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Owner’s
Corner
A section dedicated to the writings and ownership stories of T&T readers.
CJ2 Avionics Upgrade
by John Brantigan, Owner-Pilot
When my wife Carolyn and I purchased our Citation CJ2 brand new from Cessna in December 2002, we specified dual Gar- min 530s in place of the Collins Nav- Com units normally a part of the Collins ProLine 21 system. This was new for Cessna because so many buy- ers were immediately replacing the Collins Nav-Coms with the Garmin units everyone loved. Fast forward to 2013 when WAAS became available and was necessary to f ly LPV approaches. I had the upgrade completed at the San Antonio Citation Service Center. I really like the folks at San Antonio and have most of our major service done there. However, this turned out to be an unhappy experience.
Before departing KSAT, the tower allowed me to practice LPV approaches to Runway 12R (now 13R). On three consecutive attempts, I had to perform emergency climbs at Hasdo because of pop-up traffic from Boerne Stage
26 • TWIN & TURBINE / December 2020
Airport (5C1). Boerne Stage is a non- towered airfield almost exactly on the direct path to KSAT 13R. Virtually all KSAT traffic passes directly over 5C1 at 3,500 to 4,000 feet. Yet, there is no airspace restriction keeping 5C1 traf- fic below 3,000 ft., and worse, there is frequent sailplane activity. Sailplanes don’t require transponders, and they frequently circle the airport to gain altitude. Everyone knows about this hazard, yet the FAA does not address it and frequent near misses and emer- gency maneuvers occur daily.
Giving up on practice approaches, I departed single-pilot for Eagle-Vail (KEGE), where Carolyn was visit- ing daughter Scoie. I was in weather with constant moderate turbulence the entire flight and could not access METARs or NEXRAD. I had not been informed that the method of accessing them had changed. At RLG, I asked Denver Center if anyone was having trouble getting into KEGE, expecting
turbulence to increase while descend- ing in the mountains. Center replied that they hadn’t had any complaints. After a wild ride, the folks at Vail Valley Jet Center told me that I was the only one who had landed that afternoon. Are we having fun yet?
Later I studied publication 525AFM- S59 describing the operation of the sys- tem along with documents provided by Garmin. To fly an LPV approach, you needed to begin with the autopilot in heading mode (HDG), then select “activate vectors to final (VTF).” Next, select approach (APPR) – but only after the snowf lake GlidePath (GP) switches to a diamond symbol, indicating that the 530 had switched from linear de- viation mode to angular deviation, and you saw on the PFD scoreboard the white symbols “APPR GLC()” and “GP,” indicating that the LPV approach had been armed. When the lateral and vertical paths were captured, the respective symbols turned green. In