Brief Description: Final Avionics Changes & Wiring
I've made some final scope changes to my instrument pane over the past couple months and i've now completed these changes including all associated (re) wiring.
The two major changes were 1) installing a Garmin 400W and 2) removing my third party Autopilot to install the Garmin Autopilot. The decision to make these changes was highly predicated on the 2020 requirement for certified WAAS GPS data to my ADS-B (which i already had) and the fact that with the front top skin off the instrument panel, in my garage, i have full access to make these avionics changes 10 times simpler than doing this in the future in a completed airframe.
Garmin introduced their autopilot about halfway through my build and although the setup i had with the Trio AP would have worked OK; the Garmin AP servos allows full seamless use of my G3X panel and GMC 305 AP controller. If you so choose; this baby will fly hands off from wheels up to MDA. This chang entailed the removal of the Trio control head from the left corner of my panel and removal of the two servos. In turn I installed an aluminum plug with ram mount to fill the hole in the panel and installed the garmin servos in place of the trio servos. This included pulling new wire to each servo and extending the CAN Bus out to these servos as well. About 5 wires to the pitch and 7 to the roll. From a cost stanpoint this change was a wash after I sold the trio and recouped those costs. Lost a good deal of time and brain damage though.
I added the 400W to my center stack in place of where my Garmin Aera was previously. The garmin aera remains as a removable device now on the co pilot side. Adding the 400W adds a "certified" WAAS gps signal which is approved for GPS approaches with both horizontal and vertical guidance. Additionally this will satisfy the 2020 mandate for ADS-B. The downfall to an approach certified navigator is that the database needs to be updated every 28 days to be used for IFR navigation, and there is a cost associated with that. It can lapse for
