"Marco Leon" wrote in message ...
You might want to check out Aspen Avionics competing products. They are
targeted to be 1/3 of the price with significantly less install complexity
and cost. http://www.aspenavionics.com/index.p...cts/evolution/

I am definitely looking at the Aspen products. I think they have a great
"potential product".

But I was burned badly during the dotcom days of vaporware promises, and now
dig deep and agressively for actual product delivery and sales count. The
Aspen guys seem to have that dotcom holdover mentality of mass marketing. At
OSH they touted their product as being readied for delivery to dealers. At
the summer's end they modified their web site claiming TSO'd status in 800
aircraft requiring minimum approvals. At the recent AOPA Hartford Expo I
inquired at the booth and got a great demo, and told that they already
shipped models to dealers. Some more questions about which dealers (by name)
were ready to begin installs, and they became a bit less sure. Another booth
rep comes over and admits that the week before the Aspen engineers and the
FAA spent three days flight testing the product, and the FAA tasked them
with changing some of the "button pushing sequences" which they didn't like.
This doesn't sound like it's TSO'd and approved primary in 800 aircraft to
me! Then I asked about the models already sent to dealers, and I was told
they were not aware of any having been installed in "end customer" certified
aircraft. Then I asked how those Button Pushing Mods would be retrofitted
into those already sent to the dealers. They answered that it would probably
be software related, and they didn't anticipate any chip level mods. Then my
final series of questions was if the Vac systems needed to be maintained, or
could they be ripped out. I got a look like it was the first time the
question was asked. A third Aspen booth rep suggested that the vac guages
(he said the AI) may need to be relocated.

None of that gave me a warm and fuzzy. I am very excited about their
product. They have set the bar for our 30+ yo airframes, and anyone thinking
of upgrading to an HSI would be crazy not to consider this Apsen system. But
I just don't think they are ready for prime time yet. Stay tuned.