Taking it to the MAX

I was going into withdrawal.  It had been 20 days since I last flew.  Luckily the prop came back and the shop bolted it on.  The Primary flight display showed up as well and it had been taken to the MAX.  I had an Aspen PFD 1000.  It was designed over a decade ago.  The screen was 16 color, the computer was a decade old.  It was awesome but then they announced the Aspen MAX.  The MAX took your current unit, threw out most of it and, replaced the electronics gave you a bunch of new features.

You kept the frame and knobs but all the electronics and screen were upgraded.  It now has 16 million colors.  That is 15,999,984 more.  Not sure I can see all those shades though.  It also runs about 5 times as fast.  New features include voice call out, improved vertical navigation and additional backup, the unit will function even if your pitot or static system fails.

Well Thursday they put it in but upon testing the autopilot interface failed.  They checked the install document and a footnote told them my config needed a software upgrade.  That was done this morning.  So the weather looked terrible today but I kept the faith.  After work it was out to the airport and by 6 PM it had mostly cleared. 

Off I went, the colors are nice and everything is a bit faster.  I still need them to tweak the setup.  I think it is about 1.5 degrees off perfect and the altitude call outs could be a touch louder.  This is not unusual.  I will do some more testing this weekend so I can tell them how to dial it in.  There are user menus but this is in the installer menu.  Once I have the correction should only take a minute to fix.

Upgrades and Repairs

Won't be doing any flying this weekend.  Two reasons, first the propeller is in a different city and my PFD (Primary flight display) is in another state.  A few months back the PFD company announced a new version of the display.  Current owners could upgrade at a good price and extend the warranty 2 years.  I signed up and then patiently waited for my turn. 

My number came up so off it went.  You can see the hole above.  The nice thing about the newer avionics is that they pop in and out easily.  The unit has a ground wire, two pitot Static quick disconnects and big D connector.  This means that it comes out or back in in about 5 minutes.

Now technically I can fly with it broken.  I would have to placard it and I am then limited to day VFR.  I could fly with it out by making a logbook entry, updating the weight and balance and again limiting to day VFR but you would need to carefully secure all the loose lines.  When I say you, I mean a mechanic, this is not a do it yourself thing.

Even so I won't be doing any flying.  Right about the time my number came up, I saw some grease on a prop blade.  Investigating, I found one blade was seeping grease from the root seal.  This is not uncommon as props age but since mine was serviced recently I was less happy.  As a precaution, I took this opportunity to send the prop in for a reseal.  They will take it all apart, check all the parts, repaint the blades and re-assemble it with new seals. 

So for now I am grounded as there is no way around having the prop off.  If all goes well, both parts will come back about the same time and I will be back in business.

Quick Trip

It started because I looked at my Marriott account and saw I had a free night expiring.  I decided we would do a quick trip South to see Dad and Rachel.  Only problem is that its summer in Florida.  That means lots of Thunderstorms.

We had been doing pretty well, I met up with an old Friend down South for Dinner a week ago in the evening but most days have gone from sunny to stormy.

The forecast going into the weekend was not good with rain early both days, especially today.  We launched Friday AM and had a nice run until the Southern end of lake Okeechobee.  There was a pretty good storm parked there.  The controllers were good and gave me a good deviation around it.  It looked particularly dark and angry and as we came around the back we saw a pretty large fire.  Not sure if it was coincidence or the rising air from the fire got the storm going.

The rest of the flight went smoothly but there was a good bit of rain to dodge.  The controller also sequenced us behind much slower traffic.  We were moving about 140 knots and they were doing 60-80.  This means we were catching up a mile a minute or better.    When you are only 2 miles in trail, this gets your attention.

Luckily we can slow too and once the gear and flaps are out can easily fly 80 knots.  We did and we were soon parked and tied down.

We started our Miami adventure getting Cuban food at Havana Harry's, then I finally got to see Rachel's pad, the girls shopped, we strolled Coconut Grove, had dinner on the bay at Montey's and finally grabbed Ice Cream at Chill-N Nitrogen Ice Cream.  They use liquid N2 to freeze your specified cream and mix ins on demand.  The picture above is the Grove Playhouse.  I used to see Rocky Horror here at midnight.  It is a landmark now but seems much less exciting than xx years ago (xx is not a typo, redaction)

This morning we awoke to showers moving in from the Atlantic.   Also the forecast was for Florida to have storms across the state by early afternoon.  It did not disappoint by the way.  Rachel was our Uber back to the airport so we called her a bit early and were on our way.  The early storms had blown out and there was a clear spot to depart but still rain to dodge.

Leaving Miami they always send you West to climb above the Fort Lauderdale arrivals before sending you North.  Usually I grumble about this as it is out of the way.  Today I was happy as it kept us West of the action.

Once 50 miles North we were in clear skies and cruising towards home.  The radar started to paint a line of storms North of town but we were faster and arrived in plenty of time.  As we continued North, the middle of the state started to show some action behind us.

As I write this St. Augustine to Melbourne is pretty much impassible.  So our planning worked out well.