Upgrading to Avidyne R9

The Long Install Wait

Craig Sherman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:16:00 GMT

As one of the first to make the R9 upgrade, I knew to expect that the installation would be slow. And, I also should have known that my service center (sc), Eagle Creek Aviation in Indianapolis, would want to be painstaking in the process. Bill Frank's plane was in line ahead of me. After attending the Transition Training in Melbourne, FL in late April, Bill left his plane in Indy to get started on May 4th. I had it in my mind that the sc could put my plane in the same bay and go from one to the other, and aimed to deliver it to them on about the 8th. But, they were not ready for that when I called, and asked if I could bring it in on the 11th.

I left the plane at Eagle Creek on the 11th, and checked back on the 15th. At that time I was told by one person that they would get started shortly, but the shop foreman said that they would not start until they finished with Bill's plane. While I wanted the 1st opinion to be right, I knew it would be a better install if I exercised as much patience as possible. So, I spent lots of time watching Bill's installation, even to the point of filming a good part of it. Jeff Schneider of Eagle Creek did a great job of working with the plane, carefully documenting each step. Jeff provided several suggestions to Avidyne to correct portions of the drawing, schematics and processes. I was really impressed with his patience in testing each wire, hand fashioning each connector, and staying on task even with me and the Avidyne team checking on him daily.

Bill's plane required a WAAS upgrade, so the time involved was bound to be longer than mine. This video is of the composite repair needed on Bill's plane. (Please visit the site to view this media)

As I checked in every few days on the progress of Bill's, it became more and more apparent that mine would not get started until they finished with his. I kept filming his, and submitted the film to Avidyne for use on their Avidynelive website (http://avidynelive.com/default.asp). The progress seemed very slow, but at least there was progress. My plane was not flying in the meantime though, and at times my patience was strained. In the meantime, I posted a forum item on COPA to see if there was any interest in my used audio stack, as I would no longer need my audio panel, Garmin 430 W gps units, or transponder. To my surprise, I received many calls and e-mails, and eventually found a buyer in Texas for the whole system. It was sold by the 20th, and the buyer was standing by for the parts to be removed from the plane. The sc was good enough to "yellow tag" them, marked removed from service for upgrade, so that the buyer would have good documentation when he installed them. I also sold my spare data cards and Skybound adapter.

While waiting for the install to begin I was still working to reduce the price. One bone of contention was the new instrument panel, quoted at over $1,000. I first questioned the need to replace the panel at all, but the new IFD units attach with different hardware, and the attachment points needed to be changed. In addition, the holes are slightly different shapes. While the old panel could probably be patched, it would look patched, and for a major upgrade that did not seem desirable. So, I queried Avidyne for a different source. They had done the experimental plane, and Alan K's. They referred me to Herold Precision at http://www.heroldprecision.com/, and said the panel could be gotten for about $350. I passed this on to my sc, but they said that when they check with Herold the price was for a panel with just the IFD holes, and that the cost to recut it for the additional holes required for my specific installation and to get it screen printed would not save anything, and would delay the panel. I am inclined to think I should have insisted, but the finished panel does really look good.

Another option discussed and set aside was the ELT. I had asked about installing a 406 ELT along with the R9 upgrade, but so far the R9 software won't communicate with a 406. This defeats the GPS coordinate delivery designed into the 406 concept. Also, the ELT replacement is relatively easy, so it does not need to be done with the install. The last major option decision had to do with provisioning the plane for eventual EVS (infared) camera install. The software is free to me as an Early Adopter. But, the additional cable would have run almost $1,000. Originally I was ready to do this, but I found that there is no conduit into the left wing on a G2 plane to run the cable. I was also told that there was no engineering for creation of a conduit. This meant that the cable would be left below the pilot seat, waiting for a future install into the left wing. (Forward Vision told me at Migration that they had the engineering already done as part of their STC, but by that time I was past the decision) I had always been hesitant to purchase the camera, anyway, so I canceled this portion of the upgrade. These changes dropped about $2,000 from my quoted price.

All the while, Bill's plane was nearing completion. Finally, at the end of May Bill's plane was finished. I missed the final stages as I was gone to visit my son in Washington. But, I was elated to see that work was going to finally start on mine. It was too bad my plane sat for a month, and that just goes to show that communication with the sc is a key part of the process.

Making the R9 Decision

Craig Sherman — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:47:00 GMT

At this point my plane (N8554R), a 2004 Cirrus SR22 GT with 350 Hobbs hours on it, is in the shop at Eagle Creek Aviation here in Indianapolis about done with the R9 install. I hope to fly it early next week. But, not wanting to jump too far ahead in my narrative, I want to share with you some of the efforts I went through making the decision to upgrade the already very good Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) GPS enabled Avidyne system residing in the plane.

I really did not expect to hear much from Avidyne as I expected that their 2nd quarter delivery schedule would slip, as most of these things seem to do, when they got to final stages of development and certification. I did get a New Years message from Mike Glover at Avidyne offering information about the system and new videos to see about use.

But, in March, while in Oaxaca on the way north, I got an e-mail from Mike offering me the chance to be an Early Adopter. He went on to say that they were looking for 6 planes for initial installations. Further, they were setting up the first 6 shops to be trained, one of which would be Eagle Creek Aviation. He wanted to gain a commitment from me to become one of the Early Adopters, and set a target date of April 20th to begin. To sweeten the deal he made the following offer:

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What I’m looking to offer you as a result is the following:

complimentary upgrade to Synthetic Vision when it becomes available (a $9,990 value)
An additional year of complimentary FlexCare warranty service (a $1,595 value)
A year of complimentary WSI and Sirius radio subscription (a $734 value)
A day of dedicated R9 system training for the primary pilot
An Entegra R9 branded welcome package
A dedicated service hotline for all Pilot Program participants and their service center for the duration of the pilot program.

My first thought was, cool! But then it occurred to me that being one of the first had a variety of risks and assorted questions. So, my initial response was that I would think about it, but that I was in Mexico and a phone conversation about the opportunity would have to wait until I hit Texas. We continued to correspond by e-mail. In late March Mike got back to me to relate that Avidyne was hosting a training program in Melbourne to include their scenario trainer plus flying time in their demo plane, and to invite me to their Customer Appreciation night at Sun n Fun. By that time I had figured out some of the questions and issue of concern.

Would I need a bigger alternator #1? The plane was in annual and the alternator was to be replaced. His response from engineering was right out of the R9 SR 22 Electical Load Analysis:

1.1.1 Loss of Alternator 2

In the event of the loss of alternator 2, alternator 1 is capable of running the entire aircraft indefinitely. The aircraft draws 41.316A, which is less than 80% (46.4A) of alternator 1. No load shedding is required for the case of loss of alternator 2.

I also had concerns about the viability of Eagle Creek, as rumors around the area suggested that they were experiencing a financial strain. I had a nightmare that the plane could get in the shop, disassembled, and the doors locked by creditors. I shared my concerns with Mike Glover at Avidyne and he was able to tell me that one of the criteria Avidyne used to select the initial install shops was financial stability. That resolved the issue in my mind.

When Mike had talked to me last fall he had suggested that the install would take between 100 and 125 hours. Now the estimate was between 125 and 150, potentially raising the labor cost to $15,000. To offset this there were some improvements in the install requirements, however. First, I was originally told that my new WAAS antennas would have to be replaced as R9 would not be compatible with them. Now the R9 radios and GPS units would work with my existing antennas. In addition, my plane has the back-up engine gauges plus EMax which means that it has a Sensor Integration Unit (SIU) not a Data Acquisition Unit (DAU). The R9 installation was originally to include removal of the back-up gauges, and the installation of a DAU, which would significantly increase both the hardware and install costs, wnile reducing the redundancy of my instruments. Since then Avidyne had changed the system to allow me to continue to use my gauges without adding the DAU. Finally, after I had installed the STec Roll Servo Modification to the plane to correct the autopilot wandering, it turned out that the software part of that install was also part of the R9 modification, so I did not need to pay for that again.

Next, I was none too happy to be a guinea pig for the install, despite wanting to take advantage of the Early Adopter pricing (more on this later). To deal with this I requested a not-to-exceed quote for the installation. Mike arranged to have my plane surveyed by Eagle Creek so that they could provide a maximum install price. My agreement with Eagle Creek then used that quote as the basis for the total install price, no matter what it actually ran. In mid-April I received the quote from Eagle Creek. Imagine my shock when I found that in addition to the expected $14,400 of labor there was about $12,000 of additional hardware that was not in the R9 upgrade kit from Avidyne! I assumed that stuff like the wiring harness and installation kit were part of the R9 package as quoted by Avidyne. And, $1,000 for a new instrument panel?

I called Mike and Reid Antonacchio at Eagle Creek for clarification, and to protest. After several calls and e-mails the facts were that the R9 package was not plane specific. Could have been for a King Air, Commander, or my little Cirrus. These "incidental" extras were needed to make it all work in MY plane. However, Mike did offer me a demonstration contract which would allow Avidyne to show and fly my plane for up to 50 hours in exchange for a further discount. They also reiterated their offer to purchase my 2 GNS 430 W GPS units for $5,000 ea. Finally, as previously mentioned, we determined that the STec software upgrade had already been done. Additional Early Adopter benefits, such as free Synthetic Vision (SVS) and Enhanced Vision Software (EVS) when certified, transition training, an extra year of Flex Warranty coverage, and a free year of WSI Sirrius weather service for the plane made it a really tough decision. Grand total about $60,000 installed.

What I did not know was what impact this would have on the value of my plane. Since it is only 1 year old to me I am a bit upside down on the loan. This upgrade was going to have to be a cash out of pocket deal, and with the economy in the tank it was a hard decision. I also don't qualify for depreciation or any Obama bucks. What I needed was an independant opinion about the current value of the plane, and the potential value after the upgrade. Granted none of this has anything to do with the "flyability" factor, but the pain of the payment was purely economic. I did not want to ask about valuation at Eagle Creek, Montgomery Aviation or Avidyne since they all had potential conflicts of interest. I saw an ad in Cirrus Pilot for Tom's Aircraft and decided to call Brian Mackin at Tom's, a totally independant agent with no ties to anyone I was working with, for an idea of the valuation benefit.

Brian was really great. I explained the problem, he asked questions about the equipment now on the plane, and what was being done. He consulted with others, then called me back. The long and short of it was that as equipped my plane is worth in a sale about $20,000 less than I owe on it. Upgrading to a similarly used Perspective would cost about $150,000 on top of the proceeds from the sale, if a used Perspective were available. Brian guessed that the R9 upgrade would increase the value of the airplane by about the cost of the hardware, and that the labor and incidentals were not recoverable.

Finally the cost benefit decision came down to my use of the aircraft. I am 62, fly for personal travel, and will likely never need a bigger or better plane. I could stand pat and have a very usable platform, or upgrade to have the latest in avionics. The upgrade will leave me with a plane potentially safer to fly in midwestern weather, that is about as current as I can afford, and that will allow me to accomplish my flight missions with the most confidence.

About the same time, late April, Mike Glover got back to me and pressed to have me attend the flight training in Melbourne for Early Adopters. I told him I would make the trip, and that my final decision would depend on what that experience was like to me. He said he was willing to take the chance, and that if I decided not to participate he would understand. So I flew to KMLB to see their show. He sent me an electronic copy of the Pilot Manual to review prior to the meeting.

In Melbourne I was struck by the enthusiasm and open attitude of all the Avidyne folks I met. Steve "Jake" Jabobson ran the ground school. I met all the management team, including the CEO by teleconference. I also heard from Alan Klapmeier in person about his plane being converted to R9, and about Cirrus. I got a tour of the Melbourne production facility and flew with Mike Kiernan about 1 1/2 hours. I found nothing in their training or hospitality to cause me doubts about their total commitment to making R9 a big success. I was very impressed with the whole deal. Finally, I got a chance to fly Mike Glover to his home airport on my way back to Indianapolis, and to talk at length during the flight about my decision. I felt, and feel, very certain that this upgrade is the right decision for me, and gave the go ahead when I got home.

New Stuff?

Craig Sherman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:21:00 GMT

What is the process to take out perfectly good Garmin radio stuff and Avidyne flight instrumentation which includes charts and engine data? Why would I even go through it?

I have always been the guy that had to have the newest stuff. I replaced cars at least annually, sometime more often. Computers and cameras were in constant rotation. The only things I have kept long term are my wife and children, the dog, and my Ping Eye 2 beryllium copper golf clubs.

So, when I retired and started to fly in 2005 I went from the Cessna 172 SP club planes at Eagle Flyers at Indianapolis Exec (TYQ) to a partnership in a 1986 Socata Trinidad. I got my Instrument Rating along the way at American Flyers in DuPage, IL. I then found that the Trinidad partnership was soon too time limiting, so the next step was a 2006 Cirrus Certified SR20 GTS, picked up at the Cirrus factory in Duluth, MN.

By the way, my flying mission is cross country flights with my wife, or Angel Flight clients, all over the mid west. I have a mother-in-law in Brookfield, WI. My daughter and her husband are in Farmington, MI. My son and his wife are in Alexandria, VA. And, my sister is in Heath, TX outside of Dallas.

Over time (125 hrs) I found that the SR20 was a bit useful load limited (I weigh about 240), and the ice protection (TKS) plus higher cruise made a SR22 more to my liking. I traded the SR20 for a 2004 SR 22 GT G2 (generation 2) Cirrus with about 250 hours on it at Eagle Creek Aviation in Indianapolis, and thought I had it made. Price differential was right, plane fit my mission, I was set.

The avionics were updated to WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) on both GPS units as part of the purchase agreement at Eagle Creek Aviation, using the Cirrus service bulletin approach. We had WAAS on the Trinidad, and I really liked the improved approaches, as well as the improved terrain data.

I had had a display (MFD) failure at Eagle Creek when I picked the plane up from the WAAS upgrade. I immediately signed up for the Flex Warranty product from Avidyne. When the MFD was sent in for repair it was covered. The box was replaced under warranty promptly and returned. But then I ran into a problem. First, the data was not loaded correctly. There were no checklists installed, and the unit had a different serial number than before. I could not get XM started until the serial number issue was resolved. I also tried to find out what was wrong with the original box, but despite the very polite assurance of the Avidyne contact, no information was forth coming. Not quite what I had hoped for in terms of customer support, but the part turn around was really good, and they covered it under my new warranty.

Next, I determined to update the STec 55X autopilot to software rev. 7, and install the roll servo mod which was advertised to greatly improve the stability of Cirrus handling, at Muncie Aviation. Wandering down an approach just did not inspire confidence. The combination of the improved autopilot control and the WAAS enabled GPS units really made a lot of difference, particularly when you really need them, like in a cloud of snow on final to an uncontrolled field.

Despite all of this work on a low hour 2004 plane, I found that Cirrus does not stand still in the addition of new features and benefits. The G3 (generation 3) came out with it's improved wing, then Perspective (Garmin equiped) , then certification for Flight Into Known Ice (FIKI). What's a guy to do? How can I stay with the current plane, yet keep up with the newer technology? I think I finally found a hobby that is a bit too expensive for me to replace hardware with the newest whenever I have a whim.

After much analysis, and the economy going to pot, I decided that I could live with the G2. After all, I work hard to stay out of known ice, and the useful load was one of the reasons I chose the SR 22 in the first place. But, then Avidyne started to market it's improved avionics suite called R9 last year. I wondered if the upgrade would be a way to keep the current plane more current. I got a chance to see the demo plane and the simulator at a local airport, and it really looked good. Bigger brighter displays, a keyboard driven Flight Management System (FMS), and state of the art engineering behind them.

Of course, all the back and forth on the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) has been very negative on Avidyne until recently. Did I really want to make a major investment in the plane that involved a company with such a bad rep? I contacted Mike Glover at Avidyne through some of their material, and asked him some hard questions. Did they have the financial backing to stay in business? Were they committed to improving their customer service? Did they have the finances to develop, get certified and market a sweeping new avionics suite?

Mike was very open with me about my concerns. While one could have assumed he would back his company, he was brutally frank about their past issues, and then went on to discuss the steps taken to improve. He was also really excited about the new R9 system. We talked at length about the design, the certification process, and their proposed delivery schedule.

At length I decided to take a chance on the R9 project. I signed a Deposit Agreement last July (2008) and sent in a deposit check. The agreement language reassured me that I could get the deposit back if I changed my mind. I figured that unless they went out of business I was OK, and if the development of R9 stalled or something else went wrong, I could just get the funds back. Mike told me to expect to install the system in the 2nd quarter of 2009, so I settled down to wait.

While all this was going on I had some contact with Mike and Jared Butson at Avidyne about the MFD issue, and they offered to extend my Flex Warranty for 2 years to help offset the trouble I had. This seemed very satisfactory to me, and supported Mike's contention that they were working hard to fix the service side of their business. Jared further assured me that the extension would apply to the R9 install as well. This turned out to be a bonus, as the Early Adopter R9 package also inculudes a year of extended warranty. As a result, I should be covered until June, 2013. A nice bonus.