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with the 2008 Citation faced when wanting to add a GPS and couldn’t when another client with his 25-year-old Citation could.The breakaway traction for after-market, stand-alone avionics technology was found in the simpler platforms. The developers of these systems started with installations in 172s, Cherokees and Bonanzas, and have migrated into jets by replacing non-integrated,electro-mechanical components with non-integrated, highly capable electronic components.You can mix a Garmin GPS with an Avidyne MFD, a Skywatch HP, and an IS&S RVSM. As the technology advances, which it will, the flexibility to keep pace is not lost in the simpler platform, whereas it may well be with the seemingly more advanced integrated avionics suites of today.Think about it: Does the modern integrated cockpit of today close the door to being able to take advantage of advancing technology at a reasonable price? Will the flexibility of the older cockpit technology keep them alive as viable platforms as it has in the past?Paint and interiors can be refurbished and restyled, engines can be retrofitted, fixed cost per hour maintenance programs can be purchased and avionics advances can be accommodated. Maybe there is undiscovered life remaining. Something to think about.Where Will This Lead Us?Where could the technology take us? Consider, for example, the iPad. Apple, as an inventor of hardware, invented a machine that requires virtually no software. The instructions are essentially one sentence long: “Push The ON Button.” And yet, it can do an incredible number of tasks with no wires, complex programs, or CDs to download.They made a machine that others pay them to find ways to use, and the applications – or apps – seem endless. With apps such as ForeFlight, the iPad has found its way into the cockpit without any support required from the airplane. Now that is “stand-alone.”How about an airplane with a blank instrument panel, carry your iPad into the cockpit and stick it on the blank panel and you are ready to go. Sound ... well ... sort of far- fetched. But something to think about. No wire harnesses and their attendant weight and potential for failure. This is immediate realization of technology improvements and capabilities, and benefits I’m not smart enough to list.I recently attended a Wichita Aero Club luncheon that featured a futurist as a speaker. The presenter described an app for an iPhone called PlaneFinder AR. If you see or hear a commercial airliner (andTurbine Training CenterHalf Page 4/C Ad20 • ­TWIN & TURBINEMARCH 2011