by Valin Thorn » Sun Nov 09, 2014 1:56 pm
Hello Dan,
Looks you like were face with a similar dilemma to one Allyson and I were in. We already had a certified heated pitot tube -- ours at 28 VDC. We'd been waiting on the new G3X Touch to be released to go with it. Then Garmin's new pitot with heat and AOA was introduced and is only $298. We also already had the AOA Pro wing kit. But, the Garmin pitot/AOA integrates so nicely with the G3X EFIS...
We decided to install and use the AOA Pro system because it is proven on the Legacy where it's still TBD how accurate and reliable the Garmin AOA will be with it located on the pitot and so close to the propeller wash on the Legacy.
We're building an IFR capable Legacy. So when we looked at the pitot system's importance and criticality, the minor cost, weight, and drag of having a second pitot tube and being one fault tolerance for dynamic pressure and AOA made sense to us. So we've decided to use both -- two pitot tubes and the AOA Pro system. I also am more comfortable having a proven, certified heated pitot tube onboard for IFR flights.
On the AOA, once we're flying and can validate (or not) the Garmin pitot based AOA with the AOA Pro System, others will be able to consider those results in their decision.
In lower cost personal airplanes it's unusual to have two pitot tubes. But in about every airplane at higher price points they have at least two if not three to provide one or two fault tolerance for this critical air data...
Valin