Next upgrade

Out with the old...

In with the new...

Wait a minute you say... you're ditching the G600??  Yes.  I'm replacing it with a G500.  The bottom line is that for my plane, with SVT installed the units are identical.  For planes larger than 6000 pounds the only option is to buy the more expensive G600, so the shop offered me a trade down for mine plus $2000 credit towards my upgrade.  Basically I get 2k credit, a brand new unit with a warranty, and a $1500 Garmin rebate to swap the two.  A guy with an Aero Commander 500 get's to save some dough on a used G600.  Sounded like a win-win to me!   Along with that I'm getting a new single piece powder coated metal panel.  The old style floating panel and wood grain subpanel are getting pulled out.  The result will be something like this, without the Auracle unit.

I'm also getting a 750 up top and the smaller 650 underneath.  The result will be a very clean, modern looking and extremely capable IFR panel.  I'm also having a 406 Mghz ELT installed, the copilots headset jacks moved up, LED landing gear position lights put in, and last but not least, the new Garmin active traffic system.  My already quite capable plane is going to be completely insanely awesome.

Super nice guys down there at EAM in Scottsdale.  The flight was great on the way down with 60 kt tailwinds.  Here I am running LOP at 11.5k, 185 kts true on 20 GPH with nearly 240 kt ground speeds.

My friend Rick flew chase in the 182RG so I could fly that back.  Scottsdale was a terrible mess of blustery wind, 100 deg heat, turbulence and limited visibility in blowing dust, gusts and haze...

I paid for those awesome tailwinds on the flight back...  5.2 hours of slogging it out against heavy headwinds, turbulence, and cumulous layers in a plane far far less capable than a Baron.  I climbed to over 13k ft to get over a layer and was showing 85 kts over the ground.  Sure made me appreciate my Baron!  The 182RG is a nice little plane though, great views of the ground once the haze cleared and a fun and stable bird.  It was a long day of nearly 9 hours of flying but it was fun, with some beautiful moments.