Anyone in Houston area have a 430 I could borrow for five minutes?

Houston folks,

Yesterday I posted that I am having a recent problem with the Comm on my 430 - seems a lot like an antenna problem - week or no signal, but everything else seems to work. Today pulled the unit and reseated it, and ran my hands on the parts of the Comm antenna cable I could reach - didn't have any joy in fixing the problem. My next step is to pull the panel and seat pan to check antennas, but I was thinking that a really quick and easy test would be to try my 430 in someone else's tray, and their unit in my tray - it could tell me quickly if I have to bite the bullet (and the $700 bill) and return it to Garmin, or if I really need to go after antennas.

I have no plans yet for next weekend, and would be happy to fly to wherever you are to do a quick test - in fact, a good reason for a flight!

Anyone have one out there that would be willing to help? I can see no risk to the unit - I donn't even intend to transmit - receiving seems to be the problem.

You can PM me if you don't want to respond on the forum -

Thanks!

Paul

You are welcome to mine at GTU for a few minutes next weekend if you don't come up with one closer.

Coming to Dallas

Paul:

I have a 430 in my 6A. I'm flying to Dallas this Wednesday to visit a client for a two hour meeting midday (about 11-1). From KC this is usually about a 2.3 hour flight. I can land almost anywhere on the north/east side of Dallas: Addison (ADS), Mesquite (HQZ), Rockwall, Love, etc.

If need be I can stay the night and return the next day. I haven't flown my RV into Houston yet. This might be a good time to do so. At what airport are you?

I'm at Pearland Regional (KLVJ) Keith - Houston is a good 1:30 flight from the DFW area, so I'd hate to have you make that kind of a detour unless you REALLY felt the urge....but certainly if you did want to do that, I'd accept the help! I'm also pretty certain I'll get someone in the Houston area to respond ... right guys?

Paul

BBQ Run

Keith,
This could shape up into a beautiful thing:

"The First Annual Great KC to Houston and Back BBQ Run and Contest"

Fly down, do your thing with the 430 and bring back some slabs of ribs (with all the trimmings) and we'll do a comparo to KC's finest...

Hmm...you may need someone to ride shotgun on the ribs...if I ride along we'll need to seal up the food real tight or there may not be any left by the time we get back!

Mike: Sounds Great!!!...

But can you afford to be gone from KC, and in Dallas as well as Houston, while I meet with the client????? What a whirlwind day that would be, weather cooperating. My kind of fun!!!...

I always like "flying company".

Paul, Don't have my 430 yet, but moved my plane up to Conroe (CXO) from Crosby, Johnny up at Avionics Unlimited would probably let you use one for a test. He's a real nice guy from meeting him, and generally has a used 430 around.

Thanks!

Many thanks go out to Kieth Schult and Mike Dooley, a couple of Kansas City guys with nothing better to do than hop in the RV and toodle off down to Houston this morning (with huge tailwinds and clear skies - boy, it's a tough life!) to swap 430's with me for a couple minutes. Their trip confirmed that:

A) My 430 is working just fine - I must have an airframe wiring/antenna problem.

B) RV'ers have got to be one of the greatest bunches of people in the world!

Thanks again guys - hope you had a good day in Dallas and a safe flight home. We'll see you again at a fly-in sometime!

(Oh, and I guess all those Native Texans were afraid to pony up a little BBQ to defend the honor of their state....being neutral in the debate between K.C. and Texas BBQ, I gues I can say that before ducking for cover....)

Paul

Just thinking about trading Lockhart Bar-B-Que for Yankee (defined as being north of the Red River) stuff would be enough evidence to have you committed.

Hope my foxhole is deep enough when the first round comes over.

Speaking of Bar-B-Que Saturday is the LaGrange Flyin. They start serving at 11:00.

Mark
RV-10/N410MR

Paul glad you got your problem solved, sort-of

But it looks like this thread is degenerating into a BBQ brag-off.

So what I am thinking is that it would make a great summer adventure (flying RV) to go to each placed claiming the best BBQ and get a sample.

Where is the best BBQ?

The only problem I could need to deal with is getting back into my plane after hitting them all.

Kent

A Tough Life! 8 hours of RV'ing Today!

Paul:

We landed back in KC at 8:30 this evening, after departing this morning at 5:30: a 15 hour day with 8 hours of RV time.

We were glad to help, and look at our rewards:
1) We got to meet you.
2) We got to see the "Valkyrie".
3) We got to see "Mikey".
4) We traveled KC to Houston in 3 hours flat (doing 231-239kts. groundspeed most of the way) on 27.7 gallons (567 n.m.) (Keith) (Mike)

We look forward to seeing you again, and meeting many others from this web site in the future.

RV Road Trip

Thanks to Keith Schult and Paul Dye for a great day!

Our flight from Kansas City (Lee's Summit, MO (KLXT)) to Houston (Pearland Regional (KLVJ)) in Keith's RV6A took just three hours. Paul showed us the Valkrie and Mikey's new panel after he and Keith swappped Garmins. We talked RVs with Paul and I came away with lots of ideas for panel designs and options/mods to think about on my 8. On to Dallas and then back to KC: roughly eight hours total flying time.

In the FWIW category: one ranking of BBQ contests is at:
http://travel.discovery.com/ideas/food-wine/barbecue/barbecue.html

Contest venues like these would make a excuse for an RV fly-in. I can personally vouch for Memphis in May (#1 on the list) and the American Royal Barbeque here in KC (#2). Even Houston made the list (#4) for the World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest and somewhere else in Texas that claims to host the National Championship BBQ Cookoff made the list (#7) to give the Texans some bragging rights....many of these combine horse shows/rodeos/music, etc. and make great family events.

On a more somber note: Texas has some great rib houses. However, no one rose to today's "rib tasting via RV" offer. In fairness to the Texans reading this posting, I didn't give much notice of the whole rib swap concept due to the timing of the trip. Having said that, it seemed like a good idea at the time. What better way to kick off the New Year than a tasty slab of ribs flown in by RV? ...wait, did I just use fairness and Texans in the same phrase? Arghhh-next time I'm throwing down the the chili gauntlet!

Keith-how much chili do you think you can you carry on your next trip to Dallas?

At Gross Weight?

Mike:

2 lbs. if you are with me. 210 lbs. if I'm alone.

Eat at Joe's

Next time you are down our way, try Joe's Barbeque Company in Alvin, TX a stones throw down highway 35 from Pearland Regional. Excellent examples of Texas style smoked ribs, links, brisquet etc. and one of the best on this side of town. The carry-out pans should fit nicely on the baggage shelf of an 8.

Chuck

Thanks!

Thanks for the tip-I'll add it to my list of BBQ places to try! If you're in the KC area we've got fly-in BBQ all the time south of town at Miami County (K81; Paola, KS) airport's "We B Smokin" restaurant. Great breakfast stop too.

Keith-Looks like I need to stay off the ribs for few months to get down to fighting weight for this chili deal (if there is a chili deal in the works; the Texans may not want to play).