Register
Avionics

Panel Planner 101: Bare-Bones IFR

It’s a tight budget for a hard-working trainer that hasn’t seen an avionics upgrade since the Clinton years. A budget IFR upgrade is still a good-sized job.

Larry Anglisano
Verified

Edited By:

Omar Filipovic

King KX170B navcomms were once the standard, but this panel is long overdue for some modern capability.

This month’s panel for planning is in a 1970s-vintage Piper Warrior with an avionics package straight out of the King Radio heyday. It’s how we used to fly IFR— sporting radio stacks full of analog equipment, including dual KX170B navcomms, a KMA20 audio panel and KR86 ADF.

While it was upgraded once, perhaps in the early 1990s, with a King KLN90 GPS and PS Engineering PM1000 intercom, the KLN90’s CRT (cathode ray tube) is failing and the GPS receiver is slow to acquire. Clearly, the avionics in the airplane don’t owe the new owner a dime. But the busy flight school where the airplane does hard duty as a primary trainer is demanding a modern upgrade. The radios are acting up, with intermittent transmissions that point to a failing KMA20 audio panel. Plus, the school wants to use the airplane as a light IFR trainer.

Larry Anglisano

Editor in Chief Larry Anglisano has been a staple at Aviation Consumer since 1995. An active land, sea and glider pilot, Larry has over 30 years’ experience as an avionics repairman and flight test pilot. He’s the editorial director overseeing sister publications Aviation Safety magazine, IFR magazine and is a regular contributor to KITPLANES magazine with his Avionics Bootcamp column.