Everything worked!

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

The plan was to fly the -9A up to Orangeburg, South Carolina to get a Garmin extended squitter transponder installed to replace the old KT-76A, and to do a few minor wiring cleanups while the center stack was all apart for avionics work.

Being a realist, I took a change of clothes for overnight, and as expected, the work was mostly done at the end of the first day. Lesson 1 was to take two changes of clothes as, not surprisingly, the battery was run down and it wanted a nice, long overnight charge (the second night) with the Genius charger in one of its fancy modes. Even better would have been to take two changes of clothes, just in case. And I'm glad I brought my charger with a harness connected to the battery as the battery is otherwise a real pain to get to.

My canopy doesn't seal well on the ground, but fortunately, the plane was hangared the second night when it rained so no fault, no foul. Wasn't prepared but got away with it.

We took the top cowl off, and reinstallation really likes an awl to get things aligned behind the spinner. Wanting to avoid tool confusion with the avionics shop, I left *all* my tools at home. Bad call. Special tools should always travel with the airplane.

As commonly happens, the bluetooth got confused during the installation, but the ADS-B in was hardwired to the left PFD so the loss of functionality was minor. The fix is easy, but even if I'd known how to do the fix at the time, I was on an IFR flight plan and that's not the time to quit flying the airplane to play technician.

But the really good news is that the weather was super easy IFR (.004 hours of actual, lot of ground visible from the air), the now-familiar Garmin G3X was great and the autopilot flew the plane nicely, the weather cleared at the destination so I got a visual approach, the FBO had my hangar doors open for me. Just like it's all supposed to be. Happy campersville.

Ed

PS. For sale, King KT-76A transponder with all the mounting hardware, encoder with recent IFR certification, and wiring harness.
PPS. Janson at South Carolina Avionics Services is recommended, and the town was a great place for a quiet RON. Or two.

[az_gila]

...PS. For sale, King KT-76A transponder with all the mounting hardware, encoder with recent IFR certification, and wiring harness...

Unfortunately the US value of these units has gone down drastically with pre-2020 ADSB upgrades.

My old KT-76A was taken by the IA who just did my Tiger annual and will go to S. America were he works on missionary planes.

The avionics shop that certified my new GTX335 installation said the KT76A's still have some value in Mexico so a shop near the border may be good to take it.

PS, the FAA $500 rebate program worked.

[Raymo]

I recently sold a KT-76A for a customer who replaced his with a KT-74 tied to his 430W.

A guy in FL bought it for $250, planning to use the new Garmin GDL-82 for ADS-B out. With this box, the price of these old XPNDRS might start to stabilize.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by Raymo

I recently sold a KT-76A for a customer who replaced his with a KT-74 tied to his 430W.

A guy in FL bought it for $250, planning to use the new Garmin GDL-82 for ADS-B out. With this box, the price of these old XPNDRS might start to stabilize.

Yes, but if you buy the GDL-82 you probably won't need a replacement transponder...

How many non-transponder planes are there out there that will want to fly in class B or C or above 10,000 ft after Jan 1, 2020?