XM Satellite Radio Receivers Now Available

Following the issuance of an STC for the installation of Garmin’s GDL-69A remote sensors during the last week of July, owners and operators of Mooney Bravo and Ovation2 GX models can now monitor highly-reliable, near real time weather or access up to 130 channels of digital music, news, talk, sports and information while in flight. Installation kits are now available from Mooney Airplane Company's service parts on a “first come-first served” basis for GX owners who ordered the XM Satellite Radio option as part of their G1000 avionics suites.

“We are pleased to be able to inform the owners of our GX models that this STC is now available,” said David Copeland, Mooney’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“We’ve already produced an initial quantity of GDL-69A installation kits and are working with Garmin and Mooney authorized service centers to accommodate an obvious surge of installation requests from owners. We’re recommending to our owners that they contact the service center at their convenience to schedule the installation. Service centers will then contact our service parts department to coordinate the shipping of a complete installation kit at the appropriate date and time. We believe that this process will allow us to meet the highest volume of requests in the shortest period of time."

Richard Heitzman, Mooney Airplane Company’s warranty manager is the project coordinator and point of contact for questions and information on the retro fit program.

The Garmin GDL-69A is compatible with the G1000’s multi-function displays. It delivers broadcast weather data through a service of XM Satellite Weather Radio. XM Satellite Radio and its XM WX Satellite Weather service operate in the S-band frequency to provide continuous uplink capabilities at any altitude throughout North America. XM WX’s comprehensive weather suite is powered by WxWorx.

The GDL-69A’s capabilities for the G1000 include:

• High-resolution NEXRAD weather data
• METARs (in graphical or textual format)
• TAFs
• TFRs
• Winds aloft (at altitude)
• Echo tops Precipitation type (at surface)
• Lightning Storm-cell data (size, speed and direction)
• AIRMETs
• SIGMETs

To date, Mooney has delivered more than 60 of its popular Bravo GX and Ovation2 GX high-performance airplanes that can take advantage of the additional capabilities available in the GDL-69A.

FMI: www.mooney.com