Now that the weather is turning warmer, the days are growing longer and you’re having a hard time thinking of anything other than your airplane and all the places you’ll fly this summer, you’ve probably been dreaming about upgrades too. If you’re the typical aircraft owner, your wish list is probably a mile long and includes everything from the latest touch-screen GPS WAAS navigator to a full glass-panel retrofit with a gorgeous synthetic-vision display that will make every flight a sunshiny joy.
Here’s the cold reality: Even if you can afford to buy anything you want, chances are you can’t afford everything you want. That means you’ll have to make choices — sometimes, difficult ones. And, of course, your list will need to be segregated into two columns: the need-to-have stuff versus the nice-to-have. For example, if the display on your GPS receiver keeps blanking out in turbulence, it’s fairly obvious what your next purchase will be. On the other hand, if everything in the airplane is working fine but you have several upgrades in mind that you think would make sense, that’s where the choices become harder.
