Microair drops some new gear..looks impressive BUT how reliable do we think it will be

[Kyle Communications]

 

[KRviator]

Looks good, but they're very late to the party. And from the brief read I've had, they're not (currently) TSO'd or STC'd, so that limits them to the Experimental crowd - who are already spoilt for choice with options from Garmin, Dynon, AFS, uAvionix, GRT and MGL each of which have already built up hundreds of thousands of hours of flight time for their products.

Microair needs to compete with that, and I'm not sure how they're going to.

[Thruster88]

I think the market is for a screw in 3 and 1/8 inch replacement for a vacuum instrument in a certified or experimental aircraft. New builds will go with flat panels. I like my hybrid 6 pack.

[Blueadventures]

1 hour ago, Thruster88 said:

I think the market is for a screw in 3 and 1/8 inch replacement for a vacuum instrument in a certified or experimental aircraft. New builds will go with flat panels. I like my hybrid 6 pack.

Like it, I would like an AV30 or similar in the Nynja.  I didn't ask questions at Oshkosh as too many similar companies displaying and as not ready to purchase would have been a waste on time.  I will eventually fit something in a year or so.

[spacesailor]

My grandson,  made his own instrument " flat panel " from a " Ipad " tablet .

For use in his " drifting car " .

This tablet I'm using has no input points to use it for anything other than a ' tablet ' .

spacesailor

 

[Red]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

My grandson,  made his own instrument " flat panel " from a " Ipad " tablet .

For use in his " drifting car " .

This tablet I'm using has no input points to use it for anything other than a ' tablet ' .

spacesailor

 

SS, I think most of these instrument apps either use the onboard accelerometers and other sensors that are in the Ipad or if external sensors like engine sensors are needed they hook them up to a bluetooth or wifi module and get them to interface with the Ipad that way, same can be done with Android Tablets

 

For instance the GPS reciever and Traffic detection unit I use both connect to my Android via WiFi

Edited August 13 by Red

[KRviator]

10 hours ago, spacesailor said:

My grandson,  made his own instrument " flat panel " from a " Ipad " tablet .

For use in his " drifting car " .

This tablet I'm using has no input points to use it for anything other than a ' tablet ' .

spacesailor

 

I've had that in all of our cars for the last 6 or so years and wouldn't be without it for anything except short local drives.

An OBD dongle plugs into the port and you can access various sensors connected to the computers though BT or wi-fi. Some more than others. For our Territory, we could access the parking sensor data down to 0.1m resolution, not just beeps or pretty colours and a host more in-depth stuff. Transmission temperature, exhaust gas temperature through to coolant or torque converter lockup status are often available in any vehicle.

I use the "Torque Pro" app, (and ForScan for Fords) and it has the added benefit of being able to record whatever you're displaying, so if I got pinged by a speed camera, I can pull the datalog to confirm both indicated and GPS speeds.

[spacesailor]

I have his ( grangsons ) old ' OBD ' scanner,  but it is in code's. 

You have to check online , for those code readouts .

(  to know what they mean ).

spacesailor

[Kyle Communications]

The AV30 is TSO'd of course.

Microair the price for experimental they said is US$5k so thats about AU$7000. You try to get a Garmin setup like G3 it will set you back 25K min with the gear it requires to be TSO'd

The website says 2025 so I suppose we will see but to get them certified even the Microair boss says it will be convoluted getting it done.

Its a nice idea I suppose but any sort of digital display panels or instruments are bloody expensive now.

[BurnieM]

Garmins G3X Touch has a lot of information displayed on a much bigger screen (along with mapping options) so not really comparable.

 

Comparing with the G5 is more meaningful, with the MicroAir displaying a lot less information on comparible screens but MA having more different types of displays.

 

US$5K seems a little (lot?) low for a 'six pack' with instruments, radio and ADS-B transponder so would be interested to see 'written down' Australian pricing.

 

Edited August 14 by BurnieM

[Red]

As you say Burnie, if that includes Radio and Transponder it seems an unrealisticly low price.

 

P.S. in the UK Microair radios don't have a great reputation, I have no idea wheteher that is deserved and perhaps its just that if you do have a problem with one its a bit irksome having to send it half way round the world to get looked at.

Edited August 14 by Red

[johnm]

lets support steam gauge aircraft instruments

 

and ........................ bring back the steam gauge telephone - society will be safer, quieter and safer

 

[BrendAn]

9 hours ago, johnm said:

lets support steam gauge aircraft instruments

 

and ........................ bring back the steam gauge telephone - society will be safer, quieter and safer

 

My Dynon d6 went off the last couple of flights, intermittent power loss I think. After a while I forgot all about it. Found myself looking around more instead of fixating on that screen. Might remove it .

Edited August 15 by BrendAn