Executive Glass-IFR?

[LiveToFly]

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm new to the forums and have just started researching planes in order for a new purchase within the next year. I'm a Navy pilot who is just now getting into personal flying, and am looking at everything from taildraggers to small Cessnas. I've watched the videos and snooped on this forum a bit, and think I've found a winner!

That said, I would never want to encounter IMC without being legal but would like a little backup if I find myself within a small cloud bank or wanting to practice my instrument landings. So, does anyone flying with the Executive Glass panel on this forum practice IFR flying in VFR conditions for proficiency, or would I have to add in some equipment after market in order to make it minimally capable? I know the executive glass has a attitude gyro and the GDU-370/375, but want an HSI/CDI for at least GPS approaches, if not VOR/ILS capability.

What do you guys think? Thanks!

Also, I am out of Seattle and will try and make an appt. to come out to Yakima to try my hand at one of these... Looking forward to meeting some of you guys. Cheers!

[JohnM]

Welcome, Tim.

No ignorance. You ask a good question.

The short answer is that you can buy enough electronics to give you enough displays to use a simulated cross check on a replicated instrument panel (of sorts) in simulated instrument conditions. All of your nav stuff will be GPS based so VOR/ILS stuff won't be available. Trying to do what you are asking in a CarbonCub or SportCub will be very unfulfilling. The airplanes are just not designed for it. In fact, these airplanes are best enjoyed by looking out the windows or the occasional open door otherwise you will miss seeing the bald eagles flying with you.

Now the TopCub on the other hand is a different airplane with some additional mission capabilities that would include some IFR capability. The TopCub is not a light sport airplane if that makes a difference to you. The TopCub is fully certified under Part 23 so as a private pilot (or better) with an instrument rating some light duty IFR would be possible.

I hope I have answered your question. By all means, make the trip to the factory. You will like what you will see. CubCrafters builds a great airplane in which you can have a great deal of fun.

Take care,

John Moreland
SWT Aviation

[RED1]

JohnM, Please correct me if I am wrong, but I was told the Top Cub was NOT IFR certified and could NOT be certified IFR even if it had the IFR avionics package installed. Dick

[JohnM]

JohnM, Please correct me if I am wrong, but I was told the Top Cub was NOT IFR certified and could NOT be certified IFR even if it had the IFR avionics package installed. Dick

I was not complete in my answer. My apologies.

CubCrafters does not install an IFR certified vacuum system, attitude indicator or DG according to the TopCub specs on the web site. However, as a Part 23 certified airplane with the appropriate systems installed, IFR flight is possible and legal. An appropriate vacuum system could be ordered when the TopCub was purchased.

The SportCub and CarbonCub are light sport airplanes and as such under the ATSM standards, IFR flight is not legal under any circumstances.

Regards,

John

[RED1]

JohnM, Thanks for the clarification on the subject of IFR Top Cubs. My goal is to one day have a Top Cub. Having it certified for occasional instrument flying would be frosting on the cake. Dick

[Californiacubs]

If you replace our standard SL40 com radio with an SL30 it will give you Nav and Com functions so you would not only get GPS capable check out the link for more info https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=197&pID=6432 . All you have to do is add the Nav antenna. You can then tune VOR's and ILS's utilizing your Dynon HSI.

The Dynon has an HSI page that will give you all the pertinent HIS and CDI info. The Issue is tuning your CDI. With just the standard Dynon you will have to use the grey soft buttons on the bottom of the screen to tune the appropriate radials. This can be slow and time consuming every time you have to change radials. I would suggest adding this Dynon HSI Expansion module shown in the link http://dynonavionics.com/docs/HS34_intro.html. This will add all the functionality you would ever need to set up you Dynon for smooth operation. It gives you quick Baro tuning, a heading bug knob, a course knob, one press of a button to switch from GPS to VOR to ILS.

To sum it up you need an SL30 radio and a HSI expansion module.

FYI the SL30 is the exact same dimension of our current SL40. It weighs 1 pound more but will fit in our current radio tray.

[LiveToFly]

Thanks CaliforniaCubs! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

I'm not looking to fly IFR, or not enjoy the scenery outside. I love flying in the mountains and out to random areas in the wilderness! Rather, I'm just looking to occasionally practice an approach and maintain some semblence of instrument proficiency. I appreciate the help!

[Rmag]

We had our Carbon Cub installed with a custom avionics package at the factory. While it is not an IFR certified aircraft, it has full IFR instrumentation. We have a Garmin SL30 NAV COM linked to a Dynon D100 to provide An Attitude Indicator and HSI. With the SL30 ILS data is fed into the Dynon for IFR approaches.

The Dynon can also receive data from an external GPS for GPS NAV. We have a Garmin 696 mounted via RAM mount either in the upper right corner of the cockpit, or we can mount it just below the keyswitch.

We have a simple toggle switch to switch between the 696 or the SL30.

This video shows the setup:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWl7n9mfrUM

[Jason Tepool]

That's pretty cool. I remember many years ago when I was first learning to skydive in Delaware, there was a really windy day, right down the runway. One of the guys pulled a J-3 out of T-hangar and took off really short, flew a bit down the runway and pulled the throttle back and flew backwards over the runway. He did that a couple of times then parked and put the plane away.

[Clay Hammond]

Live2Fly: PM sent.