Post Your Upgrade Photos

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   Now that we know how to upload images we can post our upgrade photos.

Here's our Cessna 172 before the upgrade.  It is stock NAV II package except that the ADF indicator was replaced by the engine monitor.

The main purpose of the upgrade was to get rid of the KLN 89B.  We decided to go with the IFD 540 because if we removed the KLN 89B, one COM radio, and the INOP ADF we'd have enough space for it.  And we liked the features, or at least those we knew about - it was a fairly early pre-order.

We eventually decided to replace the audio panel and transponder as well, and to add an Icarus SAM roll steering converter.

There's an intermediate stage which perhaps aircraft owners should not see:

But the result was worth the wait (and the cost):

The Icarus SAM is on top,  It has a rather small readout and lots of extra capabilities which we mostly don't use.  But it provides roll steering which is very nice.

Below it is the AMX 240 audio panel.  I wrote about why we chose it elsewhere on this forum.

Next is the mighty IFD 540.  It looks amazing just sitting there.  It is connected to the KI 209a indicator which was left from the previous installation.  The old annunciator was replaced with a blank panel.

Below that is the KX 155A.  This was the original COM 1 radio.  We swapped the KI 208 for a KI 209 so that it would still have glide slope.  We don't ever expect the IFD to fail but if it does we can still fly to a VOR and follow an ILS.  Redundancy is an IFR pilot's friend.

The next item is the AXP 340 transponder.  The old KT 76C had developed problems twice in the three years we had the plane so I wanted it to be gone.  This gives us ADS-B out, and the plane is now 2020 compliant.  We currently use Foreflight and a Stratus 2 for ADS-B in.

On the bottom is the KAP 140 single-axis autopilot.

The displays on the engine monitor and COM 2 radio look chopped in this photograph because it was taken at a high shutter speed, but they actually are fine.