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PRODUCT REVIEW
Onboard Air Data
Insight's TAS 1000
BY GEORGE WILHELMSEN
How much would it be worth to you to be able to tell the winds aloft at the altitude you are flying, at any moment in time?
How about the value of knowing your true airspeed? Your rate of climb, fuel burn, or gallons of fuel left on board? If you are like most Bonanza and Baron pilots out there, the answer is usually the same-quite a bit.
Having such data available in the cockpit, without having to get out the old E6B whiz-wheel, makes flying a whole lot easier. If you combine the utility provided by the above information with your usual flight plans, you can see how having this information on board could make you a safer pilot. It was with that approach in mind that Insight, long famous for their line of engine monitors and the Strike Finder, set out to create a new tool for the cockpit.
The results of their effort can be seen in Insight's latest product, the TAS-1000 True Air Data Computer. With a name that is as much of a mouthful as the TAS-1000, Insight took stock of every piece of information that a pilot could need, and then took the necessary steps to put them into a tiny electronic box and an even more interesting indicator they call the "Windicator".
What is interesting about the TAS-1000 is what it can provide to the pilot as far as information. As the name implies, the TAS-1000 is an air data computer. That means that the unit takes in-formation from a variety of sources, then calculates a significant number of flight parameters. Once calculated, these parameters are available to be displayed to the pilot by turning the small knob on the face of the unit.
Controls
Speaking of controls, you won't find many on the TAS-1000. The entire control system is comprised of a two-function knob. In normal operating modes, turning the knob allows the pilot to scroll through the various flight information that is available from the TAS.
When you initially turn on your avionics, the TAS will power up. During the power up, depending on your installation, the TAS will need data from you. This data, which will usually be the barometer setting and the amount of fuel on board, is set by turning the knob to enter the information. With the current information entered, pressing the knob will enter it into the TAS, which in turn sequences to the next data that is needed.
One of the nicer features on power up is the ability to quickly update the fuel on board. All you need to do is turn the knob to the left, and full fuel is automatically selected. If you don't want full fuel, turning the knob to the right will add fuel in one gallon increments, while pressing the knob will keep the fuel the same or lock in your selection.
Standard installation
As we indicated above, the TAS is looking for information from both you and your airplane. The standard setup that gives the unit the information it needs includes a GPS receiver, which provides heading and ground speed information; a temperature probe, which provides temperature correction data; the bootstrap off of your HSI, which provides heading information; and a fuel flow sensor, either from an existing fuel computer or a sensor from Insight.
For pilots who have a Baro pot on their altimeter, which is standard on most Beech planes with altitude preselect on the autopilot, this can also be interfaced with the TAS. The system also needs to be connected into your aircraft's pitot and static system hoses and the electrical system for power. Your shop will need to cut a 1/3 3 ATI hole in your panel and punch out a hole for the Windicator to complete a seamless installation. Insight is supporting dealers by providing a dealer kit that includes a professional quality punch kit for the TAS and the windicator, as well as test rigs for the equipment.
We had our TAS-1000 installed at Capital Aircraft Electronics in Columbus, Ohio. Our installation included interfacing the TAS with a KCS-55A HSI and a Garmin GNS-430, along with our ARNAV FC-10 Fuel Computer transducer. While there were some kinks that had to be worked out with the installation (the shop found the original fuel computer transducer wires were not properly shielded, which required their replacement), John Wickle, Shop Manager at Capital, said he felt the average Bonanza installation would run between 15 to 20 hours.
Needless to say, a good amount of that time is spent interfacing the box with all the necessary equipment. Regardless of the brand, the GPS receiver has to be set up to send and receive information, since the TAS will share fuel information, as well as information on the winds aloft and headwinds.
Depending on the model of GPS, the winds aloft will be displayed with an arrow on your GPS screen. In the case of the Garmin GNS line, this appears as an arrow to designate the wind vector, underneath which appears a digital value to document the wind speed.
Windicator - A key cockpit indicator
The standard installation also included the connection of the Windicator. This 1 3/8-inch diameter instrument takes four key functions and places them in an easy-to-find spot on your panel. The functions presented are the wind speed, whether the wind is a headwind or tailwind; the wind direction; and most importantly, the drift angle, which is the correction you need to make to stay on course.
The drift angle is shown by orange bars, which are in the center of the display. Bars on the left side indicate you need to crab in to the left, while bars on the right side indicate a right correction is needed. Each bar is equal to five degrees. So if you see two bars on the right, and your course is 170, turning to 180 should keep you a lot closer to on track. For more precise tracking, you can dial in the actual drift angle on the TAS, which gets you down to the single degree range.
Still, if you think about that for a moment, what the Windicator provides is pretty impressive. With the 1 3/8-inch diameter that is only a quarter of an inch deep, you can have the Windicator in-stalled just about anywhere on your instrument panel, even under your HSL, with ease. Then as you fly inbound on an ILS or localizer approach, all you need to do is glance down, and you have a close read on your track correction angle. From there, you angle into the wind, and shoot the approach. Quick, simple, easy, and best of all, it doesn't take a minute of mental math to come up with the right results.
If you are looking for a device that will take the scallops out of your approach, the Windicator is designed to do just that. If ATC gives you an unexpected vector onto the localizer back course instead of the ILS you were expecting, you wouldn't have to recalculate all the wind angles again, since the Windicator can provide you with the information you need. Of course, the same thing applies while you are in a hold, or even in cruise flight. By taking into account the number of bars shown on the Windicator, you can adjust your flight path to stay on course.
The TAS-1000
While the Windicator provides a wealth of information in a small location, the TAS-1000 is nothing to sneeze at. The compact digital display of the unit is set up to provide you with just about every piece of air data you could imagine or need while in flight. Since fuel computers seem to be one of my favorite cock-pit toys, we'll start by looking at what the TAS can do in this area.
With the right fuel amount entered at the start of your flight, the TAS will tell you what your fuel burn is in gallons per hour, how much fuel you have left on board, how much fuel you have used, and even your fuel efficiency. The fuel burn rate is rendered down to the tenths of a gallon, for finer tuning of engine leaning.
When this information is combined with the information in your GPS, the unit can perform accurate calculations of endurance, range, miles per gallon, and even your fuel remaining when you arrive at your destination. As a result, the TAS-1000 can take the place of your existing fuel computer, and actually makes your GPS a more powerful flight management tool.
Beyond the obvious fuel data, there is the other air data that the TAS-1000 provides. Using the OAT probe, the TAS reads out a number of temperatures, all of which are used in the calculations of true airspeed. With the true airspeed calculated, along with heading data from your HSI and ground speed from your GPS, the TAS calculates the winds aloft that you are experiencing. This data is presented in several formats, but our favorite is the display that shows the wind direction and speed in one window.
If you thought your GPS receiver had information pages, wait until it is interfaced with the TAS-1000. In the case of the KLN-90, the GPS unit picks up five pages of air and fuel data, which you can then use to better manage your flying. The Garmin products will pick up the data for the air data page and fuel pages. In either case, the increase in air and fuel data in your GPS receiver will make it a more powerful flight management tool.
Since we were testing this with a Garmin GNS-430, we put the 430 through some of the usual flight management paces to see how it worked with the TAS. To our delight, the Garmin and the TAS played well together, with the TAS providing the information we needed to make better flight management decisions.
As an example, on one particularly long leg back from Norfolk, we had been forced to deviate west to avoid an advancing line of thunderstorms. Using the fuel management page, we were able to see what our reserves would be as we turned on course after clearing the line of thunderstorms. The information provided by the GNS-430 indicated that I would have more than sufficient reserves on board at my destination. As a result, I didn't have to make a precautionary fuel stop, and saved the time and expense that would have come with it.
Another feature of the TAS is the built-in, high-accuracy altimeter and VSI. If you are wondering whether your altimeter is accurate, tuning in your TAS to the Altitude reading will give you altitude to the nearest foot. This accuracy is far beyond what your altimeter can provide, since most are marked off in 20-foot intervals. The best accuracy you can hope for is about half an interval, which means 10 feet at best guess.
We found the VSI mode was very helpful in keeping our non-autopilot equipped plane tuned in to level flight. Through information picked up from the pitot-static system, the VSI is both accurate and quick, showing changes in our vertical speed long before our mechanical VSI registered them. This allowed us to make smaller changes in the aircraft's attitude to keep altitude under control.
For those pilots who want to know, the TAS also has a built-in battery voltage meter, which can help you detect an alternator failure. If you suspect an electrical problem may have developed, you need only turn the dial to the Battery voltage reading. If the reading is low, the chances are good that you have an alternator or generator problem, and that you need to land quickly to have it addressed.
If you aren't interested in all the information that the TAS can display, Insight was smart enough to provide a way for you to only show the information you want. Using the configuration mode, you can easily delete whichever indications you don't need, which removes them from the readings that the system will show you.
Data entry and you
One of the keys to getting the most accurate readings from the TAS-1000, or any air data computer for that matter, is the accuracy of the information you enter into it. For example, if you indicate 74 gallons of fuel are on board when half of that amount is actually on board, the TAS won't be able to help you manage your fuel properly. The same goes for the barometric pressure or even the heading. The TAS needs accurate information to provide accurate results. That means that as the pilot and operator, you need to be sure what you are entering into the TAS is correct.
Options
As with any system, the TAS-1000 does have some options. Pilots who do not have a fuel computer on board will need to buy a fuel-flow sensor. Insight offers an optional Smart Sensor for $395. This sensor has an advantage, as you do not have to work to set up the fuel kF factor, as you do with non-Insight fuel sensors. This in turn speeds the installation of the device, as the shop has less time trying to get the old sensor calibrated into the system.
Beyond the fuel sensor is Insight's expansion module for the TAS-1000. With the $495 expansion module, your TAS will gain an altitude encoder, an altitude serializer, and an overspeed warning system. The overspeed warning is self-explanatory. If overspeed conditions are encountered, an audible warning will be sounded, alerting you to the off-normal condition. With the altitude system, you will be able to set up the TAS to give you alerts to altitude changes. This in turn can help you avoid altitude busts while under ATC control.
Air data - What have we seen?
One of the key points behind any instrument is how useful it is. So with that in mind, we kept track of the number of times we used the TAS or the Windicator. Several functions became frequently used, the first of which was the Windicator. For example, we were able to identify a low level wind shear while on approach into an airport in Olathe, Kansas.
Through the TAS itself, we were able to identify that the winds aloft exceeded ATC's estimates by at least 10 knots at all altitudes, and to report that information back to Flight Service in a pilot report.
Still, the function that we kept on screen most of all was the VSI, altimeter, or correction angle displays. Between these three displays, we were better able to control our course and altitude, and by doing so, stay within the limits of the sky that were assigned to us by ATC while on instrument flights.
Overall, we found the versatility and features of the TAS-1000 air data computer to be a great addition to our cock-pit. The compact display fit well, just above our altimeter, and has proven to be an effective tool on every flight we have taken since we had it installed.
When you consider the violence of the weather, having a tool like this onboard can make a real difference. If you yearn for more information on the air through which we fly, and want to gain the additional accuracy in flight that comes with it, then you should look into Insight's new TAS-1000.
For more information on the TAS-1000, contact Insight at 905-871-0733, or visit them on the Internet at www.insightavionics.com.
ABS member George Wilhelmsen, Morris, Illinois, is the Balance of Plant Supervisor at Exelon's LaSalle County Generating Station. George is an 800-hour Commercial Instrument-rated pilot.
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