The Lost Children

By Gene Yarbrough As a member of a fractional ownership flying club, we find ourselves in a certain predicament with our 1972 PA28-180. The bird is equipped with a Piper Autocontrol II autopilot (which is a Century III unit rebranded for Piper), and mechanical Attitude indicator and directional gyro, both of which are getting tired and sometimes act erratic. We would like to install one of the several available drop in solid-state electronic AI and DG. However, we do not want to lose the functionality of our autopilot, which despite its age is still working perfectly fine. As we search for suitable and affordable options, we have found a major issue with what is available in industry.

Program Supports The Accomplishments Of Young Pilots

EAA’s Ray Aviation Scholarship (James Ray, pictured) fund is the difference to more than 275 young aviators who can now achieve their dreams of flight. The Ray Foundation provides the Experimental Aircraft Association up to $10,000 to deserving youth aviators to cover their flight training expenses. That support totaled $1 million in 2019 and $1.2 million each in 2020 and 2021.

A Leader In Avionics Expands Capabilities Of Existing Hardware

By Gene Yarbrough Aspen Avionics is detailing how FAA approved changes to the backup instrument requirements with the installation of Aspen’s Evolution EFD1000 Pro MAX primary flight display (PFD). The approval allows aircraft owners to remove the attitude indicator with the supporting vacuum system when installing a single Evolution EFD1000 Pro MAX PFD with the latest released software (v2.11) and the new extended duration battery. A turn and bank indicator along with airspeed and altimeter must be retained as the three required backups.