Pirep: New toys (long)

Don't even start reading this without going to the fridge for a
brewsky first. It's a long post... hell get the whole six pack, it's
Saturday night.
Okay, awhile back my hangar was broken into and like a dummy, I
had all my flight gear in the airplane. The airplane wasn't locked.
The perp(s), got off with a Telex headset, Airmap 100 GPS, and an Icom
22 and a cordura bag full of tools, spare spark plugs, tie downs,
chocks and so forth. They left behind a David Clark H10-13.4 that had
my name written on it in indelible marker.
AOPA insurance (U.S.A.I.G.), paid for the aviation related items
within 2 weeks or so of my claim and I was pretty pleased with their
service and fair settlement. If they see this plug, hopefully,
they'll renew me without raising my rates.
After shopping the net and listening to the newsgroups' advice, I
ignored it all :' ) and ordered a new Lowrance Airmap 1000, ($725),
Vertex Standard Pro V VXA-150, ($269), and Lightspeed QFR Solo Cross
Country II, ($275) from Marv Golden. He had a special offer going
that included a free alkaline battery pack for the Vertex, and a free
Everest flight bag if you purchased a Lightspeed headset. Reports of
his company's credibility sounded good. I had pretty much made up my
mind on the Airmap 1000 based on my great experience with the 100 and
it's obstruction database. For a vfr pilot, Lowrance gps's offer a
lot of value for the money, IMHO. The free battery pack and price
along with more features, clinched the Vertex deal over an Icom. I
wasn't sure about the headset, though. I like my bullet proof David
Clark and was leery of the Lightspeeds because of the reported
problems here on the rec. aviation groups. I telephoned, instead of
ordering from the net because I wanted to ask questions and the guy
answering the phone was very helpful, sounded honest and made good
suggestions. Since I am beginning to suffer some hearing loss, I was
interested in an ANR unit but really didn't want to spend the big
bucks. The QFR X Country II was recommended by MG and was a bit
cheaper than the passive D.C. that I was fixin to order. Being
extremely cheap... I mean thrifty, I asked if they could cut the price
more, since this was a hefty order. An offer of free shipping was
made and the deal was done. The shipment arrived on time.
Initial impressions: Free flight bag - I thought it would be crap
and figured I'd use it for the tools and tie downs. Actually, it's
pretty nice. I may just use it for a... well... a flight bag. It has
two end headset pockets and one side pocket in addition to a large
center section. Zippers seemed stout... we'll see.
Airmap - NICE. BIG 5x5" screen. Two Ram mounts were provided, a
yoke mount and suction cup style mount. I was disappointed that it
didn't come with a hard case like my old 100 did. And the big screen
may scratch easily. I'll have to be careful with no hard case
provided.
Vertex Radio - I was disappointed. The plastic case looks cheap
compared to my old Icom. The battery latch looks flimsy. It won't
stand up vertically very well without falling over.
Headset - It looked better than I thought it would. I figured it
would be poorly made. I'll reserve further judgment until I do some
testing.

I piled it all back in the box it came in, loaded it in the feed
wagon and headed to the ranch to feed cattle. (Seriously folks; don't
laugh, you'll spew that beer out your nose).

Plugged the headset into the Vertex. The diesel truck engine
noise was muted some but not much and I could hear the radio music
better with the ANR switched on. But, I wasn't impressed! I hope
it's because it isn't optimized for diesel frequencies. Which brings
up the question about diesel aviation engines hitting the market. I
quit playing with it because oncoming drivers were veering all over
heck and staring at me as they passed. : ' )
The AM 1000 was another story altogether. Hell it was hard for ME
to keep from veering all over the road. I kept finding cool features
that my other unit lacked. (Oh yeah, don't try this at home folks.
I'm a professionally trained test idiot so it's okay for me).
I survived that 65 mile drive then made a 100 mile drive a day or
two later and came away even more impressed with the GPS. You should
have seen the looks on the old time rancher's faces when I pulled up
to the local eatery with the AIRMAP clamped to the 6 speed gear shift!
The cows in the pastures weren't impressed at all, though.
Now to the real tests. I loaded up the Misses, and the gear; we
went to the airport and we launched for a fly-in breakfast just over
an hour east of here this morning. The Airmap locks on so fast it'll
make your head spin. It uses an active antenna. It sends a message
when it gets or loses WAAS lock. I wasn't pleased with the way the
yoke mount positioned the GPS so I used the mount for the AM 100 with
just a bit of modification. Yes, the perps left me the yoke mount and
old gps external antenna, go figure. I could see the entire panel
without looking around the unit except for a few fuses and switches.
I liked the displays so much I couldn't decide which one to leave it
on. Clip on sunglasses made the display harder to read as they did
with the AM 100 but it was so large and so much crisper compared to
the 100 that I didn't even have to use the bifocal part of my eyeglass
lens. The E6-B functions are the same as the 100. The pages are
configurable with up to 26 selections of info to put in the data
blocks. I didn't care for the more generic terms they use. For
instance instead of ETE they use travel time. The unit does indicate
voltage which is great for my old Cherokee's ancient electrical
system. There is no turn co-coordinator or logbook like the new
Garmin units. At least I haven't found it yet. But there are awesome
displays with HSI's, compass overlays on the maps which I really liked
and used alot and best of all altitude, airspeed, and vsi tapes like
the fighter jet electronic displays.
The Lightspeed worked great! Now I'm impressed with it, as well! I
plugged in the supplied cord to one of those el cheapo f.m. belt clip
radios. It sounded great compared to listening to the ADF. BIG
difference between switching the ANR on or off. Then I made the
biggest mistake of the day. I traded my wife for the DC headset and
never got the damned Lightspeed back the rest of the flight!
We landed, ate breakfast, looked over the airplanes, including a
B-25 from Tulsa, then launched for F92. Heavy rains earlier in the
week had caused flooding which derailed a train near there. I told
momma that we should go see it. I really just wanted more time to
play with the GPS.
After a 3 hour and twenty minute flight, we were back at home
field and I'm happy with all the new toys. I used the Vertex to talk
to unicom and it works fine and has some features the Icom doesn't. I
forgot to try it while airborne, though so I still need to test it's
range. It still looks a bit cheesy to me but I'm getting more
accustomed to it.
FW.I.W., I feel like I did O.K. on these purchases, but time will
tell. I still have to read the manuals on the radio and learn to
program the memory channels. I just started the GPS manual. I found
out Lowrance offers a free snap on hard plastic screen and button
cover that I'll order pronto. I haven't tried the mapping software or
fully explored the unit's capabilities by any stretch of the
imagination. It came with a MMC SD card reader. It's land based
vehicle capabilities seem pretty neat but I still have a lot to learn.
No offense intended to Mr. Jay Honeck, but seriously, for the
price of that fancy colored big screen gps of his, I got all of this
stuff and still had $500 bucks in my pocket to boot. That is enough
to cover my next annual inspection if nothing is found wrong, HAH. I
wish I had the money for the best of everything, but I ain't never
gonna be able to buy that Comanche or RV-7 kit if I don't pinch
pennies somewhere. We each have our own budget and personal likes and
dislikes, so to each his own. Thanks to everyone for your advice and
comments, they were very useful.
--
Joe Schneider
8437R
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