Piper PA-28-181 Cherokee 1981

About Me

Private Pilot with 120 hours working on instrument rating. Purchased the Archer after receiving my private. Primarily fly short (4 hours or less) cross country flights for fun. I fly out of a small grass strip in the mountains of Tennessee.

My Panel (Before and After)

My panel was not well equiped for instrument when I bought the plane and I intended to put in a GNS 430 in place of my Loran and an electric attitude indicator (use my vacuum as a back-up).

My eyes got big when I saw the Aspen with HSI and GPSS capability. Spent more than I intended (about 3x more), but so far it was well worth it. I wanted to be able to fly IFR without worrying about instrument failures. The redundancy and workload management that the Aspen has given me provides that peace of mind (can’t put $$$ on that, right?).

My Aspen Experience

I’ve flown it on a couple of cross country trips and immediately it seemed natural to fly with the Aspen. The workload management has been reduced dramatically and the gauges are so much more accurate. The screen is beautiful and the interface with the GNS 430 is awesome!