As I continue to work on this 8 hole panel upgrade project I need some advice on the Nav head selection. First - the use of the plane with it's upgraded IFR capabilities will be maintaining instrument currency, blasting through our normal Cape Cod summer fog banks, and occasional IFR flights with reasonable mins (for me).
I am going to be using my current radio, a KX-125 which currently does not support a glide slope, and I also do not have an installed marker beacon receiver. I have on the shelf a King GS receiver and King Marker Beacon indicator which I will use if not integral to what I install. At some point, later down the line I may add a panel mounted GPS - for the foreseeable future, my Garmin 196 with it's custom mount works just fine.
What I'm finding as I look at all the stuff out their is that some heads indicate they support a GPS function. Does that mean that only those heads will work with a GPS unit, or is it that they are only legal to use with GPS approaches etc. Even though I will be purchasing a used piece of equipment I would like to get something (within budget) that would allow for future upgrades to the avionics.
I have looked at the Narco 122's and have used them in the past - nice equipment, but unless it's the new version is not GPS compatible (back to above Q) - but the new ones don't have a built in Marker Beacon like the older units which solves the marker beacon piece of the puzzle. That's just one piece of equipment, their may be other ways to go or combine stuff and I'd be interested in your thoughts /experiences / setups...
Many thanks...
PS - I put a photo of Richard Pulley's panel and equipment on my Santa list, then dashed out to look under the tree yesterday morning in great anticipation... Well I'm scribing this post so you see what that did for me
