Cessna A185F Skywagon 1982

About Me

Erich is a certificated instrument flight instructor licensed and rated to fly single, multi-engine land as well as seaplanes. He and his wife enjoy flying up and down the west coast, especially up to the San Juan Islands where they anchored a trawler. The airplane, ‘Josie’ as she is affectionately called and ‘Josie the B..’ when she acts up, is kept in a modern locked hanger at Dick Scobee Field (S50) in Auburn, Washington.

My Panel (Before and After)

When purchased six years ago from south Texas, Josie was outfitted with a Collins PN101 slaved HSI, vacuum powered AI electric T&B. You know the drill; the standard six, though the Collins HSI was a bit “up town.” for a 185. Additionally a whiskey compass, a couple of King Nav/Coms, a Garmin155XL, a KR87 ADF, and a KLN88 loran for good measure.

Today Josie enjoys a full compliment of Aspen gear: a PFD Pro, and MFD1000, MFD500 and EWR50. In addition two brand new Garmin GNS430W’s feed navigational data the the displays. A vertical card compass stands at the ready just in case a highly unlikely failure of all instruments and their respective backup batteries were to occur. Erich elected to keep the ADF and loran, it seems old habits die hard. In the future, Erich expects to replace the KT76 transponder with one capable of bringing TIS into the cockpit, as well as augmenting his weather system, with real time lightening mapping. And as icing on the cake Erich expects to move up to synthetic vision once released next year.

My Aspen Experience

While the instrumentation marks a milestone in ease of navigation it can be if one is not careful, extremely distracting, what with all the screens panels knobs and all. “It takes some getting used to, especially for an old guy like me, but I love it,” says Erich.