The Aviation Consumer April 2010
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April 2010 Volume XL Number 4 The consumer resource for pilots and aircraft owners Legend Amphib Respectable performance, good build quality and just crazy fun … page 22 Plastic trumps paper … page 4 JPI’s new monitors… page 8 Actually, it’s even worse than it looks… page 18 4 TABLET EFBs 11 KNEEBOARD ROUNDUP 18 AUTOPILOT NIGHTMARE It’s a tough call to pick a true For a place to write and keep a In case you haven’t noticed, winner, but ChartCase is it pen, we like Sporty’s Classic. the AP market is just a mess 8 JPI’S NEW 730/830 14 BARGAIN RETRACTS 24 USED AIRCRAFT GUIDE: Sophisticated new monitors That’s all of them these days. Practicality and durability are are ideal for tight panels The Arrow is a top pick why the Piper Archer endures FIRST WORD EDITOR Paul Bertorelli Blue Screen of Death in the Cockpit Maybe I emit some kind of weird electromagnetic field, but it seems if there’s MANAGING EDITOR a way to get a computer to crash, I’ll find it. Back in my dot.com, tech-writer Jeff Van West days people loved to have me beta test software because I’d break it within five minutes. I’ve even found bugs in MFDs weeks before certification. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS This knack held right into our EFB trials that you’ll see on page four. We Jeb Burnside had started up the engine and I was having trouble getting the device to Jonathan Doolittle respond correctly. Simple solution: reboot. Not a big deal as it boots up pretty Rick Durden fast—except that it wouldn’t shut down. It sat there running … and running Larry Anglisano … still running. Finally, the taskbar disappeared and the shutdown process commenced. Then the reason for the long delay became crystal clear: “Do not SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT shut off your computer. Windows is installing updates.” P.O. Box 420235 Installing updates? We’re taxiing to the runway for freakin’ takeoff and the Palm Coast, FL 34142-0235 test device is installing updates? No one had turned off the automatic updates 800-829-9081 for this tablet computer and it www.aviationconsumer.com/cs found some when it updated its navigation data back at the FOR CANADA Subscription Services office. There was nothing to do Box 7820 STN Main but wait. Good thing we weren’t London, ON 5W1 depending on it for a taxi dia- Canada gram or local frequencies. This kind of thing is sadly Back Issues, Used Aircraft Guides common when testing cockpit 203-857-3100 devices based on off-the-shelf consumer electronics. The stuff REPRINTS: Aviation Consumer can works almost all the time. I had provide you or your organization with reprints. Minimum order is 1000 a ’76 Rabbit that worked almost copies. Contact Jennifer Jimolka, all the time, too, and I get the 203-857-3144 same feeling about using one of these EFBs as my primary chart AVIATION CONSUMER reader and map during an in- (ISSN #0147-9911) is pub- strument approach that I used to lished monthly by Belvoir get driving that Rabbit through Aviation Group LLC, an South Boston at two a.m. affiliate of Belvoir Media It’s a tradeoff. These EFBs offer Group, 800 Connecti- far more capability at a much cut Avenue, Norwalk, CT lower cost than a Garmin 696. 06854-1631. Robert Englander, Chairman But I’ve never worried about a and CEO; Timothy H. Cole, Executive Vice purpose-built, aviation GPS crash- President, Editorial Director; Philip L. ing just when I needed it most. OK, Penny, Chief Operating Officer; Greg King, I admit, they do fail and every electronic device needs a backup. But I bet if Executive Vice President, Marketing Direc- you polled 20 users of a Garmin or Honeywell portable GPS you’d be lucky to tor; Ron Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer; find one who had seen the unit completely fail. Do the same with folks who Tom Canfield, Vice President, Circulation. use laptop software—and that’s what these EFBs are—and you’d be lucky to find one who had never seen a lockup requiring a restart. Periodicals postage paid at Norwalk, CT, There’s a second level of annoyance with these devices. Some functions are and at additional mailing offices. Rev- an almost fit because the hardware just wasn’t quite designed for it. Most avia- enue Canada GST Account #128044658. tion portables have built-in GPS. These EFBs require Bluetooth connections to Subscriptions: $84 annually; single cop- separate GPS units. Not a big deal, but it’s one more thing to charge, to carry, ies, $10.00. Bulk rate subscriptions for to fail to connect. The touch screens sometimes have trouble distinguishing organizations are available. Copyright © between a tap and a drag, especially in turbulence. I happen to have a Garmin 2010 Belvoir Aviation Group LLC. All rights aera and Honeywell AV8OR in my office now, too. Neither of these devices has that problem with their touchscreens. But, then again, I can’t check my email reserved. Reproduction in whole or in in the FBO with an aera or AV8OR either. part is prohibited. Printed in the USA. The simple fact is that I’m willing to put up with a lot more futzing and instability in the comfort of my office chair than I am while wrapped in alu- Postmaster: Send address corrections to minum and moving three miles a minute. For me, the value of these EFBs still AVIATION CONSUMER, Box 420234, Palm falls short of overcoming the annoyance on any of the options available today. Coast, Fl 32142. In Canada, P.O. Box 39 A factor in that might be my flair for making computers crash. I prefer Norwich, ON NOJ1PO, Canada. Publishing avoiding crashes of any kind when it comes to airplanes. —Jeff Van West Agreement Number #40016479 2 • The Aviation Consumer www.aviationconsumer.com2 • www.aviationconsumer.com April 2010 LETTERS Cirrus Comments from Amazon and although you free copy of Voyager, I find myself Nice article in the February 2010 is- can’t use it to clobber someone over using Fltplan.com which is free and sue on the Cirrus SR20. I would like the head as you could with a six extremely straight forward. It has 95 to add some comments/corrections. D-cell mag lite, it does everything percent of the features I need. I own the number two all-electric else and more. One additional comment on SR20 (s/n 1269) having taken deliv- This delivers four different levels EFB’s: I purchased a Kindle DX as a ery in January 2003 (boy, was it cold of light: Low, which is perfect for result of your article a few months up there then). I have 650 hours on cockpit use, medium and high, ago. While it stores everything but it now and generally have been very which are better for preflighting at charts and is fairly easy to navigate pleased with it. night. The highest use is the “turbo” and the display is about the same You mentioned mode, which size as a chart, it is not as easy to a $1200 cost U S ED AIRCRAFT GUIDE delivers 180 UviewS ED AIRCR asAFT GUIDEa paper chart because the for replacement Cirrus SR20 lumens (with contrast just isn’t there. The “baby” Cirrus comes in many different flavors, but all offer of the reefing good speed, comfort, economy and, of course, a parachute. two AA batter- I have no problem reading books cutters every ies) but only on the Kindle, but reading an six years. There for an hour or approach plate requires a flashlight are two of these so. (even in daylight) or a magnifying and at slightly It’s made glass. Keep up the good work; a over $1000 each, in China like great magazine even for us King Air it’s slightly over everything drivers. nly 10 years ago, the idea of a has a lot going for it: It is comfort- stuff,” Alan Klapmeier told us in a certificated, “plastic” airplane able, is relatively economical to 1997 interview. “Making it too hard $2000 to do the Ohad many old-timers shaking acquire and operate, has simple to fly is not a good value.” else, but it has their heads in skepticism. It looks systems, comes with a well-defined What eventually became the Cir- kind of interesting, but no “real” support network and is faster than rus SR20 emerged from that philoso- pilot would want of those things— much of its direct competition. Later phy and, from the beginning, was a job. The number it’s got a parachute, fergawd’s sake! models feature the most-modern different airplane. In addition to the a quality, mili- Frank Singer Today, the Cirrus SR20—and espe- technology available in personal materials used for construction, its cially its big brother, the SR22—have aircraft. Refinements continue to be side-stick controller, swing-up doors two alternator upended traditional ideas of what a applied, not just to the instrument and then-state-of-the-art multi-func- tary-grade feel Huntington Beach, California personal airplane should look like, panels but also to major airframe tion display immediately set it apart how it should be used and how it components. Oh, and it has an air- from the traditional airplanes com- should be equipped. frame parachute, too. ing from Wichita and Vero Beach. is a 20-amp B The SR20 could be thought of Ten years in the making, the mar- The most innovative detail, how- to it.