Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
DR wrote in :

chris wrote:
On Mar 30, 5:19 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
chris writes:
None of the small aircraft I have ever flown has had TCAS.. Are
you sure you got that right ???
By "often used," I meant "when present on small aircraft, this is
the type usually used," because it's cheaper. I don't think TCAS is
really present very much on small GA aircraft, but I don't have
actual figures. Since good avionics represent a substantial portion
of the total cost of an aircraft, it follows that one wouldn't see
advanced avionics that often on aircraft that are not otherwise very
expensive. Who would install $2 million of avionics on a $90,000
aircraft?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.
I fear it's even worse than you think, at least in this country,
where private aircraft ownership is quite rare. Most light a/c are
either aero club owned, i.e. 172 / Cherokee, or commercial, like
Senecas and the like.. And on the whole, avionics tends to get
neglected. The vast majority of club a/c wouldn't have GPS, let
alone glass cockpits or TCAS. I have seen inside some commercial
operated light a/c like Senecas and Aztecs and you'd probably be
horrified at how basic they are. Just a couple of ADFs and VORs and
that's all they get. Maybe a DME thrown in for good measure...

And don't think they get maintained either. If the a/c came with IFR
gear and isn't being used for IFR, like at an aero club, when things
like DME and VOR break down they don't get fixed, they just get
placarded as inop. Same as fuel gauges. Of 9 planes at our club,
only 4 have working fuel gauges!! The rest are just placarded u/s.
And the only reason there are 4 planes that have gauges that work is
3 of them are brand new a/craft. The deal with fuel gauges is, we
know the fuel burn and we have a stick to dip the tank on preflight,
what do we need gauges for ???

Hi Chris,

Doesn't the MEL in part 91.509 say that fuel gauges are required...
Are you saying that the director CAA has deemed that working (not
necessarily accurate) fuel gauges are not required in your club -what
gives?

Flown lots of airliners where gauges may be U/S provided that the tanks
are dripped. This is not true of the current crop of airliners but you
coudl do it on older 73's for instance.


Hmm, that really surprises me (but then a lot of things do!). I guess
the issue of a fuel leak would be moot... On the other hand, not having
cockpit guages (or the PIC not checking them) would contribute to why
that Canadian(?) heavy ran out of A1 awhile ago?

Cheers MC
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