Continuing to tout my Quattro, which I really do like, here's the latest from Sandia, a reduction in price to $2995. After I'd bought mine at that price, they bumped the price up $500, but then the G5 was STC'd, so I think the reduction is to be competitive. The Quattro comes standard with a backup battery, which they say will last a guaranteed hour at full brightness, and twice that if the backlight is turned down. The backup battery starts charging from the airplane's electrical system as soon as the master is turned on and automatically takes over if the electrical system fails above 40 knots, or the Quattro automatically shuts down if electrical power is removed under 40 knots--the pilot can stop that automatic shutdown with a push of the single knob/button on the face of the Quattro, which is also used to adjust the backlight and the altimeter setting.
The latest info direct from Sandia via email, though, are some new features. Available immediately is a software change to the altimeter adjustment. Mine reverts to 29.92 upon being shut down, which is no big deal--just set it to the current altimeter when firing it up. But the software change allows it to be set to either remain at the previous altimeter setting, or even better, at the previous altitude. That latter would be great for back country overnight use, when the exact altitude of the airstrip isn't known, and there's no way to obtain an altimeter setting. In the morning, you'd just crank up, the altitude readout would be the same as when you shut down the day or days before, but the Kollsman window would automatically change to the new altimeter setting.
The downside of the software change is that the instrument has to be pulled and sent back to Sandia for the change--not possible to do it in the field. That means a new biennial pitot/static cert and some additional labor, so I'll wait to make that decision till a year from January when my next cert is due.
They're also working on getting approval for an additional item to show on the Quattro's face, an instant VSI, for which they'll charge $150 for that software change (the other one, to the altimeter portion, is free). I'm not sure how useful that would be, as I've never paid much attention to any VSI, other than to confirm that I'm descending at the rate I should be for the power setting and descent angle I'm flying, especially with passengers, when I want to keep descent rates to 500 fpm or less. I've always used the altimeter movement to determine on an IFR take off whether I have a positive rate of climb going, due to the lag of a standard VSI. Perhaps with an instant VSI, I'd use it more.
So there are two pretty competitive modern AIs to replace the old mechanical vacuum driven gyro AIs. Neither is cheap, but they both are quite an improvement, especially with a backup battery. Like Hammer, I too have had a total electrical failure, twice. The first was at night in a 182 in good VFR weather, and the second was in my airplane on the way home from buying it, day VFR. In neither case was the loss of electrical power an emergency, just annoying. In IFR conditions, both would have been an emergency.
Incidentally, on the Canadian requirement for "a stabilised magnetic direction indicator or a gyroscopic direction indicator", I don't know if my SIRS compass would qualify as a "stabilised magnetic direction indicator", but it's very stable, nothing like the OEM Airpath it replaced. It reads backwards, just like most whiskey compasses, if that's an issue. It's really a great compass--hasn't required swinging since I originally swung it after my IA installed it a few years ago. And it's easy to read, night or day.
Cary
