Flying with the 330

Guest Discussion
#1

Have been flying with the 330 and have found one thing. I will not fly without it or on a ifr flight plan anymore. I had been using flight following and it scares me on how much they miss. Buy miss
I mean 4 traffic warnings on 2 flights on the 330 and not a word from bay approach. I have found that the coverage is not every where you fly. For us it goes away at the salinas valley. (rural area) I am thrilled with in the areas it has coverage. I can not see any adverse effects of switching the a/p with the transponder. The other feature I like is the altitude deviation warning. This happen when you deviate more than 100 feet. Not that I deviate 100 feet but it is a nice feature ;}. For me it is a great way to get some collision avoidance in the cockpit for the busy air space.
We fly with the top garmin in the map mode (shows traffic on the map mode) and the number 2 garmin in the traffic page. Seem to work for us. I had to rate it I would rate it as a “would not fly without it” Kevin Moore has been flying with it for quit some time so maybe a pirep and what he has been finding for coverage can be coaxed from him.

I CAN NOT EXPRESS LOUD ENOUGH THAT WHEN ON FLIGHT FOLLOWING DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!!! LOOK OUT THE WINDOW LIKE YOU DO NOT HAVE THE HELP. Will post coverage areas as I travel through out ca…Ed

#2

Thanks Ed that is what I was waiting to here. I just got approval from My lady and I will get it next week She says we will just add value to are SR20 And safty. By the way I have had 2 prices of 5500 and 5400 installed and . They said they would give me 800 for 327 but they said I could sell it outrite for 1000 Does that seem about rite for this deal. thanks from Don From Don

#3

Ed,

Can you comment on one thing. Saw in some post (maybe on COPA, don’t recall) that the 330 did not turn standby off and on based on GPS speed as now configured in our SR2X’s. Had to believe that is a set up issue. Does your 330 automatically go in and out of standby mode like before the conversion?

Sure is an attractive idea for busy airspace that I fly in a lot and is much more attractively priced than skywatch (which is admittedly better, but was not a option when I got my plane.

#4

Since you have been flying with flight following and you never ran into any of that traffic they “missed”, one could argue that they didn’t “miss” anything. They just didn’t inform you of irrelevant traffic, but the 330 does.

#5

There was a lengthy thread in January on my initial experience with the 330, you can find it with the search function for “GTX330 pirep.” Around the Bay Area my observations on coverage agree with Ed; at medium cruise altitudes:

Southern limit is about Salinas
At Hollister (3O7) it works down to about 1500 feet

Northwestern limit is about Santa Rosa

The Sacramento area is very well covered and more-or-less continuous with the Bay Area.

However if you’re low enough, such as in the pattern at an uncontrolled field (e.g, Q99, 3O7, WVI, O69, even HAF) you will likely lose coverage.

I haven’t had any close calls like Ed but the TIS does show traffic that ATC doesn’t point out. I have had little trouble locating “bogeys” portrayed by TIS, so the update delay does not seem to be an issue so far. I didn’t miss TIS before I got the 330, but now I would very much rather have it than not.

#6

In reply to:

They said they would give me 800 for 327 but they said I could sell it outrite for 1000 Does that seem about rite for this deal.

You can probably sell the GTX-327 for about $1,400 on eBay. Click here for a list of recent sales of the 327 on eBay. They are a pretty hot item, with several sales per week, typically.

#7

You could argue that. How about this one a mooney crossing tail 75-100 feet above. Just happen to look out the window when I got a traffic warning.Other wise would have never known. Or how about a pitts doing a aerobatic manuver and cutting across the nose about 400-600 feet. (330 not required) This is 2 of the warnings from the 330 we came across on 3 flights. By a traffic warning this means 12 seconds to sharing airspace…If you are happy and feel confident with flight following that is great, but please look out the window when flying in the bay area, Ed

#8

Ed, what kind of warning features does it provide and are they settable? Does it give you an aural indication of where the traffic (such as "traffic 10 o’clock) as I believe the Ryan’s do?

Dorian

#9

How close were those two when your got your first alert from the unit?

Did those alerts give you sufficient time to take some action if needed?

The Skywatch will give those alerts at 2miles, with the traffic visible at out to
12 miles.

Michael

#10

Dorian,

You get four different audio alerts.

  1. “Traffic” (no indication of direction)
  2. “Traffic not available” (when you are out of coverage)
  3. “Leaving altitude” (when you are off altitude by 100 ft)
  4. “Timer expired”

You can configure this for a male or female voice or tone and volume level.

#11

When they are within a 12 seconds. Not a lot of time but enough.
I found that flying the #2 in the 2 mile ring works good. #1 in the map mode gives you a bigger picture then look to #2 when they are getting close. It is also great to see what the controllers are doing with you when on a ifr flight plan. You can see everyone on the approach and see where you fit in the picture. I will have to confess, where we fly into is probably one of the most busy airspace I have seen. On straight in you are to the right of the final for San Jose international and its class c airspace but you also have to fly over q99 which is a uncontrolled airspace. If that were not enough you have to fly through one of the busy bay area practice areas. So now you get the picture on the alerts we are getting…Ed

#12

RHV?

I flew in there two weeks ago… I couldn’t believe the traffic, it was like a bee-hive.

I was given traffic alerts by ATC: traffic at 10 oclock, 12 oclock, 2 oclock, 4 oclock.
Gulp… “looking for all the traffic”. It was great to see them all on the fish finder,
but I sure wouldn’t want to fly through that kind of swarm on a regular basis.

Michael