[Pmerems]

A: Exercise?
B: Join a gym?
C: Drink only water
D: Upgrade to SkyView

If you chose D you are correct.

It is finally done, the big upgrade to SkyView. The post is not intended to bash Dynon at all it is just my way of letting the RV community know I am flying with the latest Dynon systems.

My RV has been flying for over 3 years with the D180 and Garmin 327 transponder. The SkyView came out about 4-6 months after I started the install of the D180 in my RV while I was building it. But with all the enhancements in the SkyView system I kept thinking about upgrading. With the new (not so new now) Dynon/Tri Transponder and the ability to display traffic I took the plunge and decided to upgrade.

I carefully laid out a schedule of what needed to be modified in the airplane and estimated it would be about 2 weeks of work. Well I was way off. It took 4 weekends, 20 weekdays (after work) to get it finally installed. I don?t know the exact number of hours but I believe it was between 70-80 hours of work. It seemed that my plane was fighting me all the way. It is one thing to install systems when the plane is under construction and you have easy access to just about everywhere. It is another totally different animal to install a new system in a completed airplane.

I don?t want to go into the details but it is over and the SkyView is up and running. Dynon did a great job of making the system setup and diagnostics work well. Now all I have to do is get used to all the information displayed and where to find it. In a few weeks I will be adding the ADS-B receiver (which I prewired, installed mounting nutplates and installed the antenna and coax already) once I get used to the new system.

So for those thinking about upgrading here is my advice:
-Double your time estimate
-Drink lots of water
-Ibuprofen will be your best friend
-Work alone so your curse words won?t offend anyone

BTW I did loose 5 lbs not my airplane

 

[flightlogic]

Might I suggest my 8 second rule of synthetic vision now? Start counting quietly to yourself each time you glance down at the screen. You will be experiencing visual overload for a few months. You might consider forcing yourself to attend to the outside world with a maximum of about 8 seconds heads down time. It requires discipline. Like learning to scan during IFR training, it will become second nature. The 8 seconds can be a different thread. I am sure there are incredibly complex arguments to be made for 7 seconds instead, or 10.
While your head is up, your investment in technology will wait patiently for you to return. The goal, of course, is to live long enough to enjoy the Skyview.
Have a great flying weekend!