REFLECTOR: Re: Reflector Digest, Vol 9, Issue 36

Christopher Martin christophercmartin at earthlink.net
Sat Feb 12 14:31:11 CST 2005


The Navaid is a simple and effective gyro stabilizer controlling a servo connected to your ailerons. That's why it is called a wing leveler. Turn it on and it will keep your wings level. It also has a trim adjustment to allow you to initiate and hold a wing angle, slightly off of level, such as 1 or 2 degrees off in order to compensate for wind. It's biggest draw back is that it does not follow a course.

The EZ Pilot, on the other hand, connects to your GPS and follows the course which it receives from a simple 2 wire connection. The connection allows it receive a stream of data from the GPS that contains all sorts of information such as: ground speed, current course heading,  way point, bearing to way point, next way point, etc. Given this information the EZ Pilot uses it's built in programing to plot and control such things as course intercepts, 180 degree course reversal commands and most importantly, track courses such as airways. It even has the ability to track a course or airway and be offset by a selected distance.

For instance, I regularly find myself flying from Los Angeles through the Banning Pass into the Palm Springs area at 5500MSL. This is a very tight passage between two enormous mountains which are subject to significant turbulence. Virtually every pilot is using the same two points of reference to create a course. They plot a point from Banning airport (BNG) to the Palm Springs VOR (PSP). The pass is so narrow that radio communication is lost so,Flight Service gives you a hand off to Palm Springs with the instructions to "Keep your Transponder Code and  contact Palm Springs in 10 miles". So, for 10 miles, in the most collision possible point of the trip, you are out of contact with ATC and you are on a course that everyone else has converged upon. You are also flying a fast Velocity and possibly flying up the tail pipe of some Cessna or worse on a possible collision course with some corporate jet climbing up out of Palm Springs. So, do yourself a favor and command the auto pilot to track parallel to the curse and offset it by 5/10ths of a mile either left or right of course. This is simple to do. Select course track and toggle in a left or right deflection with 5 clicks of the toggle.

Another feature I find most helpful is course steering which simply means a Command to track a specific heading. I regularly fly over the top of the Burbank, CA area with a great deal of traffic descending into and out of the Los Angeles basin. I usually have the auto pilot on tracking a course. ATC will call and say "4CM, turn left 30 degrees for traffic". All you have to do is hold in the auto pilot disconnect button on the stick and steer a new course 30 degrees to the left and release the button. The auto pilot will now track this as a compass heading. When ATC says, "4CM, resume own nav", you merely push a button to resume tracking the course in your GPS. The auto pilot will steer a preprogrammed course intercept angle, (I have mine set to 30 degrees) and it will intercept the course and, as it approaches, it will teardrop into the course. This makes for a very smooth course reentry without overshooting.

Wiring it in is simple. I originally had a Navaid and the EZ pilot was a simple plug compatible replacement. I was even able to use the original Navaid servo which I had installed in the plane. The whole installation took 15 minutes plus 30 minutes to find the 2 pin outs on my Garmin 430 for the GPS data.

The main reason for the change was, I like good equipment that reduces pilot work load. Flying back to OSH this past summer was comfortable stressless using this equipment. Simply put, it's a joy to use.

Chris

Christopher Martin
christophercmartin at earthlink.net



----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Sent: 2/12/2005 11:05:02 AM 
Subject: REFLECTOR: Re: Reflector Digest, Vol 9, Issue 36


Hi Cris   
How does the EZPilot differ from the NavAid.
How about Wiring, is it about the same?
And what was main reason you changed?
  
Quinton Daniel
N17QD 
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