Somebody broke my airplane
Printed From: Avidyne
Category: Avidyne General
Forum Name: IFD 5 Series & IFD 4 Series Touch Screen GPS/NAV/COM
Forum Description: Topics on Avidyne's IFD 5 Series and IFD 4 Series Touch Screen GPS/NAV/COM
URL: http://forums.avidyne.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1373
Printed Date: 29 Apr 2024 at 4:45am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Somebody broke my airplane
Posted By: Kentucky Captain
Subject: Somebody broke my airplane
Date Posted: 18 Aug 2017 at 8:23pm
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About 3 months ago I had my bird in the shop for the 10.2 update and SkyTrax100 install. As we were pushing it into the hanger I remembered that I wanted to take screen shots of my configuration of the IFD540. I told the tech what I was doing, turned on the master and avionics bus, then started snapping pics. All of the sudden the engine started turning over. I quickly turned the master off and looked out the airplane to see the tech had plugged the GPU into my airplane. He had pulled it from a Cirrus (28 volt) and plugged it into my plane (14 volt) without flipping the switch. Fast forward to when I went to pick it up. There was a loud buzz in the pilot side headset that would not go away unless you turned the Aspen PFD off. Also while flying an approach with the Stec 30 autopilot, it never got closer than 1 dot from center on the LDI. After flying a few hours, the Aspen started flickering and finally quit. It went back to the factory where they replaced the main board and battery. Next flight all seemed OK with the Aspen and we tweaked the autopilot to almost center on the LDI. Was flying this week and now I can't get the autopilot to track the Aspen heading bug nor a GPSS course from the IFD at all. Now comes the really weird part. When I was being vectored to the ILS I had the solid green diamond on the LDI and a hollow diamond on the VDI since I was flying up into the glideslope. As I got really close to the final and started to turn to join, the LDI and VDI diamonds disappeared. I still had the approach loaded on the IFD and could still see the CDI in the courseline in the Aspen navigation display. I reloaded the approach but could not get the diamonds back. We broke off the approach and went out to check things out. We deleted everything out of the FMS and re-entered it. We then tried another ILS with the IFD and never got the LDI or VDI diamonds even though the approach loaded properly. We gave up and went back to our home airport and attempted to shoot the RNAV LPV approach there. It worked just fine and we shot 2 more just to make sure. There was a lot going on when this was happening and I started thinking about them on the drive home and finally hit on the fact that the ILS was what failed but the GPS approaches seemed OK. We didn't think to try to do an ILS with the GNC255 in Nav2. I do remember seeing the green GPS and the blue VLOC in the upper right corner of the IFD while being vectored to the final and I'm wondering if things worked fine as long as it was using GPS and went to hell as soon as it switched to VLOC. Anyone seen anything like this either with the autopilot or the IFD? ------------- Woo Hoo!!! |
Replies:
Posted By: Kentucky Captain
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 12:31pm
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Round 2. Yesterday we took off, armed with cliff notes, cameras, and a notpad to make notes on all of the problems. The autopilot is still toast, but the IFD540 worked flawlessly. We shot two ILS approaches to SDF. The GPS-VLOC progressed to the green VLOC on the IFD, and the Aspen did the same. I have VDI and LDI indicators all the way down on both approaches. Did an LPV approach back home to BRY and it worked perfectly too. I hate to say this but I have only shot one approach using the second radio, the GNC255, in the two years I have had the panel and that was a localizer approach doing partial panel with the Aspen covered up. The GNC255 has a CDI built into it so the partial panel approach was a non event. But since then I have never shot an approach with it and the Aspen. During the testing here, I tuned it in to the ILS frequency and the localizer mirrored what I was seeing with the IFD540 but it had no glideslope. Shouldn't it? I am at a loss now as to where we are with the IFD. I guess I will have to continue testing. The GPS approaches remain perfect and now the ILS seems to function correctly now. ------------- Woo Hoo!!! |
Posted By: ddgates
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 1:31pm
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Any thought the AP issue could be the ACU? ------------- David Gates |
Posted By: LANCE
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 3:58pm
| I would file a claim with your insurance company and they will subrogate and deal with the avionics shop's insurance company. The contract you have with them is to make you whole again - let them work it out. |
Posted By: Gring
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 10:17pm
| Just remember that the newer avionics are designed to work at voltages up to 24volt systems (24v + charging + overage) and would likely not be damaged from connecting a GPU set to 24v up to a 12v airplane. The old stuff, not so much... |
Posted By: Kentucky Captain
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 11:47pm
I don't know the connection particulars between the Aspen, Autopilot, and ACU and hadn't even thought about that but that certainly sounds plausible. The Aspen unit was sent back to the factory and found to have fried the main board and battery. I will definitely pass that thought on to the avionics tech. Thanks ------------- Woo Hoo!!! |
ddgates wrote:Posted By: Kentucky Captain
Date Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 11:55pm
I know that all of the equipment I have is designed for both 14 and 28 volt but both the Aspen and STEC factory people I have talked to about this confirm that an application of 28 volts could do damage. As for old stuff, all of that is on a shelf in the closet. ------------- Woo Hoo!!! |
Posted By: Kentucky Captain
Date Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 12:02am
So far the avionics shop has assumed liability for the problem that their now fired tech created. They have paid for the Aspen repair and I assume that they will step up for further issues. With that in mind, do you think that it would still be a good idea to involve my insurance company? I don't know if they have involved their insurance yet but with the escalating problems I thought about asking him if they were. ------------- Woo Hoo!!! |
Posted By: LANCE
Date Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 9:01am
| I would keep the communication going with them and explain that you are concerned about problems down the road. If they're assuming all liability for this I would get that in writing. It wouldn't hurt to talk to your insurance co. and get their opinion. |