Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Yet Another Upgrade

Breaking his silence, the IFR Pilot reappears...

Mike Hotel has been scheduled for another upgrade. As many of you may know, Garmin will be dramatically increasing the pricing on WAAS upgrades to its series of 430/530 GPS/Nav/Coms at the end of this month. Something like doubling the price overnight!

With some insightful questioning of our avionics tech, we learned that to obtain to current pricing, we didn't need to have the work done by the end of August, only to have it scheduled. And it could be scheduled months out. The only hitch is that its a "must-do." You can't change your mind and cancel, although you don't have to give Garmin any money in advance.

So, guess what we did today? We decided to schedule to upgrade. For February 2008! That gives us months to worry about how to pay for it, although truth be told, we planned for this when we installed the 430. We already have the proper type and length of coax cable in Mike Hotel. Essentially, this should be a remove and replace the unit (after the factory does its magic), and then change out the antenna.

It'll be nice to have that WAAS upgrade, although now I'll have to decipher all of the strange acronyys at the bottom of the NACO charts showing MDAs and DHs....

Friday, August 03, 2007

More Success!!!

Another quiet period on the aviation front. Nothing to report, as the IFR Pilot hasn't been aviating since the Delaware junket. Still need to offload the pics taken while at Blogging Pilot World 2007.

In the meantime, there is good news to report: After six months of pounding the pavement, someone has finally stepped up to the plate and accepted my article on RITTRs for publication! Yea for the IFR Pilot, another 2007 goal accomplished -- though it may prove to be the last.

Anyway, when it finally appears in print, you will be duly notified. And now, back to reviewing documents at my desk...