A casual stroll through a modern avionics shop can be as dangerous as a Harley-Davidson fanatic visiting the accessory department at the dealership. Its easy to grin like a kid and convince yourself that you need one of each. To keep the lust factor in check, you’ll need to prioritize and decide which new gear will offer the most utility given the investment. Weve assembled our list of the top five upgrades worthy for consideration based on value and capabilities. These arent in any order of preference. While each wont come without an impressive invoice, we don’t think any are over the edge for most light aircraft. Just beware of add-on accessories that can add to the bottom line faster than you can say “Ill take it.”
PS Engineering PMA8000B
In our view, the most important system in the cockpit, and the starting point for all avionics upgrades is the audio control system. Its no surprise that a lacking audio system can affect the safety of flight. A friend who owns an old Seneca recently had a total audio system failure while in solid IMC. His old, portable comm transceiver was a great help on the approach that would be near minimums – until the batteries quit at the outer marker.
His first phone call on landing was to the control tower and the second was to the avionics shop to schedule an audio upgrade, replacing his ancient Narco CP136 switching panel.
As with nearly all modern audio control systems, the PMA8000B is a combination audio selector/intercom system that can be interfaced with up to six seats. It has pilot and crew isolation, integral marker beacon, a cell-phone interface and plenty of unswitched inputs for audio alerts. We reviewed the PM8000 in the June 2006 issue of
Aviation Consumer and proclaimed it top-dog. Its rich in cabin entertainment control and distribution, a slick feature that many owners demand given the popular satellite radio craze and other digital music devices.Audio upgrades are labor intensive, and a sizeable portion of the cost represents labor. For example, new headset plug-ins are often required, and that gets into interior removal for routing the audio harnesses throughout the cabin. All the radios in the avionics stack usually come out as well. For aircraft that havent been upgraded in years, that can be a lot of new wire.
you’ll need to decide if you want to install stereo audio jacks. Most modern headsets have a stereo/mono selector switch, but lower end models might be mono only, creating a problem when you plug them in. Now might be a good time to upgrade to ANR headsets for the ultimate in audio quality. Given the flawless audio gained from the PMA8000B, we think the interface is shortchanged with passive models.
Be sure to spec push to talk switches with the upgrade because some shops view yoke-integrated transmit switches as optional. If the aircraft doesnt have drilled yokes-that is no drill holes for mounting integrated switches, your only option might be a portable switch that can be hardwired to the jacks. With enough effort,