Roger Lee Posted May 9, 2012 Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 Took a ride in a new CTLS yesterday that I did a 100 hr / Annual on. This has the new Sky View Dynon"s and the Garmin 696. It was interesting watching the EFIS screen. I handled very well and the controls were not too heavy. The Sky View puts other aircraft in you vicinity on the screen for you to see. There are two FD MC's in the US. One of them just moved next to me about 30 miles away in Benson, AZ. I hope to see that here in short order and ask for a ride. The CTLS mentioned above had some interesting tires. They were the Desser Aero Classic 4.00-6 8 plys right from the factory. Here's the deal though. The new CTLS aircraft have Matco wheels all around and are able to keep from spinning a tire and ripping a stem due to a much better tire to wheel contact. The Italian wheels have poor tire to wheel contact and these 8 plys need more air to keep them round and from turning and pulling a stem. The tire on the front was a 4.00-6 6 ply. If FD factory is reading this I would ask that someone do a better job in setting the pitch on the Sensenich 3 blade props. This CTLS's blades were 2 degrees out from one another. 2 degrees is a lot and I find blades from the factory out most of the time. I usually find them out 1 degree. I don't know how the prop can be balanced this far out of pitch sync. A .25 of a degree usually bothers the hec out of me. Please do a better job setting the pitch to be equal. The Sensenich pin system for the prop pitch does not work. By their (Sensenich's) own admission it was a good idea on paper, but in the real world doesn't work. After the prop adjustment, removing 1.25 degrees from the overall pitch and syncing some way out of sync carbs this CTLS purrs now, especially on the start up with the "soft start" ignition system. To update the Sky View Dynon you download the new software at home on a flsh drive. take it to the field and plug it in to a USB cable sticking out on the bottom right side of the instrument panel, turn on everything and it updates both units and the A&P off the flash drive. This new CTLS has it all and is a nice aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N89WD Posted May 9, 2012 Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 Empty weight is 807lbs. 303lbs useable with full fuel, with all those fancy toys the number keeps getting smaller doesn't it? Agreed, nice plane however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Welsch Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Roger: How much air pressure does FD allow in the 400-6, 8-ply tires? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted May 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Hi Philip, FD's max pressure officially is 35 psi. That is where they did a drop test. With Matco wheels you may get away with that, but Desser wants more pressure in them. Desser likes 50, but it's a rough ride. So long as the tire doesn't turn and pull a stem your good. I just did 35 in this new CTLS with the 8 plys so we'll see. He lives in Albuquerque. Flew home this a.m. early and took about 3 hours. Said it was a smooth ride. The prop re-pitch and carb sync made all his vibration go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosacfi Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Roger Not sure if you were referring to database updates or firmware updates in your comments about the ease of software updates in the new CTLS but I sure ran into a hitch updating the SkyView firmware in my 2011 CTLS yesterday. I was updating from ver 3.2.1 to ver 3.3.2. Each of the two displays needs to be updated separately. The first display, PDF, seemed to update easily enough and so I switched the memory stick to the other USB port and went about the procedure for the second display. All seemed to be going well until it hung up after “Starting Network Manager”. Worse yet after shutting off and attempting to redo the procedure the unit showed the two big Xs and then could not be shut down via avionics off- master off. In other words it sat there frozen and lit up by the standby battery merrily draining away while I felt helpless. After a helpful phone call to Tom Guttmann, Airtime Aviation and at his suggestion, we physically removed the offending unit from the panel, disconnected and reconnected the standby battery and rebooted. After running through the reconfirguration procedure all was well and a flight check today confirmed everything working properly. I wish I could leave all with a word of wisdom on how to avoid the problem but I can’t. At least if someone else runs into a situation where the unit stays on with backup battery and after trying the depress button 1 and hold to shut off. (It didn’t) you might try the disconnect reconnect procedure that worked for me. On a brighter note I am loving the CTLS and having much fun giving rides, taking aerial photographs, and searching for the elusive greasers. The Tru Trac autopilot works great and today I let it fly a complete RNAV approach with course reversal and glideslope intercept. Unreal! Why do I keep my Mooney? D. Boesiger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted May 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 It says to do it separately, but you don't do it that way. Turn everything on. Both SkyViews and the AP. Plug in the flash drive and go to the update page. It does everything in the system . If you try it one at a time it may lock up or not update. I know this because we tried it that way at first then called Dynon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosacfi Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Thanks for the info. I'll try that on the next firmware update. Looks like Dynon needs to update their website instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NC Bill Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 FWIW database updates (terrain, obsticles, etc) are automatically sync'd between SV screens IF the units are connected by cable. I assume all new CTLSs are so connected. Older units installed prior to v3.0 "probably" needed to be connected. Mine did. Although mine was upgraded from D100/120. Firmware updates (going from v3.2.2 to v3.3.2) does NOT automatically update both screens from one USB stick. You must upload both SV screens individually. Any questions with DYNON products I recommend calling DYNON Tech Support. They are fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted May 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Howdy Bill, The installs from the factory are all interconnected. I do not know if all the first units were like that, but this one was. We tried to update them separately, but that caused some real issues. When we called Dynon they told us to turn everything on and it was just a single update. It was pretty nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo-Charlie Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Roger, when updating the Firmware in our new CTLS we ran into the same frozen screen issues. Dynon tech support had us press and hold buttons 1-2-5 at the same time and it rebooted and operated fine after that. With the 3.3.2 update, press and hold buttons 7&8 for system set-up. Choose EMS (engine management system) and select the Rotax engine in the engine selection column and then the engine readouts will reflected the proper limits of operation for that engine. Dynon tech support was very helpful. We love our new CT. I will have Dave our CT tech check the prop pitch. Thanks for the info! Ron PS. I am now giving demo rides and our flight school Northcoast Air is giving flight lessons. All of the CFI's are fighting to see who get's checked out first. Quite the excitement around here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.