I've been flying my 337a with the new Aspen Pro and really enjoy it.
Cumberland Avionics did the installation,and did a good job. We kept the steam DG and AI for backup and transition, and I find that after 15 hours of flying I am just starting to use the new instrument as primary.
It changes the way I fly. Since I have an instantaneous winds aloft readout, I can tell immediately what the winds are as I pass through each altitude, so there's no indecision about the most efficient cruising altitude - if there's a major difference between 6 and 8,000, I can descend back to 6 and know what I'll get.
The autopilot is not operational yet, and that's still the big unknown. The plane has an old Navomatic 400 that we hoped would talk to the Aspen, but no. Now we plan to upgrade to a 400A, and that's supposed to be cheap, but we'll see.
The GPSS is a big thing to me. I shot a WAAS approach last night in a 530-GPSS-stec equipped 337C and really just had to monitor the autopilot and flare. So I am hoping the 530-Aspen-400A will make an impressive IFR system. We'll see.
While the Aspen has an altitude bug and a speed bug, it will only send approach vertical information to the autopilot, so it will not upgrade the 400A to an altitude preselect system. What a system it would be if it did! I already made the suggestion to Aspen.
By the way, I am a 1/4 share owner in this 337A. Owen Bell (
www.aviationenterprises.us) owns the other three 1/4 shares and would sell two of them. The plane has a new interior, cargo pod, air conditioning, winglets, rear engine cooling mod, single piece windshield, inertia reel front harnesses, relief tube (my request), and more.
Linear Mode
