Radio Replacement

In article ,
"Dan Luke" wrote:
So, do you plan to now go put a 430 in your airplane so that it will
sell?

Nope. I made a mistake 6 years ago by going cheap and putting in a factory
refurb'd B/K KLN-90B. Installing already obsolete technology was the wrong
thing to do then, but it's too late to correct it now. If I planned on
keeping the airplane for a few more years and would get some use from a WAAS
430, it would be different. I will just have to live with the consequences
of
being "penny wise and pound foolish."

What practical capability does a 430 give you that the 90B does not? As
far as I know, nothing. Now, if you're saying that folks want WAAS
units now, I just can't believe that's the majority of the market.

For my aircraft, I doubt that many potential buyers would walk away over
the lack of GPS. Someone who can't afford a week downtime to install a
430 isn't going to be looking for an Archer.



If you do not think you need GPS approaches, I certainly would not advise you
to install a 430 if you don't plan on selling for a long time. It only makes
sense for you if you are going to use it AND you are contemplating selling
within a couple of years or so, which is the only reason I mentioned it.

Well, obviously GPS is the navigation technology of the future. I don't
think that the investment would necessarily be wasted, but who knows how
the comm situation is going to shake down, or what GPS units may be on
the market in 5 years or so. I don't plan to sell my airplane in the
next couple of years. Could I benefit from the 430W or 480 now? Maybe.
But probably not enough to justify the cost. I will probably abandon my
thoughts of installing a non-WAAS GPS unit, though.

I think I've narrowed down my choices for now to two options:

1 -- Replace the failed 170B with a KX155, eliminate the KN75 GS
receiver on my instrument shelf, and have the KX155 drive the KI209
indicator. If I go this route and then put a 430 or 480 in the panel in
a year or two, I will end up with two fairly new radios with two decent
indicators.

2 -- Have the KX170B repaired and forget about the KX155. The risk with
this option is that one of the 170B radios could fail again, or have a
catastrophic failure and be unrepairable, in which case I'd be forced to
either upgrade or search for a used KX170B. This is the short-term
cheapest solution that doesn't require ripping my plane apart (to run
the GS antenna, etc.) but does it make longer-term sense? I'm not so
sure.



JKG