- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 9,608
- Reaction score
- 4,449
Well, finally that puppy went in today. Had one more delay, with the snow, couldn't tow the plane over!
Install
The install was smooth, no hiccups. The new MAX is a slip out/in replacement, all the settings are in a device in the harness, so they transfer over as a matter of course. They had to run a wire pair to an unswitched audio input on my PMA450, that took most of the time. The sonoalert (now replaced by voice alerts) was disconnected, but left in place and wire tagged behind the panel. They ran the static for altitude checks, and the pitot for airspeed. All was dead on, out of the box.
What's new?
The screen is noticeably more readable. It is not so much just brighter, although it does now max out at a higher lumen value, it is more the 16 million colors (vice eight) that does that I'm sure. I have the SV option, besides the hazard & AOA unlocks, and the depiction is better.
The animations on the screen are also smoother. I really only noticed it now, now that I have the new MAX in, as a comparison. Faster processor I guess.
I really like the change to pop the size of the item you are editing. Before you had to take notice of the magenta color to confirm that, and I occasionally found that I was editing the wrong thing. The 150% size change (eg. in the ALT preset) is immediately noticeable to the eye.
The voice alerts are definitely an improvement over the sonoalert. The voice is male, and a bit stern, kind of a "schoolmaster" sort. But that lets me quickly distinguish it from my active traffic TAS unit & Avidyne IFD alerts, which are a more subtle female voice. Also added is APPROACHING MINIMUMS at 100ft over minimums, which is a good addition to just the MINIMUMS callout.
The knobs seem more responsive, slightly more clickier, with sharper detents. Makes it easier to set a value if there is a large amount of scrolling to do, like from 4000 to 12000 feet, or something. Nice redesign.
Under the hood, a very important change, which hopefully I'll never need to appreciate. With a loss of pitot input, it will go into a degraded mode, and still provide attitude information -- no red X's. Uses GPS speed as a proxy. (Bravo!) This was an issue with both the original ASPEN's and Garmin G500's.
With the new unit, I get a full two year manufacturer's warranty, and of course a fresh backup battery.
Bottom Line
Love the new ASPEN Max, and it was a great deal -- especially at the promotional price of $2995 for the tradeup. Glad I opted for it! There is still an upgrade path, but it is now $4995. Probably still worth it. And for someone buying new, looks to be a good upgrade to this 10 year old bit of kit.
* Orest
Install
The install was smooth, no hiccups. The new MAX is a slip out/in replacement, all the settings are in a device in the harness, so they transfer over as a matter of course. They had to run a wire pair to an unswitched audio input on my PMA450, that took most of the time. The sonoalert (now replaced by voice alerts) was disconnected, but left in place and wire tagged behind the panel. They ran the static for altitude checks, and the pitot for airspeed. All was dead on, out of the box.
What's new?
The screen is noticeably more readable. It is not so much just brighter, although it does now max out at a higher lumen value, it is more the 16 million colors (vice eight) that does that I'm sure. I have the SV option, besides the hazard & AOA unlocks, and the depiction is better.
The animations on the screen are also smoother. I really only noticed it now, now that I have the new MAX in, as a comparison. Faster processor I guess.
I really like the change to pop the size of the item you are editing. Before you had to take notice of the magenta color to confirm that, and I occasionally found that I was editing the wrong thing. The 150% size change (eg. in the ALT preset) is immediately noticeable to the eye.
The voice alerts are definitely an improvement over the sonoalert. The voice is male, and a bit stern, kind of a "schoolmaster" sort. But that lets me quickly distinguish it from my active traffic TAS unit & Avidyne IFD alerts, which are a more subtle female voice. Also added is APPROACHING MINIMUMS at 100ft over minimums, which is a good addition to just the MINIMUMS callout.
The knobs seem more responsive, slightly more clickier, with sharper detents. Makes it easier to set a value if there is a large amount of scrolling to do, like from 4000 to 12000 feet, or something. Nice redesign.
Under the hood, a very important change, which hopefully I'll never need to appreciate. With a loss of pitot input, it will go into a degraded mode, and still provide attitude information -- no red X's. Uses GPS speed as a proxy. (Bravo!) This was an issue with both the original ASPEN's and Garmin G500's.
With the new unit, I get a full two year manufacturer's warranty, and of course a fresh backup battery.
Bottom Line
Love the new ASPEN Max, and it was a great deal -- especially at the promotional price of $2995 for the tradeup. Glad I opted for it! There is still an upgrade path, but it is now $4995. Probably still worth it. And for someone buying new, looks to be a good upgrade to this 10 year old bit of kit.
* Orest
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