Mike Busch is editor-in-chief of
AVweb, a member of the technical staff at Cessna Pilots Association, and in a
prior lifetime was a contributing editor for The Aviation Consumer and IFR
Magazine. A 6,000-hour commercial pilot and CFI with airplane, instrument and
multiengine ratings, Mike has been flying for 36 years and an aircraft owner
for 33. For the past 14 of those years, he's owned and flown a Cessna T310R
turbocharged twin, which he maintains himself. In his never-ending quest to
become a true renaissance man of aviation, Mike's on the verge of earning his
A&P mechanic certificate. Mike and his wife Jan reside on the central
coast of California in a semi-rural area where he can't get DSL or cable
TV.
When the factory-installed turn-and-slip instrument in my Cessna 310 took a dive some years ago, I decided to
replace it with a turn coordinator. It didn't take me long to discover that I hated it.
My biggest gripe with the new TC was that its slip-skid indicator (the ball) was much smaller and mounted
much lower on the instrument face than it had been on the older turn-and-slip instrument. At night, the two
post lights mounted in the two upper corners of the instrument would illuminate the little airplane just fine,
but the ball was down in a "black hole" that I could only read by whipping out my mini-Maglite.
Since the turn gyro is mostly used for backup but the slip-skid ball is used constantly on every flight (to adjust
rudder trim), I found this deficiency to be absolutely intolerable. Bottom line: I tore out the TC and installed
another traditional turn-and-slip instrument. The TC now graces a knick-knack shelf at home.
If your autopilot requires a TC to function, you're pretty well stuck with it. If it doesn't, you might decide that
an old-fashioned T&S is the better choice for your panel.
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When the factory-installed turn-and-slip instrument in my Cessna 310 took a dive some years ago, I decided to
replace it with a turn coordinator. It didn't take me long to discover that I hated it.
