Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Connectivity!

Mary and I flew to Lancaster this past weekend and I still had a connectivity issue with my FlightStream 210. I plugged in direct on the Garmin 530W and off we went.

After shopping and watching a layer build I decided to file for the ride home. A layer was settling in at six thousand and even with everything VFR one can never tell what lies ahead at the home base.

I tried to transfer the flight plan and had the same error message pop up. Grrrr...
 

The layer was not an issue so I picked up flight following, happily cruising along at three thousand five hundred, enjoying the bumpy tail winds.

Fast forward to this afternoon. After working from home most of the day it hit me that I didn't take the time to go check out the connection to the FlightStream. I headed over to the airport, vertical visibility was two hundred feet, and did my flight ground checks.
I crawled back under the panel and noticed I did not have the connection tight and the side thumb screw connectors were not completely tightened. I made the fix and somehow got myself out of the awkward twisted position needed to make the connection. In order to get a GDL88 GPS lock I then had to tug 08Romeo out of the hangar and try for the GPS lock.

My iPad immediately connected to the FlightStream 210 and once the Garmin 530W and GDL88 were talking I knew I was good to go. I now had the symbol on Foreflight for transferring plans to/from the panel and iPad.

I will flight test this weekend but everything looks to be back in order.

2 comments:

  1. Planning to add "avionics technician" to your resume, Gary? ;-)

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  2. lol....honestly, I had Red Eagle on the phone first explaining the issue and Dale confirmed check the connector first. Of course Dale then said he hoped I didn't spend all my money at annual and saved some to spend on avionics. That's why I like Red Eagle....it's the one on one service and working relationship we have.

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