.4 inches deep. Garmin built some smart tech into the radios, starting with an internal frequency database (airport and VOR frequencies) that’s loaded through the bezel USB port. You can search the database by airport identifier just like you do with a GPS navigator, and since the radios accept GPS position through a serial data connection, the radio shows distance, speed and time to the sta- tion. For ground-based navigation duties, the GNC255 has an onscreen CDI. As we would expect in a modern radio (and carried over from the SL30 and SL40 radios they replaced) the GNC and GTR radios allow you to monitor the audio of the standby frequency without having to tune off channel. Contact www.garmin.com. PS ENGINEERING’S INTEGRATED PAR200A A couple of years ago, PS Engineer- ing teamed with U.K.-based Trig Avionics and designed the PAR200A. On the surface, this is a signature PS Engineering audio control sys- tem, IntelliVox four-seat intercom and wireless cabin entertainment controller. Smartly, PS Engineering also included comm radio control in the feature set. It doesn’t manu- facture the VHF radio; the PAR200A connects with Trig’s TY91 remote transceiver through an RS-232 serial data interface. Frequency tuning and radio control is done directly on the audio panel’s backlit LCD display. Since it’s a two-piece system (it’s actually three systems in one, if you count the intercom) and requires audio jack wiring throughout the cabin, plan on a sizable installation. The remote radio is 5.5 inches long and 1.7 inches high, the right size for mounting in an avionics bay or behind the instrument panel. But combining all of the audio functions in a single control head makes it a worthy option if you want a simple and uncluttered radio stack. While integrated, there’s at least some failsafe built in with redun- dant power inputs to the VHF radio and audio panel. Standard features include Bluetooth connectivity, a duplex telephone interface that gen- erates a ringtone for incoming calls, a five-frequency comm radio storage and memory bank, plus unswitched audio inputs for connecting atten- tion-getting aural alerts. We found the PAR200A’s feature set intuitive and easy to navigate, which is the way a comm radio and audio panel has to be. Saying that, there is a lot to the user interface, but the features you use most—like changing comm frequencies—are kept simple. Tuning the radio is done with dedicated channeling knobs on the right side of the bezel. Tune it in the standby side and push the outer button to transfer it to the active window. Select which VHF audio you want to listen to (and which radio you want to transmit on) with selector keys to the left of the display. The audio panel can accommodate two comms and two nav radios, although Trig doesn’t make a VHF nav receiv- er; the system takes audio input from an existing standalone radio. The intercom is full functioned August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 5 WHICH NAV DISPLAYS WILL PLAY? Before EFIS, navcomm installations were straightforward. Simply wire to the OBS indicator or for advanced panels, connect to an analog HSI like a King KCS55A or Century NSD360. These days, retrofit EFIS—especially new ones like Garmin’s G5—have digital databuses that might not be read- ily compatible with analog nav receivers. This could have you rethinking your upgrade strategy if you’re sourcing an older radio on the used market. Some navcomms might share a mechanical CDI with a GPS, using external switching relays. EFIS installations are much cleaner because all of the switch- ing is handled digitally, without external relays and mode source switches. But the software has to be compatible. Aspen Avionics made the upgrade process easy early on when it designed the Evolution retrofit PFD. While the display doesn’t accommodate analog nav signal inputs directly, its optional external ACU (analog converter unit) converts raw analog data to a digital format. This is what makes traditional radios like the KX155, for example, Aspen compatible. Garmin’s recently introduced G5 directional instrument with EHSI doesn’t have an external converter for analog nav input. Instead, it connects directly with Garmin’s own GNC255 navcomm, plus the discontinued Garmin AT SL30 radio over a digital databus. Since it can’t receive analog nav data, it’s not compatible with vintage radios including the BendixKing KX155 or the current KX155A. That technical snag misses a sizable chunk of the budget upgrade market, in our estimation. The G5 will work with all vintages of the GNS430 and 530, plus the current GTN650 and 750 navigators be- cause they can be wired in directly over the digital bus. If you don’t have EFIS at all, Garmin’s GI-106B (and older GI-106A) is fully compatible with the GNC255. Of course, ditch the nav altogether and compatibility isn’t an issue. and includes many of the features PS Engineering builds into its flagship audio panels, including entertain- ment input with custom muting con- trol, allowing you to set when and how the entertainment audio mutes. There’s also a music volume control. The PAR200A is priced at $2995 with the TY91L and installation kit. The base system has a 6-watt VHF transmitter (this isn’t a powerhouse), and the $5095 version has the high- powered (16 watts) TY91H. Contact www.ps-engineering.com. TRIG AVIONICS If you already have an audio panel, Trig sells the TY series with a space- saving miniature control head. It fits in a standard 2.25-inch instrument cutout or any area on the panel that can accommodate the 2.4-inch-wide by 1.8-inch-high chassis assembly. Total system weight is roughly one pound. The controller only occupies roughly three inches behind the panel, which offers flexible mount- ing options, especially for backup. For stack mounting, the 10-watt TY96 comm transceiver stands 1.3 inches high, has a two-place stereo intercom with auxiliary inputs for au- ral alerts, a built-in playback recorder for listening to the last transmission and Trig’s “push step” function, which speeds frequency tuning. The TY96 can interface with Garmin GPS navigators to display frequencies based on position, plus there is an internal airport database (CSV files are loaded through a bezel- mounted USB port) capable of storing 200 frequencies and identifiers. The TY97 is a version with a 16- watt comm transmitter. The TY96 is street priced at $1998 and the higher- powered TY97 is $2699. Contact www.trig-avionics.com. ICOM IC-A220 You might recognize the Icom name from the amateur radio market and from its long-standing line of avia- tion portable transceivers. But Icom’s 6 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 panel-mounted A220 VHF radio is a lost ball in the tall grass, perhaps the result of shops not suggesting it as often as other brands. That’s unfor- tunate because we think Icom’s latest A220 has a decent blend of quality and generous features. Installation might be streamlined because Icom offers wiring adapters for plug-and- play with some vintage radios. The two-pound A220 fits in a standard radio stack and measures 6.0 by 1.0 by 10.0 inches. It has an 8-watt transmitter and like its portable brethren, comes standard with a frequency memory bank with programmable six-character channel name (it can store 200 channels), a NOAA weather channel receiver, plus one-touch 121.5 MHz emergency frequency access. The Dual Watch function monitors the active and standby channels simultaneously. The newer OLED (organic LED) display is a big improvement over the display used in older versions of the radio. It provides better wide-angle viewing (the specs say almost 180 degrees) and better contrast when splashed with bright sun. The radio can be wired for a two- place voice-activated intercom and the feature set includes a timer, plus an option for external frequency transfer with a yoke-mounted switch. The A220 helps battle receiver noise with a function Icom calls ANL, for automatic noise limiter. This is internal filtering for stray noise that might work into the receiver. This might be some help in fabric aircraft where the VHF comm antenna has a marginal ground plane. It shouldn’t be used as a sub- stitute for substandard wiring. Speaking of wiring, the A220 can be connected with Garmin and BendixKing GPS receivers through an RS-232 serial port for loading in frequencies, based on position. Got fat fingers in turbulence? The radio has a dial and key lock so you don’t inadvertently tune it off frequency. Icom offers a TSO’d version, which may not be required. We’ve seen the non-TSO A220 street priced as a low as $1100 and the TSO ver- sion around $1500. Contact www. icomamerica.com. BENDIXKING, TKM Once the king of all navcomms, the BendixKing KX155 (and KX165, TKM Avionics has been showing the MX155 prototype, top photo, which is designed as a direct replacement for the venerable King KX155, shown on a repair bench in the bottom photo. which is compatible with mechanical HSI systems) is officially out of pro- duction. We still consider them good used market deals, but consider that replacement gas discharge displays— a common failure item—aren’t avail- able. Instead, there’s an upgrade path that modifies the KX155/165 radio with an LED display, and the later KX155A/165A with LCD displays. It can run just north of $1500. Another option is BendixKing’s KX155/165 factory refurbishment program. For $1750, you get the new display, new display lenses, a new bezel, control knobs and a one-year warranty. Despite recent rumors, there is still field support for repairs that may be needed for these radios. If you don’t want to sink big money in an old KX155, TKM Avionics is working on the new MX155 nav- comm, a digital plug-and-play replace- ment with modern processing and touchscreen. It’s expected later this fall in the $3000 price range and the com- pany says aircraft owners can easily do the swap out and sign it off with a logbook entry. We’ll cover the MX155 and the updated line of TKM radios when the MX155 is certified. As a primer: Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company was saved from the ashes a few years ago by a new buyer who invested big in updating the MX-series replacement radio line, which includes the MX300 for replac- ing old Cessna 300-series navcomms. The product line also includes models for replacing old Narco radios, includ- ing the MX11 and MX12. TKM sells direct to customers, plus it’s building a dealer network. The idea of a plug-and-play radio upgrade isn’t new. The company sold over 37,000 of them over the years. Visit www.tkmavionics.com. BendixKing still sells the KX155A/165A navcomms. The radios operate on 28 volts, so if you have a 14-volt electrical system, the installa- tion will require a voltage converter. BendixKing recommended the Mid- Continent Instruments TC-series con- verters, which sell for around $900. BendixKing still sells the “flatpack” standalone KN53 nav radio and KY197A (14-volt) and KY196A (28- August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 7 PRODUCT TYPICAL RETAIL RECEIVER COMMENTS BENDIXKING KX165A BENDIXKING KX155A $5990 $5500 VHF comm, nav and glideslope. Earlier-generation KX155 discontin- ued. BENDIXKING KY196A BENDIXKING KY197A $5590 $5990 VHF comm. Standalone flat-pack comm radios that differ by input voltage. BENDIXKING KN53 $7290 VHF nav. Standalone version of the KX155, with built-in glideslope. BECKER AR6201 $1700 VHF comm. Two-piece radio, compact. GARMIN GNC255 $4495 VHF comm, nav and glideslope. Advanced feature set including fre- quency and facility database, plus databus for GPS interface. GARMIN GTR225 $1995 VHF comm. Comm-only version of the GNC255. ICOM IC-A220 $1100 non-TSO $1500 TSO’d VHF comm, NOAA Weather. Generous feature set, high-quality display, low price. PS ENGINEERING PAR200A $2995 Remote VHF comm via Trig TY91 or TY92. Combines audio control, four-seat intercom and VHF comm control in one console. TKM MX155 TBD VHF comm, nav and glideslope. Designed as a plug-and-play replacement for the KX155. Ex- pected Fall 2017. TRIG TY92/91 TRIG TY97/96 $2999/$1325 $2699/$1998 VHF comm. VHF comm. TY91/92 are remote mounted and the TY97/96 are stack mounted. VAL COM 2000 VAL NAV 2000 VAL INS 429 $1125 $1295 $1995 VHF comm. VHF nav. VHF nav. Slim footprint, budget priced. COM 2000 is plug-and-play with SL40 comm radio. volt) comm transceivers. Equipped with a glideslope receiver, the KN53 has a eye-widening price of $7290. The KY197A starts at $5990. Contact www.bendixking.com MORE SPACE SAVERS: VAL AVIONICS, BECKER While it gets little exposure, Salem, Oregon-based VAL Avionics has been in business for over 30 years and makes the COM 2000, which is plug- and-play compatible with the discon- tinued Garmin AT SL40 radio. It’s a slim radio that stands barely 1 inch tall and weighs 3.25 pounds. The COM 2000 has an 8-watt transmitter, 15-frequency storage bank with user-defined alphanu- meric channel identifiers, plus it has an RS-232 serial port for com- municating with experimental EFIS displays. The accompanying nav radio is the $1295 NAV 2000, which shares the same slim footprint as the COM 2000 and is equipped with a VOR and glideslope receiver. It’s also compatible with a variety of OBS indicators, including the BendixKing KI209 and Garmin GI106A/B. Worth mentioning is VAL’s $1995 INS 429 integrated navigation sys- tem, which has a self-contained VHF nav receiver and electronic CDI. It fits in a standard 3-inch instrument cutout and is also compatible with a variety of GPS navigators. Contact www.valavionics.com. As part of the Compact Line of products, which also includes a tran- sponder, Becker sells the two-piece AR6201. With a blue-on-white LCD display, the radio transmits 6 watts of The VAL Avionics COM 2000 and INS 429 nav head are budget-priced space savers. The INS 429 display has a self-con- tained VHF nav receiv- er, including glideslope. power in a 12-volt electrical system. It also has a four-place voice-activated intercom, entertainment input ca- pability, plus a 99-frequency storage bank, which will automatically store the last nine frequencies used. We like that the RT6201 (that’s the remote radio) supports two control heads, which may be useful in tan- dem-seat aircraft. It also has a scan mode, which monitors for chatter on the standby frequency. We found the radio advertised for around $1700, which we think is a decent value. Contact www.beckerusa.com. A BIT ON PERFORMANCE Keep in mind that none of the radios we cover here will provide accept- able performance without healthy antenna systems, which also in- cludes the coaxial cable and con- nectors. If the aircraft hasn’t seen an avionics upgrade in a while, you should plan on a complete rewiring job and be pleasantly surprised if the shop thinks the old wiring is good enough for flawless performance. That doesn’t happen often. Comm and navigation antenna replacement can get into some money, especially on pressurized and fabric- covered aircraft. As we’ve discussed in previous technical articles, you can of- ten judge the health of a VHF antenna by eyeballing it. You’ll know when an antenna has reached the end of its life when the fiberglass’s coating wears off, revealing a brownish core and perhaps sizable cracks and peeling in the fiberglass itself. Nav antennas live especially tough lives since they’re often installed at the top of the verti- cal tail in a fairing where they build corrosion. They might also connect to signal splitters to feed more than one nav receiver. They can deteriorate. A symptom common to worn comm antennas is scratchy back- ground noise in the radio receiver. Transmit and receive range might suffer as well. Our advice is to trouble- shoot first before shotgunning radios. While any of the equipment covered here will get the job done, our top pick is Garmin’s GNC255 if you need a full-up navcomm. We think it has enough features and new technology to justify its price. For basic panels needing an intercom up- grade and a new comm, we think PS Engineering’s integrated PAR200A is a solid value that saves panel space. 8 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 Been in a new car showroom lately? You’ll be hard pressed to find a lowly incandescent bulb in so much as a dome light. The same is true for new aircraft. Not many are sporting old-school filament lamps for landing, taxi and position lights. As a byproduct of an avalanche of LED manufacturing, we’ve found more applications for these lamps than ever for legacy aircraft. If you can’t find the exact replace- ment for that old GE burner in your wing mount, stick around. It’ll be along pretty soon. And the new prod- ucts are brighter and more efficient than the previous versions and in many cases, they consume less power than first-gen LEDs did. What they are not, however, is cheaper. For all their advantages, even the least expensive LEDs are still many times more ex- pensive than the incandescent bulbs they replace. Although the manufacturers claim—and C H E C K L I S T There’s now an LED replacement for just about every application. Brightness has improved and so has efficiency. Long-term durability means they can be left on. We’re less impressed with expensive navigation and position lights. Incandes- cents are cheap and durable enough. AIRCRAFT ACCESSORIES LED Lighting: Ever More Choices As LEDs get more efficient, they’re gaining market share. Look for expanding applications, but not lower prices. by Paul Bertorelli Whelen’s Parmetheus land- ing and taxi lamps, top right, are into their second generation and at under $300, are the least expensive LED replace- ments. Two discrete arrays of LEDs are wired in se- ries to improve durability. Coming from Aveo, lower photo, is the latest big thing: conformal wingtips that integrate position and strobe lights. Look for versions for the Cessna 100 series at AirVenture 2017. can support—that LEDs are basically lifetime bulbs, the $400 for a LED equivalent of a GE4509 will still buy more than 60 of the incandescents. Some owners, understandably, find the economics underwhelming. TRENDS Nonetheless, the aviation LED mar- ket is enjoying significant traction, with new products and applications appearing almost monthly. In fact, there are now so many offerings that testing them all has become a logisti- cal impossibility. For this article, we’re scanning the market’s new products with an eye toward bright- ness measuring in a future article. As in the LED industry in gen- eral and especially automotive, the overarching trend is more efficient LEDs with each new product cycle. As recently as a decade ago, we wondered if LEDs would ever be bright enough to be landing lights. No more. “When we first started, LED ef- ficiencies were in the range of 60 to 80 lumens per watt,” says Dean Wilkin- son of AeroLEDs. “Now, 120 to 150 lumens per watt is pretty August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 9 SELECT LED LANDING/RECOGNITION LIGHTS COMPANY* LAMP TYPE RETAIL PRICE COMMENTS PRODUCT AEROLEDS SUNSPOT 36HX Landing or taxi light $435 PAR 36 lamp, the most popular size. Drop in for GE4509. Has integrated pulse/wig-wag feature. SUNSPOT 36LX Landing or taxi light $339 Drop in for GE4509, among others. Lower current than HX. No pulse or wig-wag. SUNSPOT 46HX, LX Landing or taxi light $639 to $735 PAR 46 versions of Sunspot to replace GE4522, 4577 and others. HX has pulse and wig-wag. SUNSPOT 36-4596 Landing light $559 PAR 36 drop-in for 250-watt GE4596. SUNSPOT 36-4587 Taxi light $559 PAR 36 drop-in for 250-watt GE4587. SUNBEAM Recognition light $415 Recognition light for Diamond DA40, Columbia, some Cirrus and Grumman models. Features pulse/wig-wag. AVEO ENGINEERING HERCULES 30 Landing or taxi light $975 Part 36 replacement for GE4509 and others. Standard version can be land- ing, taxi and/or wig-wag. HERCULES DROP-IN Landing or taxi light $895 Slightly shallower PAR 36 replace- ment to fit small mounts. No wig- wag. Hercules Drop-In Plus ($995) has pulse and wig-wag functions. SAMPSON Landing or taxi light $1195 PAR 46 version of Hercules. SAMPSON DROP-IN Landing or taxi light $1095 PAR 46 version of Hercules drop-in. Drop-In Plus version ($1495) has pulse and wig-wag function. CRYSTAL CONFORMA Wingtip posi- tion, strobe, rear position $2500 Similar to experimental-only ZipTips, these are conformal wingtips that integrate LEDs, initially for Cessna sin- gles. Other models may be planned. TELEDYNE ALPHABEAM PAR 36 Landing and taxi light $275 An early LED product. Basic PAR 36 with no other functions. Company didn’t respond to queries about im- provements. ALPHABEAM II PAR 46 Landing light $896 Follow-on product to PAR 36 light. Teledyne says it’s aimed at commer- cial aircraft. WHELEN ENGINEERING PAR36 PLUS Landing and taxi light $227.95 Basic PAR 36 replacement for popular landing light sizes. PAR46 PLUS Landing light only $293.95 PAR 46 replacement for landing lights. * This chart provides a general overview of aviation LEDs approved for certified aircraft. Not all products are listed. Check the company websites for more detailed information. In future coverage, we’ll examine navigation and position lights. common. So there’s been a doubling of efficiency in the last eight years, probably. In the next eight years, you’re probably going to see another doubling,” he adds. Is this going to go on forever, to the point where a landing light can run on an AA battery? Probably not. “There is an upper limit. I think 200 lumens per watt is about it. Six hundred lumens per watt is 100 percent efficiency and that’s not really possible,” Wilkinson explains. Not that what we’ve got is too shabby now. Our tests show that even the last generation of LEDs easily outshone standard GE incandescents. Color temperatures closer to daylight also means they create more contrast to illuminate details on runways and taxiways. Newer LEDs are either brighter or the same brightness at lower current draws. This changes the product development map. “If you get the current down for the same light, or keep the current and get a lot more light, you’ve got room to play,” Wilkinson says. As a result, look for more products that leverage the advantages of LEDs. One of these comes from Aveo, a company that positions itself upmar- ket and has facilities in Florida, east- ern Europe and India. The company’s LED line covers a range of FAR Part 23 applications plus lighting for com- mercial air transport aircraft. Its latest offering, set to appear at AirVenture as we go to press this month, is called the Crystal Conforma. It’s a composite wingtip structure for 100-series Cess- nas that incorporates nav, strobe and rear position lights in a single unit. These will retail for about $2500 for the pair. They’re actually the certified version of a product called ZipTips for some experimental aircraft that also add landing lights to the mix. Under- standably, gaining approvals for that under Part 23 is challenging, but we suspect Aveo will get to it eventually, given the attraction of a fully inte- grated solution. For the time being, as shown in the chart at left, Aveo has a full line of landing/taxi light replace- ments for many certified aircraft. Al- though we’re not examining position/ nav lights in detail in this article, Aveo also has a line of those. OEM VS. LEGACY Given the low volume of new aircraft, we would peg the market driver for LEDs as the legacy fleet. Not neces- sarily, says AeroLEDs’ Wilkinson. The company does a fair amount of OEM business and recently became a supplier to Textron/Beechcraft and Pi- latus. Wilkinson says these companies have switched to LEDs because—in both cases—subjective testing by com- pany engineering and test pilots found them to be superior, even though the measured light output doesn’t neces- sarily equal claimed output for incan- descents. What’s driving the legacy market? Probably an even mix of per- 1 0 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 One emerging trend is in- creasing availability of drop-in position lights, such as Whelen’s Chroma model at right. These are designed to meet TSO and FAA requirements for chromaticity. AeroLEDs continues to expand its line of landing and taxi lights with the PAR 36 replace- ment for the GE4596, left. LED replacements are bright- er, cooler and consume less power than the incandescent bulbs they replace. But they do so at the expense of larger size, mainly due to a heat sink on the back of the lamp. Aveo’s solution to this is its Hercules 30 Drop-In, right. It’s slightly shallower than the standard version and thus will fit in more restricted mounting rings. formance, durability and gadget lust. Wilkinson says there’s price sensitivity in the legacy market, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone shopping the web for a $10 GE4509 would sudden- ly be swayed by a $435 LED equiva- lent. Where owners find value, say the manufacturers, are in two areas. One, the lamps can realistically be consid- ered lifetime purchases and since they can be turned on and left on, there’s a payoff in conspicuity. Adding to that is that most of the bulbs include a pulse or wig-wag feature that’s relatively easy to wire and activate. Then again, not everyone wants that. “Our lights originally had a great deal of customization and flexibility in beam widths, wig-wag, taxi array, landing array…and a 50 percent intensity feature for helicopters operat- ing in dust or snow,” says Aveo’s Rick Lindstrom. “We found that people were saying, ‘Wait a minute. I don’t want that. All I want is a light with two terminals that I can swap out,’” Lindstrom says. The company’s $895 Hercules Drop-In meets that brief. AeroLEDs has similar offerings, with the $339 Sunspot 36LX representing the lowest rung on the product ladder. As the product chart shows, the market is highly stratified by price, with Aveo in the top tier, AeroLEDs occupying a broad middle with a diverse product line, and Whelan and Teledyne at the bottom with sub-$300 offerings that don’t have wig-wag, pulsing or intensity controls. For those companies—at least Whelan—product revision has consisted of upgrading when the next generation of LEDs appear. “As a general rule of thumb, we’ll maintain a design for five to six years. We’re also at the mercy of the manufactur- ers of LEDs because aviation is a very small user of LEDs,” says Jeff Argersinger, Whelen’s director of aviation sales. Whelan, he says, buys some 65 million LEDs a year across its high-volume product lines in vehicle lighting, so it has a good feel for what improve- ments are coming. Cree Inc. is the dominant supplier of LED components and manufactur- ers try to keep abreast of what it’s about to introduce. But, as with all things in aviation, it’s not that easy. “We can design optics for a certain size LED and now Cree comes along with an LED that’s the size of a pencil eraser. Now our optics don’t work with that. So now we need to design new optics. But if it’s a smaller LED, maybe we can use more and get more intensity and maybe run them at a lower current. You can maintain that sweet spot so you’re not over-driving them,” Argers- inger says. And that’s exactly how August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 1 1 Compared to realistically evaluating specs on light output, nailing Jell-O to the ceiling is relatively easy. That’s because there appears to be no agreed-upon method of comparing light output from aircraft lamps of any sort. In the end, as Dean Wilkin- son of AeroLEDs told us, a subjective judgment is as good as it gets. First, a short essay on the differ- ences between candela, lumens and lux. After a fashion, they’re all measurements of light energy, but like sound, light energy varies with distance from the source and it can be shaped and focused so angles matter, too. A candela—it’s the same as candlepower—is a measurement of luminous intensity. It’s directional and monochromatic. So a candela is the luminous inten- sity from a source of 1/683 watt per steradian. If you don’t know what a steradian is, don’t feel bad. It’s the standard international unit of solid angular measurement and allows light to be measured consistently in angular, three-dimensional space. A steradian is a cone shape that emanates from a sphere, the center of which is the light source. A light source that uniformly illu- minates one candela across one ste- radian is one lumen. That ought to clear things up, right? Don’t forget lux and it’s not the hotel in Las Ve- gas, either. A lux is equal to one lu- men per square meter. The last time we measured landing light output (see Aviation Consumer, May 2015), we used a lux meter because that’s what we had available. Measuring candela would have been better, but was beyond our meager abilities. However, if everything is measured in lux, there’s at least some consis- tent basis for comparison. Unfortunately, a buyer perusing the websites looking for equivalent consistency might not find it. That’s especially true when comparing LEDs to GE bulbs. For example, the stalwart GE4509—the most common land- ing light—has a nominal rating of 110,000 candela. But it’s not neces- sarily clear how this was or is mea- sured and two LED manufacturers told us they’re hard pressed to see 80,000 cd out of this bulb. And that degrades as the filament heats and sags out of the most efficient center part of the reflector. When testing incandescent bulbs with a lux meter, we saw significant output variations between incan- descent sources, even though we were careful to place the sensor consistently. So what to make of can- dela claims by the LED manufacturers? In our view, not too much, be- cause we don’t know if the measurements are done consistently by the companies. For example, for its Hercules Drop-In PAR 36, Aveo gives a color temperature, but no cande- la output. For its equivalent PAR 36, AeroLEDs gives 50,000 candela for the landing lens and 15,000 for the wider taxi lens. For its Parmetheus Plus, Whelan promises 60,000 cd for the landing light and 15,000 for the taxi version. Does that mean the Whelan is the brightest? AeroLEDs and Aveo might argue the point and we might, too. As we’ve noted, color temperature matters. A lot. The warmer the temperature in degrees Kelvin, the closer the light is to daylight and the better it illuminates fine detail such as runway stripes and markings. In our experience, all the LEDs are bet- ter at this than traditional incandes- cents, no matter what their claimed brightness might be. For this report, we weren’t able to assemble all the products for an informal light range test and subjec- tive evaluation. We’ll do that in a future article. BRIGHTNESS EXPLAINED (SORT OF) CONTACTS... AeroLEDs 208- 850-3294 www.aeroleds.com Aircraft Spruce and Specialty 877-477-7823 www.aircraftspruce.com Aveo Engineering www.aveoengineering.com Teledyne Lighting and Display 800-563-4020 www.teledynelighting.com Whelan Engineering 860-526-9504 www.whelan.com Whelan got to the Parmetheus Plus, which is 40 percent brighter than what it replaces. AeroLEDs has done essentially the same with its ever-expanding lines. The newest models are brighter than ever and offer drop-in for GE’s 4596, 4587, 4580 and 4554 bulbs. On its website, AeroLEDs has a long list of approvals and applications covering just about every mainstream landing light. Like Aveo and Whelen, it has ap- proved navigation and position lights, which we’ll cover in a future issue. BUY OR NOT? Although we’re seeing new products and improved products for the same applications, the buying calculus re- mains the same, in our view. Despite a glut of LED manufacturing capac- ity, prices of aviation-related lighting aren’t likely to decrease much, if at all. We suspect the current three-tier price structure will endure for the foresee- able future. As we’ve said before, the two best reasons to buy an LED landing light are conspicuity and freedom from frequent replacement. The lights can be left on without fear of failure. (Bulb life is claimed between 30,000 and 50,000 hours and we’re not hearing complaints about prema- ture failures.) We’re less convinced that LED position lights are as cost effective because the incandescent versions don’t fail very often and the LED replacements are still expensive. We’ll take a look at that in a future report. 1 2 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 SiriusXM Weather: WSI Cancels InFlight WSI says its InFlight data service has reached life’s end. This orphans several receivers and leaves Garmin as the dominant supplier of SiriusXM weather receivers. by Larry Anglisano MARKET ANALYSIS If you own an Avidyne MLB700 or WSI AV300-series satellite weather receiver, you might look for a re- placement. At the end of 2017, WSI— now branded The Weather Company, an IBM Business—is pulling the plug on its InFlight cockpit weather ser- vice that it delivers by SiriusXM satel- lites. Avidyne said it isn’t offering a replacement receiver because there’s more demand for ADS-B systems. Is this the beginning of the end for subscription-based broadcast satellite weather as many predicted? The short answer is no. It might actually be gaining more traction, with Garmin and SiriusXM leading the charge. ForeFlight recently added SXM weather to its Mobile app through SiriusXM’s own SXAR-1 portable re- ceiver and Garmin is close to releasing a new SXM receiver for tablets, for the aera 660 GPS and for the G3X avion- ics suite. Garmin also updated its ex- isting certified and portable receivers so they’re compatible with SiriusXM’s latest broadcast signal. On the data side, Baron Weather Service, a longtime provider of the XM WX Satellite Weather, says it’s committed long term to the market. It continues to provide the data for legacy receivers, while focusing on newer two-way broadcast technology to fix bandwidth limitations. WSI: PEAKS AND VALLEYS This isn’t the first time WSI decom- missioned weather receivers. In the early 2000s, it had its own datalink service provided by the twin beam Mobile Satellite Ventures system and sold the experimental AV100 receiver for EFBs and the certified AV200 for the UPS-AT MX20 MFD. Later—through reverse engineering— the AV200 worked with Garmin’s GNS530/430, but Garmin declared it an unofficial interface. The back-door serial data interface was ultimately killed when Garmin upgraded the GNS navigators to WAAS. Third-party compatibility aside, WSI couldn’t resolve technical problems it ran into with its own satellite technology. There were coverage issues and buyers who spent upward of $5000 for a WSI installation were eventu- ally left with proverbial paper- weights. But WSI soldiered on, signing on with Sirius Satellite Radio as the pipeline provider for the new AV300 receiver. Avidyne joined in with its own version, the MLB700. Despite the change in satellite delivery, WSI InFlight continued to stream the same weather products for which the com- pany earned respect, including WSI’s proprietary NOWrad radar. NOWrad is a mosaic of the U.S. Doppler network that’s been fine-tuned by WSI me- teorologists for a more realistic depiction of precipitation. We’ve appreciated the high-quality graphics and reliability of the data. While WSI regrouped, Garmin was setting a brisk pace. It took the market by storm with the GPSMAP396 portable GPS, which had the puck- shaped GXM30 XM an- tenna/receiver. Garmin has since built at least four more portable mod- els, including the current aera series and two generations of the GDL69 permanent-mount XM receiver. MULTIPLE BROADCASTS The confusing part of the broadcast datalink weather market is there are several data transmissions, all handled by SiriusXM. In part, they differ by the way weather products are bundled and the vintage of the receiver. It’s a handful to keep straight and if the hardware isn’t con- fusing enough, some receivers work with WSI’s weather and some with Baron’s XM WX. Here’s why. The WSI AV300, bottom, and the Avidyne MLB700, top, will stop receiving weather data at the end of 2017. Avidyne’s receiver will still receive SiriusXM entertain- ment channels. That’s the control- ler shown next to the receiver. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 1 3 Before the XM and Sirius merger, there were already two streams of weather data. XM (with Baron data) occupied 2332.5 to 2345 MHz and Sirius (with WSI InFlight data) was on 2320 to 2332.5 MHz. The merge created SiriusXM (SXM), both satellite systems remained in service and a third data stream was eventually added to support what is now SiriusXM Aviation. The latest service works with a newer generation of receivers, including the portable SXAR-1—a product launched by SiriusXM Aviation in partnership with WSI—for interface with WSI’s Pilot- brief Optima app for iPad. The subscription chart on page 15 lists the weather products that are in the current SXM Aviation stream. While full-featured, it’s a double-edged sword, in our view. For example, there’s more bundled data in the entry-level $34.99 per-month Pilot Express than with the $34.99 per-month XM WX Aviator LT (pow- ered by Baron Weather), but you’ll have to upgrade the receiver to take advantage of the new packages. HARDWARE TO SUPPORT The Weather Company’s SXM weather SELECT WSI/SXM WEATHER INTERFACES IN PLAY service isn’t going away—only InFlight is. As the sidebar on this page shows, there are a variety of portable and permanent-mount receivers (and dis- play interfaces), including SiriusXM’s own SXAR-1. We think this product was given a new lease on life when ForeFlight included the interface. When we first looked at the SXAR-1 (January 2015 Aviation Consumer) it was a good performer, but we thought WSI’s Pilotbrief Optima app was lack- ing compared to ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot and others that have a full-up nav interface and we predicted buyers would pass on it. ForeFlight ultimately The Garmin GDL69A-SXM re- places the legacy GDL69A for Garmin GTN retrofit displays and the G1000. It works with the GNS530W/430W, too, but not with non-WAAS units. For them, the legacy GDL69A still works, via Baron data. On Garmin’s portable side, the current GXM42 works with the aera 510/560, aera796 and GPSMAP696. The original GXM30/40 receivers will still work with GPS396/496 porta- bles, via Baron data. A solution for the aera660 is due any day. SiriusXM Aviation’s SXAR-1 works with ForeFlight Mobile and WSI’s Pilotbrief Optima for iPads. The device also receives SiriusXM entertainment chan- nels and connects to Bluetooth headsets. It’s sold through Sporty’s and SiriusXM. 1 4 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 SIRIUSXM AVIATION SERVICE LEVELS (LATEST-GEN RECEIVERS, WSI DATA) PACKAGE CONTENTS Pilot Express $34.99 month Pilot Preferred $54.99 month Pilot Pro $99.99 month SiriusXM Pilot for ForeFlight app $39.99 NEXRAD radar ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ NEXRAD storm cell attributes ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Radar coverage/site status ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Lightning cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Winds aloft (including graphical depiction) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ AIRMETs/SIGMETs/PIREPs ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Temperatures aloft ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Standard forecast winds 0 hours 0-24 hours 0-48 hours High resolution forecast winds 0 hours 0-3 hours 0-24 hours 0 hours METARs, TAFs CONUS ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ METARs, TAFs non-CONUS ✔ ✔ ✔ Tropical storm tracks ✔ ✔ ✔ Cloud top imaging ✔ ✔ ✔ Surface visibility forecast 0-1 hours 0-3 hours Graphical turbulence guidance ✔ Freezing level/forecasting time 0-1 hours 0-3 hours Icing NOWcast ✔ Convective outlook ✔ SiriusXM Radio programming Optional Optional Optional Optional showed WSI how it’s done. We looked (more favorably) at the SXAR-1/ForeFlight interface in the January 2017 Aviation Consumer. SiriusXM even added a ForeFlight- specific subscription package, which is $39.99 per month—a few bucks more than Pilot Express. As for customers facing the InFlight shutdown on December 31, 2017, The Weather Company’s Matthew Taylor reasoned that the SXAR-1 portable solution would be embraced by owners with soon- to-be-orphaned Avidyne and WSI receivers because so many pilots fly with iPads. We’re not so sure about that, given the deep integration of the MLB700 on Avidyne displays, which includes the IFD-series navi- gators, the EX-series MFDs and the R9 retrofit flight deck. Not everyone is sold on viewing weather data on a tablet, especially when they’ve been accustomed to us- ing it on a big-screen panel display. For those pilots, the HeadsUp Technologies XMD76 is compatible with Avidyne displays, but not with the newer SiriusXM Aviation subscrip- tion service. This system is common in Avidyne Entegra-equipped Cirrus models and receives Baron data. The swap will require a new antenna, too. The option for Avidyne IFD540/440 owners is to buy a Garmin GDL69. The GDL69A-SXM has a list price of $4475 and the GDL69-SXM (no en- tertainment capability) is $3875. The retiring MLB700 will still receive Siri- usXM entertainment programming. WHOSE DECISION? Acknowledging that it’s unfortunate for owners of orphaned receivers, The Weather Company says cutting InFlight is a financial decision, plus the inability to further advance the system. It might be argued that it’s making a reasonable business deci- sion in trimming some fat by shutting down the aging InFlight, while retain- ing only one data feed. Frankly, we wondered how long it would keep the two systems going. On the other hand, there has been speculation whether SiriusXM was behind the decision in an effort to more tightly control its broadcast ser- vice. After all, the third-party receivers are licensed by SiriusXM. We asked SiriusXM’s VP of Aviation Dave Wasby for comment and he referred us to The Weather Company, but added: “At SiriusXM, we have strong partnerships with both The Weather Company and Baron as providers of our weather data.” Of course we already knew that, but we still don’t know how long SiriusXM will keep streaming Baron’s data to the herds of legacy receivers. There are a lot of first-generation Gar- min GDL69 and GXM40 receivers in service. Orphaning them—especially the GDL69—would be met with siz- able consumer pushback. As some have already pointed out, Garmin holding the lion’s share of SiriusXM-licensed receivers might seem to threaten lively competition, but it can also be argued that Garmin is doing what Garmin does, and that’s aggressively pursuing market demand by pumping out the latest hardware. The Weather Company told us there are no restrictions—anyone can join the SXM market with a working receiver. It’s hard to predict how Garmin’s pending next-gen SiriusXM receiver will sell in the flooded market of subscription-free ADS-B receivers, but if it could do both SXM and ADS-B, it might set a new benchmark for por- table weather receivers. We’ll do a full report when it’s ready for prime time. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 1 5 Warbird Ownership: Respect Required Stepping into the major league of general aviation requires big money and a commitment to undergoing effective and regular training. by Rick Durden Warbird ownership: “It’s not for the faint of heart, but there’s nothing like it,” according to warbird owner and airshow pilot Stan Musick. While it takes cubic money to acquire and operate big-time warbirds—WWII fighter, bombers and transports and post-war jets—the path toward owning and safely operating an air- plane in the major league of general aviation is the same for those armed with bags of money or simply deter- mination: You’ve got to spend qual- ity time in the minor leagues first. We’ll go into the overall consid- erations of owning and operating warbirds and then focus on a few examples. GETTING STARTED As we were researching this article experienced warbird pilots passed along numerous stories of wrecked machines and injured or dead pilots with a common theme: A wealthy pilot of limited experience, large ego and questionable judgment bought himself a fighter. Due to his hubris, and unwillingness to take more than minimal training, he proceeded to get himself into a jam and took the wrong actions trying to extricate himself. We were told again and again by experienced warbird pilots that the way to get into warbird ownership is to first do extensive homework into the type of airplane you’re interested in while getting to know those who fly them: Go to airshows and talk with warbird pilots, get on war- bird owner forums on the internet and let your interest be known as well as your willingness to listen, and do such things as joining the North American Trainer Association (www.flynata.org) and attending the National Warbird Operator Confer- ence (www.nwoc.aero). Beth Jenkins, instructor in the Commemorative Air Force’s (CAF) B-25 “Devil Dog,” recommended joining the air muse- um (we’ll use “museum” expansively to include any nonprofit group that operates a warbird) or CAF wing that operates the warbird that interests you and show up for meetings and work sessions. Volunteer to swing wrenches on the airplanes so that you get an intimate introduction to the airplane and its systems. One warbird owner, who declined to let us use his name, said that it’s also important to get to know the warbird pilots because those who want to own warbirds often also want to fly formation with others and fly in airshows—and it’s impor- tant to figure out which pilots you consider good enough to fly forma- tion with. IT’S TIME TO BUY In the warbird world, “No Damage History” has no meaning because each airplane probably has one and will almost certainly have been rebuilt or refurbished—the airplanes were built to last six weeks in com- bat, not 70 years—so the question is the quality of the work. In addition, there is usually a tradeoff between functionality and originality. If AIRCRAFT OWNERSHIP 1 6 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 originality is your goal, there are air- planes out there that match the way they came out of the factory door (but with better paint). However, those who fly warbirds regularly have recognized that the original panels were not terribly user friendly and have made changes to take advantage of new technology—and probably increase the level of safety. You have to make a decision as to how close the airplane is to what you ultimately want, how much you’re willing to pay for it as is (we learned that there is often a big difference be- tween advertised warbird prices and actual sale prices) and what you’re willing to pay to get it to the condi- tion you desire. You may decide to join a CAF wing or a museum under conditions through which you can fly one or more of the warbirds. That usually involves a buy-in under an agree- ment through which you can fly the airplane so long as you comply with training terms, requirements to put in certain numbers of hours as a vol- unteer and to be prepared to pick up a share of the tab when something big breaks. For most used airplanes, the condition of the engine(s) is a major driver in the selling price. We were told that with warbirds it’s slightly less important, even though the Mer- lin engine that powers the Mustang and Spitfire is only good for some- thing between 300 and 700 hours between overhauls and an overhaul costs north of $150,000. The big radials are much cheaper to overhaul than hot-water 12s—an overhaul of a 2100-HP R-2800 used in the Corsair, Hellcat, Tigercat, Bearcat and Martin B-26 can be had for $90,000. We’ll take a brief look at a sample of some of the more popular war- birds on the market or in flying museums. AT-6/SNJ/HARVARD Every service in the U.S. and most of its WWII allies used the AT-6 (AT – Advanced Trainer) as the final step in the training process before putting pilots into fighters, bombers and transports. It is now the transition airplane into the warbird world because it is not for- giving of student mistakes and is at least slightly more difficult to fly than all of the WWII U.S. fight- ers—with little stall warn- ing, vicious roll-off if the ball is not centered during the stall and an eagerness to burn through at least 2000 feet without hesitation should a pilot inadvertently spin it. That being said, despite looking fat, slow and sluggish, the T-6 has lightning-quick handling, decent control harmony and does, as Stan Musick put it, “great old-man’s aerobatics.” It is a tremendously fun airplane to fly, has what may be the best aircraft engine ever made, the 600-HP Pratt & Whitney R-1340 (fig- ure $45,000 for overhaul) and there are a lot of them out there so you can find people to fly with. Fuel burn is 30 to 40 GPH. Own- ers tell us that maintenance costs run slightly less than on their Bonanzas and that they experience very few unscheduled maintenance issues. Prices for a decent, flyable airplane start at $125,000, with good ones going for as low as $150,000. Inadvertent—and usually fatal— stalls in the traffic pattern have been the bane of private ownership of T-6s since WWII—as has been low level aerobatics. It may be a trainer, but it has to be flown with a great respect for the fact that it will bite. When we checked out in the T-6 we took to heart the admonition of Randy Sohn, then the chief check airman for the CAF: “The P-51 is a great trainer for the T-6.” P-51 MUSTANG Mustang prices start above $1.5 million for a flyable one. It enjoys a good reputation for easy and reason- ably priced airframe maintenance, with parts readily available—most are standard AN components. The North American maintenance manu- als are clear and straightforward. The engine is another matter. The original Mustang (the British gave the airplane its name) had an Allison engine, but its high-altitude perfor- mance was anemic. A switch was made to the Rolls-Royce Merlin— which was eventually built in the U.S. by Packard and Continental. Despite U.S. manufacture, the engine hardware is British stan- dard—you’ll need tools. There are numerous little mods that help make the Merlin more easily maintainable, such as installing a full-flow oil filter, a preoiler and “Merlin fingers”— which replace the chrome pad on the rocker arm that flakes away and damages the cam, with a piece of tungsten. Merlin engines and parts are readily available, they are just ex- pensive. The engine demands regular maintenance by the numbers, with inspections of varying complexity every 25 and 50 hours of operation. The P-51 has a deserved reputation as being a delight to fly, but with wicked stall behavior (virtually no warning and violent roll-off) and requiring care to avoid uncontrol- lable left roll when flying slowly and adding power. It is not as light on the controls as the T-6 and has a higher stick-force-per-g curve than the other fighters. It demands major The “Cadillac” of the fighters, the P-51D, above. The chal- lenging to fly AT-6, below, is the stepping stone into WWII fighters. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 1 7 TRAINING, CERTIFICATION AND INSURANCE Not surprisingly, when you’re about to fly an airplane with more than enough torque and P-factor to roll you inverted in a heartbeat, malicious stall behavior and the ability to blow through the 250-KIAS-under-10,000-foot speed limit and laugh, the FAA and insurers are going to have something to say about it. For single-seat fighters, the only flight training avail- able that we found was in some P-51s modified with dual controls and that are owned by individuals (or compa- nies) that give dual in them as part of their business, such as Stallion 51 (www.stallion51.com) in Florida, and within the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). There are private or- ganizations and museums that give dual in the DC-3—we did not find any training available outside of museums for other transports and any of the bombers. If you want to fly as PIC in a turbojet-powered aircraft or a piston pounder that has a gross weight of more than 12,500 pounds—and has a U.S. type certificate—you have to obtain a type rating. In the warbird world that means only the DC-3/C-47 and B-25. The process involves taking instruction from an appropriately rated instructor, getting signed off for the checkride—which is given by an approved examiner—and passing the oral and practi- cal test. The practical test is to ATP standards no matter what pilot rating the applicant holds. Once you have a type rating, you must pass an annual proficiency check that meets the requirements of FAR Part 61.58. Interest- ingly, because of a quirk in the regs and the specifics of the DC-3’s type certificate, the annual proficiency check requirement does not apply to the DC-3. Because virtually no warbirds were issued civilian type certificates (almost all now hold experimental category certificates), the FAA procedure for certification to fly those aircraft is set out in FAA Order 8900.1—specifically, Volume 5, Chapter 9, Section 2. The goal of the training required and authorization to fly the airplanes, accord- ing to the FAA, is to “ensure for the pilots flying these aircraft a level of safety and proficiency similar to what is available for an aircraft with a type rating.” The aircraft affected are all jets as well as piston-powered airplanes that have more than 800 horsepower and a Vne greater than 250 knots—which covers virtually all WWII fighters and most of the bombers. To obtain the required “Experimental Aircraft Autho- rization,” a pilot must take instruction for the type of aircraft involved from an instructor who has received authorization from the FAA and then take a checkride that is essentially identical to a type-rating checkride—al- though, for a single-seat fighter, the examiner is going to watch from the ground. The checkride consists of an oral and practical section and is to ATP standards. The pilot rating and experience requirements that must be met before applying for an Experimental Aircraft Authorization are set out in Order 8900.1. They start with holding a private pilot certificate, a third-class medical and 500 hours of PIC time and go up from there depend- ing on the type of aircraft involved. Once a pilot has passed the checkride for an Experi- mental Aircraft Authorization, she gets a new pilot certifi- cate with the aircraft type printed on the back—just like a type rating. However, unlike a type rating, there is no requirement for an annual checkride to continue flying as PIC. The insurance brokers we spoke with said that none of the companies with which they work require an annual checkride for coverage, but all give a substantial discount on the annual premium if the pilot does complete a rec- ognized recurrent training program. Interestingly, because the C, D and K models of the P-51 are licensed in the limited and not experimental cat- egory, FAA Order 8900.1 does not apply to them. Accord- ingly, the FAA does not require a pilot seeking to buy and fly one to have more than complex, high-performance and tailwheel endorsements. It does not mandate any training or a checkride. Everyone is aware of the hole in the regs, the FAA has not taken steps to fix it and, accord- ing to insurance brokers, the real method of assuring training in those hotrods is insurance requirements. We were told by brokers that they do not have trouble placing hull and liability insurance for warbirds if the pilot has significant T-6 experience prior to stepping into a fighter (200 hours was the number most frequently mentioned—including a back-seat checkout because the airplane is completely blind forward from that seat) and type-specific training; however, the cost will be entirely dependent on the level of the pilot’s experience in type. They reported no problem initially obtaining liability limits of $2 million, with higher limits available later. Finally, we note that when EAA ran the warbird pilot examination program, it kept the number of approved warbird examiners under 10 nationally—and they were able to handle all of the checkrides. Some years ago the FAA took over the program and increased the number of examiners substantially. Now most training programs and museums have “captive” examiners. While that is common in the smaller general aviation world—flight schools generally have DPEs on staff or nearby—we have never liked it because of the concern for pressure on ex- aminers to lower their standards. We’ve seen it happen. It means an increased accident risk when substandard pilots get ratings. When it involves a private pilot in a Katana, that risk has generally been felt to be acceptable. However, when it comes to multimillion-dollar warbirds and the financial pressure that can be applied by those who have the wherewithal to own those machines, we have a level of discomfort with schools and museums having captive examiners. We’ve seen too many big egos connected with big money and marginal pilot skills in the warbird world. The check and balance has historically been examiners who are ruthlessly independent—we are concerned that it has been eroded. 1 8 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 rudder inputs (and rudder trim use) with power and speed changes— a great deal of right rudder when slow, with high power and standing on the left rudder in a dive. Figure on a fuel burn of 80 gallons for the first hour of flight and then 60 GPH in cruise. We were advised to plan on $100,000 per year for operating costs, including fuel, maintenance, insurance, hangar and engine and prop reserve, if the airplane is flown 50-60 hours. CHANCE-VOUGHT CORSAIR Defining “cool” when it comes to piston fighters, the Corsair went through a number of iterations dur- ing its production history. Originally equipped with an updraft carbure- tor version of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800, which was subject to engine fires, most have been converted to the downdraft carb version used on transport aircraft. Owners told us to expect an en- gine life of 1300-2000 hours if flown regularly. One Corsair owner who was not willing to have his name published also said that, unlike a Merlin, the R-2800 gives a great deal of warning when its health starts deteriorating—it leaks and burns more oil, smokes and becomes hard to start. As with most WWII airplanes, the airframe was built to be maintained by kids just off the farm, with some exceptions—one is a complicated hydraulic system that got more complex as the airplane evolved. The final versions had hydraulically boosted controls and even a hydrau- lically actuated canopy. Nevertheless, owners told us that the system rarely causes problems so long as the hoses are changed periodically. One told us that he had hydraulic ills that were only solved with replacing the 62 lines—which hadn’t been done in over 20 years. Airframe sheet metal work is expensive due to the com- pound curves involved and the use of spot welding rather than rivets. We were told that annuals run between $6000 and $35,000. One owner com- pared his overall yearly operating costs to those of a Cessna 421. There are no dual- control Corsairs, so most pilots move into one either from other fight- ers or a few hundred hours in a T-6. Control forces are astonishingly light for what is a mas- sive airplane. It “does not fly like a T-6,” we were advised; it’s easier and much better flying. However, as one pilot told us—where the T-6 will roll steeply after an uncoordinated stall, the Corsair will roll past the vertical. The airplane has a reputation for excellent handling (except in a stall) to the extent that one owner said that, “If you can figure out how to start it, you can probably fly it.” Where no tailwheel fighter has great three-point visibility, the later Corsairs are better than most as the cockpit and seating position were revised forward and upward to im- prove the airplane’s ability to operate from aircraft carriers. Plan on a fuel burn of 100-110 gallons for the first hour, then 80 GPH after that. DOUGLAS C-47/DC-3 From a pilot’s standpoint, the C-47/ DC-3 is mostly a delightfully docile, honest-flying airplane with some of the best ground manners of any tailwheel bird. There are excep- tions lurking in corners of the flight envelope: Three point landings are dangerously unpredictable and can damage the airframe and, because it is a swept-wing airplane, taking one into a full stall may cause you to ex- ceed your adventure quotient for the month as it rolls off and potentially spins. The airplane is also unforgiv- ing to the pilot who does not know its systems. The Hamilton Standard propeller feathering and unfeather- ing system has a failure mode that can lead to loss of the airplane. While there is no maximum operating speed for the landing gear, raising and lowering it involves mov- ing two floor-mounted levers in the correct sequence or risking jamming the gear in some intermediate posi- tion. In addition, the airspeed and power settings must be monitored carefully so that the props are never “driving” the engines during de- scent—the reverse loading will cause bearing failure. A few years ago you couldn’t give away a DC-3 with passenger seats. Now, with museums and individuals desiring DC-3s/C-47s for excursion machines or personal airplanes, our survey indicated they command prices in excess of $300,000 as com- pared to $150,000 for a freighter. Because C-47s did and still do spend time parked outside, corro- sion can be an issue, but it tends to be limited to a few areas such as the plates over the fuel tanks and the wing/nacelle attach area. If considering a purchase, look over the hat section on the tailwheel support—a blown three-point land- ing can damage it and repair The Yankee Air Force’s C-47 on final, above. Czech L-39 jet trainer, below, is increasingly popular as an affordable war- bird. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 1 9 involves expensive sheet metal work. The symptom of damage is that the airplane won’t taxi straight. There were three types of brakes installed on the C-47. According to longtime owner and operator Bob Steenbock, all are satisfactory. The “truck” brakes are the least expen- sive, but heat up and fade, so avoid short fields; the expander tube type are effective but parts may be hard to get; while most expensive, the Good- years are the best. Adding to the cost of maintenance on the airplane is its size, requiring appropriate equipment to gain access to the portions that need attention. DC-3s/C-47s were equipped with both Wright and Pratt & Whitney engines, with the 1,200-HP Pratt & Whitney R-1830 now almost uni- formly the engine of choice. Over- hauls currently start at $28,000, depending on the condition of the engine to be overhauled. While there aren’t any new parts being made— everything is being overhauled— there doesn’t seem to be a shortage, although we heard some questions about crankshaft availability. THE JETS Over the last 30 years the idea of private ownership of a jet warbird went from “Are you nuts?” to almost routine. Not long after the Iron Cur- tain fluttered into history, Soviet-bloc trainers and fighters began following the money to the U.S. It’s not un- usual to see a MiG at an airport with a long runway and the Czechoslova- kian Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatross two-seat trainer has become ubiq- uitous and even has its own racing event at Reno. Thus far the eye-watering price tag increases that hit the piston warbirds in the early 1980s haven’t reached the jets—perhaps because of the cost of feeding them Jet A. An L-39 in good condition can be had for $250,000 if you’re ready to supply it with 150 gallons of fuel per hour. Larry Salganek of Jetwarbird Train- ing Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico (www.jetwarbird.com) told us that its performance and handling are predictable (by the 1960s stability and control was understood), with few bad habits other than the slow spool-up time common to older jet engines. For pilots with some high- performance or jet experience, he advises that a transition can be made into the jet—including checkride—in five to nine hours. Salganek said that annual op- erational costs include $15,000 for insurance, $6000 to $20,000 for maintenance and a reserve for the 1000-hour engine TBO ($150,000 for overhaul) and the APU ($30,000 overhaul). He told us that the L-39 has the lowest unscheduled mainte- nance cost for any warbird he’s ever flown. When asked, Salganek said that for a sea-level home base for the air- plane, he’d recommend a minimum runway length of 4000 feet. We inquired about the fighter end of the jet warbird spectrum and were told that MiG-15s are the most readily available. Salganek went on to say that it is an entirely different animal from the trainers. Bluntly put, it’s a 1947, swept-wing airplane that reflects the technology of the time: Handling is not good—it is not docile and it has a number of control issues that require intimate knowl- edge of the airplane—it likes long runways and its first-generation tur- bojet sucks down fuel at a rate of 300 GPH. However, on the bright side, you can buy an engine for $15,000 and there are plenty available. CONCLUSION They’re big, they’re fast and the rush you get flying one is like nothing else in aviation. Nevertheless, warbirds are products of an earlier time of aeronautical knowledge and their systems design and handling quirks and vices are simply unknown in modern airplanes. Accordingly, they can bring a modern pilot who shows up with big ego, big cash and a lack of respect to grief in a hurry. We think that stepping into the world of warbird ownership must be done with patience, humility and a willingness to learn everything possible about the airplane, its sys- tems and handling. Otherwise, the chances are that if you wreck one, it will be the airplane that is mourned, not you. Hydraulically actuated main gear in the Corsair turns 90 degrees during retraction, above. CAF’s B-25 “Devil Dog,” be- low. Flat-spot a tire on landing? That’ll be $4000 for a new one. See a video on P-51 Mustang ownership at http://tinyurl.com/u7r3ydf 2 0 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 PILOT GADGETS Smart Anemometers: WeatherFlow a Top Pick We prefer the WeatherFlow WindMeter smartphone anemometer over the Vaavud Sleipnir, but both devices can be improved with updated connectors. by Larry Anglisano The Vaavad Sleipnir in the lower photo is plugged into the audio jack of an iPhone 5. At the top, the WeatherFlow Wind- Meter is plugged into an iPhone 7, using the Apple Lightning adapter cable. It comes with a stiffener to hold it upright. The Vaa- vud doesn’t. Ireviewed Vaavud’s first-gen Mjolnir smartphone anemometer a few years ago and discovered its short- comings, yet appreciated its utility on the water and land. I used it for sea- plane flying on remote lakes where lo- cal wind reports weren’t available, and to compare aging ATIS recordings on the home field. The disappointment was a lack of wind direction display. That’s why I was anxious to try Vaa- vud’s newer Sleipnir, which has new measuring blades and a wind direc- tion utility. Pleased with the compa- ny’s home weather station gear, I also tried the WeatherFlow WindMeter. It turned out to be the favorite. CONNECTOR ISSUES First, the Vaavud Sleipnir. Distrib- uted by Sporty’s, marine outlets and weather equipment suppliers, it sells for $59.95 and is one of several portable anemometers from Den- mark-based Vaavud. I tried it with my current Apple iPhone 7, which doesn’t have a 3.5-mm audio jack for plugging the device in. While it’s still compatible with the phone, you’ll need to use the Apple Lightning/3.5- mm jack adapter. An older iPhone, an iPad or an Android device is better matched because the anemometer plugs directly into the 3.5-mm jack, while an attachment clip secures it upright. Simply one-hand the phone into the wind and view the data. Part of the problem is that the Lightning adapter’s pigtail is too short to clip the anemometer on the phone (especially with a fat case on it), so you have to hold the phone in one hand and the anemometer in the other—stressing the flopping cable. I preferred the early model’s measuring blades. Inspired by more expensive professional anemometers that often have a three-cup design, the original Mjolnir (still in the product line) uses two rotating measuring cups with magnets built in the hub. The flatter blades made it easier to stash. Weighing 14 grams, the Sleipnir seems almost as durable and compact, but it uses two curved rotating blades and an internal optical recording sen- sor, rather than magnets. The specs say the omnidirectional meter records 44,100 measurements per second. The anemometer isn’t sophisticat- ed enough to measure wind direc- tion on it its own, but instead uses the smartphone’s compass, accelerometer and GPS. Plus, it’s up to the user to posi- tion the anemometer into the wind for more accurate computations, and the device needs to sample the wind for at least 30 seconds. While full featured, I think the Vaavud smart- phone app is more than many pilots might use. It has a social media sharing fea- ture and shows measurements taken from other Vaavud users, which you access from a worldwide map. Pilots might primarily use the data page, which has configurable units (MPH, knots, KM/H, M/S) and displays cur- rent wind speed, maximum speed and wind direction using a vector arrow and text stamp (SW, for example). For each measurement, a gust value is calculated, which tells you how much the wind is varying. The weather savvy know this as turbu- lence intensity. Even I figured out that a low value (less than 10 per- cent) means the wind is pretty much blowing steady. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 2 1 Metal in the Oil Filter: Benign To Catastrophic With few exceptions, an oil filter should be free of metal contaminants. Identifying the metal by type can help determine what part of the engine it came from. Staff report In addition to oil lab analysis, we’ve always recommended cut- ting open the spin-on filter for physical analysis. If the engine is shedding certain metals, you could spot them in the filter, especially ones that have trap magnets. Curtail the troubleshooting effort and cost by tracing the metal frag- ments to the right part of the engine. Here’s a rough rundown of metals that end up in the filter, and their identifiable characteristics. ALUMINUM The most common metal that shows up in the filter is aluminum and that makes sense because a large portion of the engine—the crankcase, piston and cylinder heads to name a few—is aluminum. When a piston ring or valve guide breaks you’ll likely see aluminum. If there’s any good news, aluminum is an easy metal to identify. It’s silver and shiny, non-magnetic and hard. Try and crush it with your fingernail and it won’t deform. A possible problem for Lycoming engines is a failed piston pin plug. You might find a bunch of thin alu- minum flakes in the filter. Some engine pros refer to it as ivory snowflakes of death. If you find very fine alu- minum filings, you may be looking at a broken piston ring that’s chew- ing away at the ring land. If you’re finding aluminum filings that are coarse and salt-like, the failure is likely creating a grinding—maybe a loose valve guide in the head or a broken valve spring is rubbing against the guide well. If you find large chunks of aluminum that flow out with the oil, retrieve them from the catch bucket and bring them to a trusted shop for identification. Then hang on to them—they make inter- esting conversation at house parties. STEEL AND IRON These are perhaps the second most common metals in the engine. Get out your magnet because that’s the AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE The Sleipnir comes with a soft storage case and the app is free. Contact www.sportys.com and www.vaavud.com. WEATHERFLOW The $39.95 WindMeter from commer- cial weather station maker Weather- Flow seems to have similar sampling accuracy, but it uses a turbine blade encased in a rubber shell, giving it a more rugged feel than the Vaavud. Compatible with Apple and Android devices, it uses the company’s Wind and Weather app (and iWindSurf, SailFlow and a few other specialty apps) for data display. But, it too requires an Apple Lightning adapter for iPhone 7 smartphones. The saving grace is the current model smartly comes with a stiffener to keep the an- emometer anchored vertically, but it really needs a cleaner Lightning plug option, in my view. The WeatherFlow device and app measures wind speed (average and gusts), direction (true and magnetic) and the app gives you the option to name or trash each sampling. After it takes the measurement, the app automatically creates an onsite report, which summarizes wind direction, average speed and peak gust. From there, you can edit a description and save it to the sampling log, plus you can send it as an SMS or email mes- sage. You can also view the data on a map (linked on a new webpage), using the View On Map command, where the wind data is overlaid with a vector arrow. For seaplane ops, this turned out to be a good utility for reading crosswinds on groups of lakes. Contact www.weatherflow.com. A WIN BY APP, DESIGN John Zimmerman at Sporty’s told me smartphone anemometers are niche products, but are gaining traction as they get better. My Sleipnir failed out of the box and I couldn’t talk or email with Vaavud for technical help. Luck- ily, distributor Sporty’s nails customer service and helped sort it out. WeatherFlow, however, got back to me in a few hours to answer a technical question. For that, I’d buy a WeatherFlow product over a Vaavud. What really sealed the deal is the WindMeter’s rugged housing, lower price, Lightning adapter stiffener and my preference for the utilitarian Wind and Weather app. If you do your own oil changes, invest in a decent oil filter cutter. You may spot metal that needs im- mediate identification. 2 2 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 stone-simple way to distinguish them from aluminum. But the simple part ends there. If traces of iron show up in an oil lab analysis report there might not be a problem. Consider how long the engine has been sitting. Rusty cylin- der walls might spike the iron count, but visible evidence of iron and steel is another matter and needs to be looked at immediately. If it were ours, the engine would be grounded. It’s possible that iron bits trapped in the filter is cam related. Grab the magnet—iron filings from the cam or cam followers are generally dark in color and latch on to the end of the magnet. A failed cam might shed fine steel that’s almost undetectable in the filter. That’s why we like the ring magnet in the Tempest oil filter, made by Aero Accessories. The magnet is there to possibly catch fine particles of steel that might pass through the 40-mi- cron filtering paper. In the beginning stages of cam failure, though, the cam might shed fine iron filings that are nearly impos- sible to notice. This symptom is more prominent in Lycoming engines, we’re told. In a Continental you might find fine ground-up steel (it’s extremely shiny), mixed in with some bronze. This is from the rocker shaft grinding on the rocker bushing. It does a real number—once off the engine, the rocker shaft looks like someone hit it with 50 grit sandpaper. Broken piston rings may show up as small, dull-colored iron bits. But, you’ll also find bits of aluminum be- cause the trashed ring is also damag- ing the ring land by scouring it. Engine been sitting a bit too long? Ground-up steel in the filter could be from cylinder rust. When the engine finally runs, the surface rust comes off and gets flushed with the oil. This should be a one-shot deal, until the next time it sits too long. BRONZE Gold flakes in the filter may be from any of the many bronze bushings throughout the engine. You gener- ally don’t find bronze shavings. But if you do, checking the oil suction screen is essential. On Continental engines, you may find some long (up to two inches in some cases) bronze hair-like metal trapped in the filter or screen. It’s a good bet this is from the starter adapter spring rubbing on the gear. If you access the oil suction screen and find larger semicircular bits of bronze, it could be from connecting rod bushings that have worked out of the rod end and are breaking off in chunks. In Lycomings, bronze nuggets could be the tach drive bushing on the back end of the cam. The tach’s T-shaped drive pin is supposed to ride in a groove in the bushing, but that groove can wear over time as the lube dries up. Initially, it may make tiny bronze flakes that increase in size and number. Best to drop the sump and check the suction screen. If there is no other obvious source, it’s time to pull the accessory case and inspect the tach drive bushing. TIN: MAJOR DANGER The trouble with tin is it’s easy to confuse with aluminum. In a lab report, high levels of tin (and lead) might be from the babbitt on the connecting rod bearings, which is the primary place lead and tin is used in the engine. If one side of the metal flake is cop- per in color and the other side is silver, you’re looking at a hunk of babbitt, or bearing metal. This is the inlay of the bearing itself and is a sign of major distress. Pinch it—unlike aluminum, it’s soft and pliable. Tin that shows up in an oil analysis is one of those things that may mean nothing or everything, depending on engine age. With a new engine you may get a high reading for a short while, but watch out if it happens with an engine that’s well past break- in. If the bearing journals start to get wiped, catastrophic failure is almost a sure thing. CHROMIUM, MAGNESIUM Chrome in the filter is rare and usu- ally easily isolated to the engine’s top end. Still, it might not be easily dis- tinguishable from aluminum. Both are non-magnetic and can appear as a whitish color in the filter. But chrome is always flat and flaky. A thorough oil lab analysis should supplement filter inspec- tion, not replace it. One test is to drop it in diluted sodium hydroxide, or drain cleaner. The pieces will dissolve if they’re alu- minum. Possible sources of chrome are piston rings (the outer edges being chrome plated), exhaust valve stems (on Continentals) or cylinder barrels, when the cylinders are chromed. Magnesium is more likely to appear in an oil analysis and probably not in the filter because so little is used. Magnesium particles look much like aluminum, but are flammable and won’t react to sodium hydroxide. We’ve heard there’s a correlation between Bendix 1200 series magneto bearing failure and magnesium pres- ence. That’s because a failed mag bear- ing may scrape the mag case enough to make particles large enough to end up in the filter. Some Lycoming engines had magnesium oil sumps. ISOLATION IS RARE You might find two or more different metals in the filter because one failed part may take out another—or several. You might even find non-metals in there. Carbon deposits look like coffee grounds and are usually caused by excessive blow-by. Intended as a general guide and as a point of reference before committing to a major teardown inspection, we didn’t list all possible failure points here. That’s nearly impossible. Last, we think creating an oil lab analysis trend spreadsheet is a good supplement and backstop to visually inspecting the filter. We’ll look at ways to create one in an upcoming report. August 2017 w w w.aviationconsumer.com The Aviation Consumer • 2 3 Cheetahs and Tigers Which four-place Grumman you choose might depend on the need for speed, climb and payload. The Grumman Cheetah and bigger-engined Tiger may be overlooked by some buyers searching the crowded under-$50K used airplane market. In fact, among entry-level Cessna and Piper models, the AA-5A Cheetah could very well be a used market leader. With a sporty slide-back canopy, snappy handling and reasonable cruise speed for its fuel-sipping 150- HP powerplant, a Cheetah works for training, traveling and for tooling around the local area. On the oth- er hand, the 180-HP AA-5B Tiger might be the better of the two cats when more climb performance and load-hauling is needed. Here’s a side-by-side compari- son of both models—including a detailed accident analysis—to help narrow the buying decision. HISTORY The Cheetah and Tiger basic de- sign traces back to the 1960s and the two-seat AA-1 Yankee. The brainchild of Jim Bede, the Yankee featured revolutionary construction, aluminum-honeycomb sandwich fuselage panels and rivetless bonded Owners generally boast of low operating costs and excellent dispatch records. A Cheetah and Tiger, main photo, share the same airframe design, but a Tiger will get you to the destination airport more quickly thanks to more horse- power. Photo courtesy American Yankee Association skins. The fuel tanks were housed within a tubular wing spar. While the intentions were good in mar- keting the Yankee as a trainer, the airplane proved to be a bit too hot for students to handle. In 1972, American Aviation decid- ed to introduce a 150-HP, four-place version of the AA-1 and called it the Traveler. While the Traveler shared the family genes of the AA-1, it was really an all-new airplane, significant- ly larger and boasted new systems. It also had more traditional fuel tanks. Gone were those grossly inaccurate sight-gauge fuel quantity gauges that held avgas inside of the cabin. The Traveler was a different airplane that tried to compete with complex aircraft such as the Cessna 177 Cardinal and Piper’s PA28R- series Arrow with little success. Still, the market wanted more performance than the Traveler could deliver. Then Grumman (with deep pockets) stepped in and involved the famous Roy LoPresti to work his aerodynamic magic on the design. The result was the AA-5B Tiger. Introduced in 1975, the Tiger had bigger fuel tanks, a different elevator, a more efficient cowling and most notably, a beefier 180-HP Lycoming O-360-A4K engine. In 1976, these airframe im- provements were applied to the existing Traveler, which became the AA-5A Cheetah, but it retained the 150-HP Lycoming O-320-E2G engine. Essentially, the Cheetah and Tiger are the same aircraft with different engines. Production came to a halt in 2 4 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com August 2017 U S E D A I R C R A F T G U I D E 2 4 • The Aviation Consumer w w w.aviationconsumer.com SELECT MODEL COMPARISONS GRUMMAN/AMERICAN GENERAL AA5-A/B RESALE VALUES 1978 TIGER 1979 CHEETAH 2000 2005 2010 2014 2017 80K – – 60K – – 40K – – 20K – CHEETAH/TIGER SELECT MODEL HISTORY MODEL YEAR ENGINE TBO OVERHAUL FUEL USEFUL LOAD CRUISE TYPICAL RETAIL 1976 AA-5A CHEETAH LYC. 150-HP O-320-E2G 2000 $20,000 38/51 800 LBS 128 KTS ±$29,000 1975 AA-5B TIGER LYC. 180-HP O-360-A4K 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$35,000 1977 AA-5A CHEETAH LYC. 150-HP O-320-E2G 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$31,000 1977 AA-5B LYC. 180-HP O-360-A4K 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$39,000 1978 AA-5A CHEETAH LYC. 150-HP O-320-E2G 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$32,000 1979 AA-5B LYC. 180-HP O-360-A4K 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$43,000 1990 AG-5B LYC. 180-HP O-360-A4K 2000 $21,000 51 950 LBS 135-140 KTS ±$60,000 1991 AG-5B LYC. 180-HP O