TailbeaconX and AV-30

But not your fingers LOL

And yet, I still cut the tail-cone…

Terry, I gave advice to Greg about using the Tailbeacon adapter that has a round opening and then modifying it to a square opening.. Key part to be careful of it not cutting into your tail-cone as you Dermal it out from a round to a square opening as well. I can send you pictures, as I do not know how to post them in this forum.

I have the TailbeaconX and my heading drifts.  I don't think that the Tailbeacon helps any with this.  I was told by the rep at SunNfun that the new software update will allow you to use GPS.  I haven't updated yet so I can't confirm that.
 

From what I could tell from the settings, you can't use the TailBeaconX as a true GPS. I may be wrong. And I know the newer ones don't have the internal magnometer. It can use external GPS for heading from what I remember. So without an external GPS or external Mag,not sure how it gets heading. Again, I could be wrong. But I know when I didn't have mag turned on, I got no heading.

FROM DOCS

AI MODE:

"The upper portion of the AI can be configured to display direction of flight in the form of either non-slaved DG (non-slaved heading), magnetometer aided, or GPS track.
Non-Slaved Heading mode requires the pilot to set the initial heading and correct the heading as necessary based on the compass. The system will preserve the last set heading on shutdown. "

DG MODE

"When configured as a Directional Gyro (DG), direction of flight information is presented. The flight direction can be configured to be presented as a non-slaved heading, aided by an optional internal magnetometer, or inertially stabilized GPS track when connected to an external GPS navigator. "

Let me start by saying that I’m not the expert in this area. But, I do know that the AV-30 compass and DG will process if it does not have the magnetrometer installed properly. I’ve got the AV-30C with mag and no longer have precession problems. Probably for a vast number of Ercoupe drivers, the precession isn’t a big deal for local flying. But, I was frustrated with having to realign the heading every time before takeoff. Not hard, just a pain I wanted to avoid. And on the occasions when ATC gave me a specific heading to fly for multiple reasons, I want to know that I’m actually flying the correct heading.

Just FYI, I also had the OAT installed so I could get TAS and see what the temp is. I could easily live without OAT, but I sure like it.