In Terms of Performance Or Safety, These Retrofittable Upgrades
Offer Much
E-I-C Note: Sorry that the last of the these
evals (the very best of them, no less) dragged out so long, but the
holidays were shorter than we expected in terms of available work
time and the workload has only accelerated since then. Thankfully,
the end of the tunnel is in sight, there is no train whistle
attached and we are pleased to complete this carefully-thought-out
series this week.
Our congrats to all those who impressed us... and 'for
shame' on all those that didn't... -- Jim Campbell,
ANN's Overworked Editor-In-Chief.
We don't have to tell you that aviation is a constantly changing
industry... and for those of us who have made great investments in
any number of exceptional airframes, we usually don't have to wait
long before some improvement or upgrade comes along that makes us
wish we'd waited a little before making our last purchase...
unless, of course, that upgrade is retrofittable.
Two upgrades top our list for the year just past... one
for the inestimable safety improvements it can offer to any
airplane, and the other to a company that is truly
revolutionising the concept of turbo-charged performance -- and it
ain't done yet.
CO Guardian
Ash Vij's CO Guardian is the
undisputed leader in carbon monoxide detectors for General
Aviation, and are now included as standard safety equipment on all
new Cessna 172, 182, 206, Columbia Aircraft, Diamond DA40 and
Skycrane helicopters, and all Cirrus Aircraft. The
CO Guardian product does one thing... monitor CO in the
cockpit.
This data is important... because ignorance of CO can produce
astonishingly harmful effects. Carbon monoxide is a colorless,
odorless, tasteless and toxic gas produced as a by-product of
combustion. In other words, its hard to detect... unless you let
the CO Guardian help.
Ash explains that, "Carbon monoxide inhibits the blood's ability
to carry oxygen to body tissues including vital organs such as the
heart and brain. When CO is inhaled, it combines with the oxygen
carrying hemoglobin of the blood to form carboxyhemoglobin (COHb).
Once combined with the hemoglobin, that hemoglobin is no longer
available for transporting oxygen."
No cockpit should be complete without such a safety device and
we assure you that one is going in our aircraft ASAP. We recommend
it highly.
Tornado Alley Turbos' Turbo-Normalization Retrofit
Program
We are almost as blown away by TAT's TN upgrade capabilities as
we were with Avidyne's R9. We've put over 300 hours on the SR-22
version, listened to the many plaudits for the Bonanza and Cessna
upgrades and have been particularly impressed with the service and
support reports we get from very impressed owners.
The TAT installation in our aircraft is a sewing machine... it
just runs... smoothly and reliably... and we are looking forward to
the future since TAT is not remotely done with the development of
these powerful retrofit packages.
A new Turbo Density-Normalized (TDN) Controller is in
development, just part of a more comprehensive upgrade that will
allow this program to offer significant performance
improvements over previous installations. In the case of the
SR22, these performance improvements include more than 7 knots of
speed increase during warm and hot weather operation, and as much
as a 33% improvement in ROC in the popular LOP climb mode of
flight. The updated system allows the removal of multiple
heavy, complex and maintenance intensive components from under the
cowl in the traditional turbo system. A weight savings of
approximately 3 pounds is achieved with the TDN system.
The new TDN system employs an electrically-actuated wastegate
and an electronic control with significant new capabilities. It
works equally well on all turbocharged piston aircraft as well as
the turbonormalized TDN SR-22. The system is the first part of a
series of new, modular, electronic engine controls being developed
for TAT by General Aviation Modifications, Inc. (GAMI) for use on a
wide range of aircraft, including the SR-22, the Cessna T-210, the
Cessna 400 series, and many other aircraft in the general aviation
fleet.
We can't wait to upgrade...
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