MGL vs Dynon vs GRT

[sjakulski]

Seems to me (as I ponder my Waiex-B purchase that their MGL offerings seem expensive when cast against Grt or Dynon (including ADS-B, 2 axis autopilot, AOA, efis, GPS). Just wonder what others discovered?

[NWade]

A few thoughts:

1) If you’re still at the “pondering purchasing a kit” phase, don’t even worry about Avionics. Odds are that in the few years it’ll take you to build the airframe, multiple new products will come out for each vendor, and pricing will all change between now and then. :-) And then when you’re building the airplane and you think it’s time to buy avionics, don’t. Wait. Unless you’ve built several airplanes, there’s a lot more left to build than you may realize. As hard as it is to hold off, having gone through it myself *thinking* I had waited until the right time to buy, I still had the avionics sitting on my shelf for almost a year before I put them in the airplane. You basically want the whole airframe together (except the bottom skins of the fuselage) and the engine mounted and a bunch of your controls routed, before you buy any avionics.

2) I have MGL gear in my Sonex and I’m happy with it overall (Note: I’m still waiting on first flight, however the avionics and engine have been running for 2+ years and logged multiple hours of ground usage).

3) I also live less than 10 miles from Dynon’s HQ and know some of their folks. They’re a standup group with great engineering chops.

4) Typically, once you account for wires and probes and such, the equivalent size screen/EFIS/base functions wind up costing a bit less for the MGL products. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the MGL products. But the Dynon products *are* a little bit more polished and well-tuned. So if you aren’t scraping to come up with the cash for an EFIS I’d lean slightly towards Dynon as long as you can get the equivalent setup for no more than $1k - $2k over an MGL setup. Over multiple years of flying, that cost difference will really amortize down to nothing.
Again there’s nothing wrong with MGL stuff; but there are “little things” that add up. For example, I had to send my MGL iEFIS Lite unit in for some added shielding because it was shooting EMI/RFI out the front of the screen and my radio antenna (mounted on top of the turtledeck) was picking up on it. However, after the work was done on my unit it’s performed flawlessly and it has integrated with my (MGL) Radio and Trig Transponder just as-advertised.

Hope this info helps!

—Noel

[gcm52]

I put Dynon in my Onex and I am very happy with it. It has worked flawlessly from day one.

[GraemeSmith]

I absolutely second Noel's comment about "wait till the last moment". You will get better gear.

In my day job I have some involvement in IT systems aboard superyachts and I cannot tell you how many apparently "state of the art" yachts launch with "Ancient IT systems" aboard them because the equipment was defined three or four years prior at contract. We have been slowly moving towards that part of the systems being defined by "desired functionality and a budget sum" and then actually defining the equipment at the last possible moment in the build in order to get new stuff aboard.

--

I'm not a builder - I'm a second owner - and I inherited MGL in my plane. I've also flown behind Garmin, Aspen, Dynon. If MONEY were no object my preferred order of vendor would be:

Garmin
Aspen/Dynon
MGL

If money was a factor and I wanted something that worked reasonably well for a limited budget:

Dynon
Aspen
Garmin
MGL

From which you might discern I'm not much taken with MGL. It promises a lot but is rough around the edges to a degree that really ticks me off and their documentation is way behind what is actually supplied - leading to guessing sometimes. I NEARLY re-equipped with Dynon this winter when my MGL EFIS head was giving trouble and I couldn't find spares. In my priority - sending in for repair was not an option as a 6 week wait would cramp my priority to fly every week there is good weather. I was on the point of actually placing the order against the Dynon quote when a spare MGL head became available on Barnstormers and I bought it for the ability to drop it in and keep flying. It still ticks me off - but as I fly Day VFR - I can live with it.

My MGL radio failed early in ownership. I figured I actually could repair it on the bench (broken "dry" solder tracks on the PCB) but it was ticking me off so much - I dropped in a Garmin GTR200 for its rock solid reliability. I fly in B/C/D/E/G airspace and a NORDO is just not acceptable as had been happening with the MGL radio - along with it's clunky interface.

--

As this is avionics and they are like computers - I reserve the right to completely change my mind next week when the latest and greatest comes along. :-)

Which is a way of reinforcing Noel's first point. Hold off!

Your priorities and mileage may vary - but the above are mine.

[Scott Todd]

I've flown lots of different homebuilts (Instruct and Test) with all the names mentioned. My Onex nearing completion has an (inherited) MGL Extreme. Its all set-up and has lots of ground time.

First off, WAIT. I made my Onex panel hinged along the bottom for easy access. Its also easy to pull the hinge pin and take it out if I wanted to replace it. Just try to think about access ahead of time. Remember, you are NOT stuck with what you start with. You'll find most stuff is common. Even if you have to change a big DB connector in the future, an EFIS swap is not a big deal, unless you've put that Space Shuttle panel in there ;)

I think the Dynon stuff seems the most refined. They seem to be more popular, probably for a reason. Try to find people that have the various systems and go check them out. Most people will let you sit in the cockpit for 20-30 minutes and get a complete tour. We like showing off :) Most EAA chapters will be helpful.

[lgsievila]

I have been using my Dynon Skyview since my first flight 2014 without a single problem. The only issue I ever had was when I installed a Dynon AOA pitot tube. I had problems finding the proper location for the static port which was not really a Dynon problem except they(Dynon) did not have any experience with Onexs' in that regard. Bottom line, I love my Skyview.