n700jl

n700jl

Well Known Member
In my RV-10 I have a 3 screen G3X system with a UMA 2and1/4 Altimeter back up. My avioncs guy says that he will NOT certify my aircraft for IFR with a non sensitive back up altimeter! The G3X AHRS was right on the money during the check. And the UMA altimeter was with in limits of a certified altimeter during the check to 20k ft. I am confused. Any thoughts? I may need a reference to back up any opinions that you may have. thanks for your help.
 
Jon,
It took me quite a bit of time and a change of inspectors at the local FSDO before they agreed that there is no requirement for an altimeter or encoder to have a TSO. So if the G3X passes the check per 43 E. then you're good to go, and you don't need the UMA at all.

Update: there is some debate about placarding an altimeter for "VFR use only" and after a little more research I have to agree with Stein and Pierre below, if it's in the panel it needs to pass the test and it needs to be a "sensitive" altimeter per 91.205 so the UMA doesn't qualify. So take it out of the panel, have the check done and then the rest is on you if you decide to put it back in later.

So what I'm saying is it may not be the Avionics guy but the fact that the FSDO may not be well educated in this particular area.
 
Last edited:
Walt is spot on...it could be either an un-educated shop, or a FSDO guy or combination of both. That being said, those single pointer UMA's can be a pain to get passed. Certified or not doesn't matter, but if it's in the panel it has to pass the test and the small ones can be buggers sometimes. If it's in the limits then it doesn't matter whether it's certified or not - period (like Walt said). If it meets spec you're good to go legally. That's two of us with certified shops that say so!

Cheers,
Stein
 
I have two Dynons, and a TSO altimeter. Guess which one is the least accurate? :D

For that matter, the two Dynons for airspeed and altimetry were more accurate than the newly calibrated test equipment which had a deviation chart that we were well within.

I suspect your G3X gear is equally as accurate. :)
 
Put an INOP stick over the face. :)

Stickers fall off after a short while in the sun.....say 25-40 hours :D.........or minutes!
 
Winter do a nice certified, 2 1/4" 2-pointer. I've fitted one to my -10. Mind you, best part of $1000........ Nice though :eek:
 
Last edited:
Indeed winter does make a 2" altimeter, but we've pretty much quit installing them because we had a lot of issues with them having very poor reliability coupled with the extreme difficulties in shipping stuff over the atlantic to get it fixed at a company that won't cover the shipping (burned up any profit that may have existed on the unit to begin with). Short of the super high buck Mid continent or United units, seems anything else just is quite a bit lower in reliability....at least that's what I've seen over the years. It's slowly becoming a moot point though, because for $1600 and change you can get an entire Dynon unit that is multitude of times better. I'm sure there are those who have had good luck with the Winter units, just not us (and yes, we used to sell a lot of them - not just one or two).

Just my 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
 
You must log in or register to reply here.