Hi All,
First time poster here.
Am in a partnership with a 1998 PA32-301R Saratoga. Has some avionics upgrades, most notably with an Aspen Evolution 1000 from a prior owner.
Had the KFC-150 autopilot box go out the outbound leg of a recent trip (really went out - smoke and all, tripped the breakers - fortunately, this occurred on the ground). Box was pulled by an A&P at our final destination field, swapped for a refurb unit from SouthEast Aerospace. The deal was pay upfront (10k!) and refund the core when received back ($7k refund, therefore our total swap-out cost should have been $3k). Expensive, but we were OK with that at this time.
Was notified Friday (at 5pm) that the core return did NOT meet specs for return. The exact reason given was that the "Pitch Board" was damaged, and that the pitch board was NOT available for replacement. Thus, SE Aerospace rejected our core and effectively charged us $10k for a slide-in replacement on a 20+ year old autopilot.
Myself and my partner are investigating our options, but we have some questions that we're hoping someone here can help with:
1) Anyone know what the pitch board is? Is that part separately replaceable? If it is, why is SE Aerospace not willing to replace it (I mean, isn't that their business model?)
If they continue to reject the core return, we may have to engage another outfit for a swap in the hope they would accept our old core. We aren't going to pay $10k for a unit this old.
2) Our other thought was use this as an opportunity to upgrade - to go to the Aerocruz 230 which is supposed to be a slide-in replacement for the KFC-150 and gives new warranty to the servos. However, my understanding is that it is STILL not STC'ed for the Aspen. Does anyone have better/newer information on that?
Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions anyone might have. We have another long trip planned, not sure I want to undertake it without a fully functioning AP.
-rf
First time poster here.
Am in a partnership with a 1998 PA32-301R Saratoga. Has some avionics upgrades, most notably with an Aspen Evolution 1000 from a prior owner.
Had the KFC-150 autopilot box go out the outbound leg of a recent trip (really went out - smoke and all, tripped the breakers - fortunately, this occurred on the ground). Box was pulled by an A&P at our final destination field, swapped for a refurb unit from SouthEast Aerospace. The deal was pay upfront (10k!) and refund the core when received back ($7k refund, therefore our total swap-out cost should have been $3k). Expensive, but we were OK with that at this time.
Was notified Friday (at 5pm) that the core return did NOT meet specs for return. The exact reason given was that the "Pitch Board" was damaged, and that the pitch board was NOT available for replacement. Thus, SE Aerospace rejected our core and effectively charged us $10k for a slide-in replacement on a 20+ year old autopilot.
Myself and my partner are investigating our options, but we have some questions that we're hoping someone here can help with:
1) Anyone know what the pitch board is? Is that part separately replaceable? If it is, why is SE Aerospace not willing to replace it (I mean, isn't that their business model?)
If they continue to reject the core return, we may have to engage another outfit for a swap in the hope they would accept our old core. We aren't going to pay $10k for a unit this old.
2) Our other thought was use this as an opportunity to upgrade - to go to the Aerocruz 230 which is supposed to be a slide-in replacement for the KFC-150 and gives new warranty to the servos. However, my understanding is that it is STILL not STC'ed for the Aspen. Does anyone have better/newer information on that?
Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions anyone might have. We have another long trip planned, not sure I want to undertake it without a fully functioning AP.
-rf
