Best Radio for a Champ

[Slick Goodlin]

stick with the Champ. I think I will be happy with it

You will. Champs are delightful and the lighter the better. Also for as pretty as wood propellers are a metal one really pulls you along. The Champ I care for has a tired 65hp Continental and a metal McCauley propeller that out performs any wooden propped 85hp machine on the field.

[TwinOtterFan]

Still trying to figure out when I can make a trip to see it, wife got called back to the base again for another week so me and the 5 year old are coming up on week 3 of me trying to home school him while I study for my PPL written, I may just throw him in the car and take him on a road trip to go see it. Maybe this Wednesday, breakup the studying a bit and give me something to look forward to.

As for the prop I'm not sure yet, I know its 3 blade and black.

[Slick Goodlin]

As for the prop I'm not sure yet, I know its 3 blade and black.

Sounds like a Warp Drive prop, those are popular on small Continentals but I’m not sure why. They must work well or have excellent marketing or maybe both, I’ve never flown behind one to know for sure.

Mind if I ask what colour Champ you’re looking at? I’ve known of one or two to have a little three blade prop.

[TwinOtterFan]

Yep its yellow with black lines, I googled the serial number and a bunch of pics showed up of it, with two slightly different paint jobs both yellow, older paint was yellow with a red maple leaf looks like at the winter fly in at Montreal on skis then later no leaf yellow and black lines.

[Scudrunner]

For what it’s worth, the Pitts I flew from Ontario to BC Its just had an old handheld icom in it.
Like this

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I spent the money on this https://www.aircraftspruce.ca/pages/st/ ... -sport.php

Good thing I grabbed it, the old icom battery was pooched, it might have lasted an hour. Former owner probably didn’t notice it wasn’t holding a charge as he would only go up for maybe an hour. And just for sport the cigarette lighter charging port wasn’t working. (Fixed now) it was connected to an external antenna and a PTT

With the new one I flew for about 9 hours on its six AA battery pack. Only needed to swap packs once. Not much traffic during covid (June 2020) but made all the appropriate calls and chatted with some other planes no issues.

St Andrew’s, Springbank and Boundary Bay tower didn’t have an issue with it at all. Easy to use perfect for most GA needs.

If you have an electrical system in it and a charging port / cigarette lighter then your set. Reason I went with the AA battery pack was I could jam a dozen batteries in my bag. Also not worry about security with lithium ions when I airlined out. And if it was eating batteries I could grab more along the way, pretty easy to find AA.

[TwinOtterFan]

I seen these the other day while I was browsing, lots of options seem to be available and none really breaking the bank, between the patch cables, portable intercom boxes and radios they have now I don't see it as an issue. Just the fun part of choosing now.

Only thing that may change will be maybe adding a transponder later for controlled airports.

[Scudrunner]

Dad wired a transponder into it, just runs off the battery as he operates out of class C airspace.

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For that on a certified airplane you would need that blessed by an AME for it to be legal. Not that it’s rocket Scientology or anything

Before with the handheld radio

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[TwinOtterFan]

Nice!

The current owner is an AME so I was considering just having it added before taking the plane down here. BFC is uncontrolled but we are under Peason and I have friends near controlled airports I would like to visit eventually.

Was trying to weigh the difference of the extra cost now but having it done before I even leave with it, vs bringing it to one later and having it done.

[Scudrunner]

A lot of people forget the added layer of protection a transponder offers with TCAS.

I fly corporate jets for a living which means one day LAX the next places like say Marathon ON or Rubberboot Saskatchewan. So many times I’m dropping out of the flight levels cleared out of controlled airspace and no ones talking on the radio.

Then you see a little blue diamond traversing about 5 or 10 miles from the airport right through your intended flight path to the runway not a word on the radio.

Even with your head on a swivel down in what I call Indian country ( Cherokees, Comanches, Seminoles, Dakotas etc) that’s just one more thing to block the Swiss cheese holes lining up.

[TwinOtterFan]

I am all in for the added safety I only fly in the circuit and the PA and I have seen enough to make me question some shit. Doing circuits the other day and the student in front of me didn't say word for almost two laps, but the worse I have seen so far was a private owner turn final without any regard for traffic and then try to land on top of another plane that was already rolling. The PA is a whole other mess of students basically trying not to kill each other or themselves.

I honestly just do not know enough about those systems to make a choice, and I'm also not sure what would be considered overboard, I know over here we are 5 years away from ADSB so probably wouldn't go their. It's only a champ so I don't want to go overboard either, but I quite like not being in a mid air collision. I am open to suggestions if anybody has a setup that works for them.