What did you buy for your 170 today?

[4583C]

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Been waiting for this box for nearly a year. Hopefully get the instal done next week!

[c170b53]

Jealous Paul…called yesterday Aircraft spruce delivery not till end of June if I order today.

[cessna170bdriver]

An ACK ELT battery

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[GAHorn]

An ACK ELT battery

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It’s hilarious a lithium battery specified and approved for use in aircraft is forbidden to be transported on aircraft.

[henrikvs]

I got the 170 back from the avionics shop Friday and have been exploring all the new toys! Can't wait for some good weather to see them all in action.

With nothing good to rent locally to complete my instrument training, I thought it would be a "good thing" to upgrade the plane to IFR ready. I wanted to add a second radio with GPS: a GNC 355. I wasn't happy with the gyro instruments not spooling up until I was climbing out, so I went with deleting the venturi vacuum system and adding two GI 275s. I needed a new audio panel for the second radio. So far, so good.

I wanted to put the stall horn under the panel, but it seems to have a little light that has to be visible. Who knew? So it got moved over to the right But the mag switch is right over the GPS and the metal key fobs would block and scratch the screen. Moved the mag switch down. That left a hole, and since I need a clock we moved it where the mag switch used to be.

Then I wasn't really happy with the tach being way over on the right. And the oil pressure was always showing 10 pounds high. Why not just get another GI 275 engine instrument and delete all the little ones? More expensive than all the fixes, but totally cool looking. And I like all that engine data.

On the pitot static check the airspeed indicator failed due to a case leak. I didn't want to spend to fix it so it got deleted. New circuit breaker panel, cleaned and painted control wheels, new push to talk. Nice symmetrical panel. Glass yet vintage. A future upgrade will be new fuel level sensors to send to the engine GI 275 so I don't have to bend around to see the left tank level. But it does have fuel flow now so I'll know have a good idea of what's left.

Quite the fun adventure getting it all done.

This is very very nice. Great work. I am planning a very similar thing. May I ask you Jim, those three 275's, are they locked to their respective primary function? I mean, you are not able to use any of them as MFD and view moving map, traffic, weather etc? Was there anything that was particularly difficult with the installation?

[GAHorn]

An ACK ELT battery

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Nice pajamas, Miles!

[JimNelson]

This is very very nice. Great work. I am planning a very similar thing. May I ask you Jim, those three 275's, are they locked to their respective primary function? I mean, you are not able to use any of them as MFD and view moving map, traffic, weather etc? Was there anything that was particularly difficult with the installation?

Thank you!! It's even nicer in action. Yes, each instrument is locked in as either an attitude indicator (right), heading indicator / HSI (center) or engine monitor (right). There is a "fail over" function in case something dies, that functionality is taken over by the other instrument. The installation was very straightforward with no surprises. Partway through I found things that would be better done another way (like moving the mag switch down so the keys didn't bounce against the 355). The HSI gets a moving map and flight plan from the GNC 355, but I don't have ADSB in (except on the iPad) so no traffic or weather. The hardest thing is the conversion to glass. The manual says run up at 1600 so darn it I'm going to run up at 1600 rpm. I really love the ability to download the engine and flight data. Overall, I'm very pleased with the installation.

One downside is the magnetic compass is now off by 30 degrees. The picture shows I'm flying at 026 and the compass says 060. I know that the 275s are correct. I don't know if something got bumped or if there are some extra magnetrons running around from the new electronics. The 275s are booted and fed from a magnetometer. With that, I'm not sure that the magnetic compass is needed. But I would like some help in what to do next on that compass? At the very least a new compass correction card.

[GAHorn]

My C-170 Owners Manual recommends a mag check at 1700 RPM and my 172 Manual recommends 1600…. despite what is essentially the same engine and prop combination.

Here’s the EAA’s method for swinging a compass. (I have a ‘53 model with the compass mounted within the center panel and have had better results than many who have found that location heavily influenced by the yoke movement. Check your flight control positions when swinging the compass to see if that steel “T” behind the panel doesn’t affect your compass. I suggest you swing your compass with your flight controls in a NEUTRAL position….as that is where the majority of your in-flight control positions will be. Also, contrary to the comments in the EAA article, I have not experienced any difficulty swinging the compass with the tailwheel on the ground.)

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-buildi ... he-compass

By the Way…. Our dear Friend and fellow Member who contributes countless hours to editing and organizing our Membership Directory, The 170 News, and validating new Members privileges online, Bruce Fenstermacher, has posted a Compass Deviation Card for your convenience inside the front cover of the Directory.

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Compass correction cards.pdf

[henrikvs]

The hardest thing is the conversion to glass. The manual says run up at 1600 so darn it I'm going to run up at 1600 rpm.

Haha, that's a great problem to have. I guess if you have the same approach to exact speeds, using that digital tape, it will really help you with precision in your landings

The HSI gets a moving map and flight plan from the GNC 355

This is one of the things that is really difficult to understand from Garmin's documentation. I would have thought that the internal GPS in the 275 would provide this possibility in itself. I was really not planning on getting a GPS/NAV, but maybe that will be the only option...

Yes, each instrument is locked in

That's what I thought. I am investigating the possibility of installing an electrically driven Heading Indicator on the far right, in order to be able to keep that 275 unlocked, and allow for all the various MFD pages to be used. There is a lot of functionality in that little thing, but when locked to one instrument... no other functionality can be used of course.

One downside is the magnetic compass is now off by 30 degrees.

Guess there is a lot of new magnetic field from those electrical devices close to it. I for one would not care about the ability to use a compass, but there is of course a requirement to have one. At least in Europe, we are not allowed to replace a whiskey compass with a magnetometer.

[IA DPE]

This is very very nice. Great work. I am planning a very similar thing. May I ask you Jim, those three 275's, are they locked to their respective primary function? I mean, you are not able to use any of them as MFD and view moving map, traffic, weather etc? Was there anything that was particularly difficult with the installation?

My GI-275s can be set as an Attitude Indicator, HSI, or Moving Map, by rotating the “big” knob. My #1 default’s as AI, #2 as HSI. Should #1 fail, I believe #2 automatically reverts to AI. If it doesn’t there is a red Reversionary Switch right on the panel that can be pilot activated. My Avionics Shop said the Garmin STC required the switch be close to the 275s for this to be a legal IFR installation.

I don’t have a Garmin Transponder which is required to display ADS-B In data on the other Garmin equipment. My L3 Lynx transponder has a weather/ traffic display on it but it wasn’t possible to bridge that to Garmin.

[4583C]

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My new to me tug and airport runabout. Figured I’d better get black to keep up with Miles.

[ghostflyer]

I had similar issues with my whisky [standby]compass after adding the 2 G5,s . N and S were spot on and E was within tolerance but W was 20 degs out. I ended up changing the whisky compass compensator and putting a new one in. But W is still 10degs out. I used another compass to compare and nearly identical figures were shown. Then setting up the magnetron correctly was an issue also. So,it appears when everything is switched on the digital instruments must provide some electronic magnetic interference.
I have given up trying to get the magnetic compass to be intolerance . Initially it looked good but over time it appears to be in a change mode .

[cessna170bdriver]

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My new to me tug and airport runabout. Figured I’d better get black to keep up with Miles.

Yours is blacker than mine, and has that fancy roof.

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