It looks like my IMCr renewal is going to be a dragged out affair with the weather not playing ball today. Another 3 bookings in the diary for next week and if that does not work then I will have to shuffle clients around to fit the renewal in, which I don’t like doing, so fingers crossed. I shall never allow my rating to lapse again, even if it is only lapsed by a few days. Grrrr.
Anyhow, some good news for me. The 235 will be arriving later this week or next week. No not Shrek, she now lives in Denham. When I last flew her she had no transponder and steam gauges. She will arrive back with an Aspen EFIS and a Garmin 750 plus 3 axis coupled auto pilot. This means I will have a serious tourer to use again and can start planning cross channel flights again. Heck, I may even be able to join you folk on the Italian trip in September I think it is? I am also excited that I will now have the option of doing the RNAV procedures rather than using the good old NDB. 
I will also be able to start talking techie. This thingy does this if you twiddle it that way and poof up come a pretty picture that will tell the aircraft to go left or right, up or down or any combination thereof. Or, does anyone now what happens if you do such and such – type conversations. Hahahahaha
On a slightly more serious note, I hear that this is good equipment. Have any of you high flying IFR pilots used this equipment before and what did you think of it. Looking forward to get my mitts on the 235 again.
Oh, I will now need an EFIS sign off. Don’t mind as I am not that techie.
I have flown with the Aspen/GTN650 combo. It provides a nice and precise AI (a lot better than the steam one) and an HSI which also displays you planned track. As a bonus you get wind and TAS. Heading is obtained from a flux gate so you no longer need to reset your heading ever so often. You can set the minimum altitude for the approach. The source for the CDI cannot be selected on the Aspen – this you need to do on the GPS. The source does however display on the Aspen IIRC.
The round ASI, VSI and Altitude gauges are replaced with tapes which was OK since I had prior experience with G1000.
I think I did three flights on that airplane, and never got really comfortable with the buttonology of the Aspen or the GTN. On the other hand I never spent any time on playing with the GTN trainer. As for the Aspen I do not know about any trainer, and the user experience will depend on what it is integrated with anyway.
Aviathor, thank you for sharing you experiences with this equipment. Most interesting. Looking forward to getting to grips with the kit.
I’ve got Aspen/GTN750. You’re welcome to fly with me (Fairoaks) to see how it all works or invite me to be your safety pilot for (my FI rating has expired, unfortunately).
Chris, that is a most kind offer and one I will most certainly take you up on! Thank you.
Bloomer, I fly an Aspen PFD/MFD and GTN650 combination.
The free training tool from Garmin simulating the GTN650/750 on a PC is very good, IMHO. Spending some time with the simulator prior to sitting behind the real box in a plane is time well spent.
Aspen does not provide a simulator, AFAIK, but Sporty’s offer a structured training video via the Apple Store “Flying the Aspen Evolution” or such which I found quite helpful. I can’t recall the price but believe it was around USD 30.
