Paul 5r4
Well Known Member
Greetings,
Thought I'd give a brief review of my ADSB install, cost and how it works. I bought the Navworx EXP 600 while at sun-n-fun from the ifly folks. Adventure pilot was selling them $100 cheeper than the navworx booth in the next building. I also purchased the trans-mon antenna adapter as well as the internal GPS antenna. Total cost for items was $1457 then add $76.05 for the UAT antenna from Delta Pop aviation. Shane, ifly VP I think, also stated he might be able to pull a few strings and get the unit sooner than the usual 6-8 week wait. (I spoke to one guy in home built camping that waited 6 months!). Anyway, Shane did pull stings and my unit arrived in about a month.
The install was strait forward. I placed the navworx box on the aft bulkhead because it was where I had the older sky radar placed so power was already available at that spot. I know it's visible but I think it's a neat install. I only had to run the trans-mon cable forward and under the panel to the transponder coax to get the squawk & altitude information. The trans-mon adapter was money well spent!!! In just a few minutes the cable was secured to the coax and zip tied along the way. SO MUCH EASIER than digging around under the panel in the xpder wiring harness looking for the correct pin out etc! My total install time was about 6 hours which included putting connectors on the RG400 coax to the UAT antenna as well as installing the UAT antenna. After finishing up the install, I downloaded their configuration app to my iPad and in literally a couple of minutes it said I was ready to fly.
Today was the test flight and it was a good day for it because thunderstorms and scattered rain were in the area. I was use to the sky radar and had come to depend on it so I had something to compare the navworx adsb against. I took off and by the time I was at pattern altitude I was receiving several ADSB towers and nexred weather was popping up onto my ifly 720 and the nexus tablet! I was use to seeing this nexred stuff so I was especially interested in the traffic picture. I soon saw several targets being painted about 10 to my south and one about 5 to the north and +2500 ft relative to my altitude heading my way. I turned into him to see if he would actually be where this was telling me he was. SPOT ON! Before the flight was over I had seen several targets that otherwise would never have been seen. You still have to keep a good look out for non transponder AC but overall a huge increase in safety! I had a very near miss a few years back.... literally 30 feet off of my right wing heading the opposite way!!! So if this magic box helps with increased awareness of whats out there it's worth it. I'm happy I decided to take the plunge! I had thought I would be spending around 5K or so to be 2020 compliant but with this navworx 600 EXP, internal gps antenna, trans-mon adapter and a UAT antenna I have it all for $1533.05! I'm very satisfied! Maybe this will help others in making decisions.
Thought I'd give a brief review of my ADSB install, cost and how it works. I bought the Navworx EXP 600 while at sun-n-fun from the ifly folks. Adventure pilot was selling them $100 cheeper than the navworx booth in the next building. I also purchased the trans-mon antenna adapter as well as the internal GPS antenna. Total cost for items was $1457 then add $76.05 for the UAT antenna from Delta Pop aviation. Shane, ifly VP I think, also stated he might be able to pull a few strings and get the unit sooner than the usual 6-8 week wait. (I spoke to one guy in home built camping that waited 6 months!). Anyway, Shane did pull stings and my unit arrived in about a month.
The install was strait forward. I placed the navworx box on the aft bulkhead because it was where I had the older sky radar placed so power was already available at that spot. I know it's visible but I think it's a neat install. I only had to run the trans-mon cable forward and under the panel to the transponder coax to get the squawk & altitude information. The trans-mon adapter was money well spent!!! In just a few minutes the cable was secured to the coax and zip tied along the way. SO MUCH EASIER than digging around under the panel in the xpder wiring harness looking for the correct pin out etc! My total install time was about 6 hours which included putting connectors on the RG400 coax to the UAT antenna as well as installing the UAT antenna. After finishing up the install, I downloaded their configuration app to my iPad and in literally a couple of minutes it said I was ready to fly.
Today was the test flight and it was a good day for it because thunderstorms and scattered rain were in the area. I was use to the sky radar and had come to depend on it so I had something to compare the navworx adsb against. I took off and by the time I was at pattern altitude I was receiving several ADSB towers and nexred weather was popping up onto my ifly 720 and the nexus tablet! I was use to seeing this nexred stuff so I was especially interested in the traffic picture. I soon saw several targets being painted about 10 to my south and one about 5 to the north and +2500 ft relative to my altitude heading my way. I turned into him to see if he would actually be where this was telling me he was. SPOT ON! Before the flight was over I had seen several targets that otherwise would never have been seen. You still have to keep a good look out for non transponder AC but overall a huge increase in safety! I had a very near miss a few years back.... literally 30 feet off of my right wing heading the opposite way!!! So if this magic box helps with increased awareness of whats out there it's worth it. I'm happy I decided to take the plunge! I had thought I would be spending around 5K or so to be 2020 compliant but with this navworx 600 EXP, internal gps antenna, trans-mon adapter and a UAT antenna I have it all for $1533.05! I'm very satisfied! Maybe this will help others in making decisions.