I founded a 501(c)(3) charity to combine my love of aviation and rescuing animals—dogs, cats, wolves, sea turtles, medical flights, discovery flights, angel flights…you name it. It’s similar to Pilots N Paws but open to all types of public benefit, not just saving animals. The charity owns and operates a 1982 Piper Turbo Saratoga SP, and we recently upgraded its avionics, installing a Garmin GTN 750xi as #1, moving a GNS 530 to #2. We went with a remote audio panel, as numerous people suggested. It seemed like a good idea, albeit a little weird not to have physical buttons. Little did I know this omission would cause an urgent situation later.
When the avionics installation was done and, thanks to Covid-19, I picked her up when no one was there. Flew her home without any problems. A few days later, we had a three-hour rescue flight.
