*Sigh* Avionics are my worst enemy

CC268

CC268

Final Approach
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CC268
So...I've been working on my Instrument rating since beginning of October. This has been the rating of roadblocks and the dispatch rate of our airplane has been abysmal. I should have been done with this rating in December. First our right magneto starting acting up (the only non-avionics related issue). Got both mags overhauled (shop actually said they were in great shape). Took a few weeks to get that done. Then the string of avionics failures started happening. First we had an attitude indicator fail. Tried to convince my dad to go for a G5 and just be done with it, but we opted for an overhauled Sigmatek from Aircraft Quality Instruments. For various reasons it took us 3 weeks to replace. We then replaced our analog clock with a digital clock (which was our choice - this wasn't necessary). Then my bottom VOR/LOC failed. Replaced that with another King 201C. Then just recently my top VOR/ILS started acting up and failed. We have ordered another King 214C to replace that. Now just today the Sigmatek we got from AQI failed. I bet the thing has less than 20-25 hours on it. My checkride is in 3 weeks. Looks like I'll either be paying a boatload to fly another airplane or I'll be rescheduling my checkride.

I mean damn I know its an airplane and these things are about as reliable as US politicians, but wowzers. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get to my CFI in a reasonable amount of time. I think I hear ATP calling my name with a nice $50,000 loan. Probably be cheaper than replacing the avionics in this thing. It's so aggravating to see the cost of experimental vs. certified avionics. Arrrghhhh!

Well that's my rant for today.
 
Beats having them fail in the soup at night over hostile terrain. Still sux. Welcome to aircraft ownership.
 
Stop complaining. My dad doesn't pay for jack

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Ravioli said:
Mine stopped paying long before he died. Can't really blame him, I was a leach when I was in college.
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Your Dad paid for your college. :eek:

You spoiled little b@$¥@#d...:p
 
I feel your pain. In the middle of my training my transponder died so it was down a month for ads-b upgrade. Went to fly last weekend and the HSI gyro failed again in the year and a half since it was overhauled.
 
WannFly said:
Stop complaining. My dad doesn't pay for jack

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
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How did this thread turn into a conversation about my dad?

You do understand I’m in a partnership and pay for these costs as well right? What a stupid and ignorant comment. This thread was about not about a single failure but rather the fact that it seems we have been unusually unlucky.

Only on PoA can you have a group of folks who would rather take shots at a fellow pilot than be a decent human to one another.
 
Sorry @CC268... but many of your threads include "asking my dad" or similar statements.

Perhaps "co-owner" may be a more apt description to avoid the undeserved comments that I and others have made.
 
CC268 said:
How did this thread turn into a conversation about my dad?

You do understand I’m in a partnership and pay for these costs as well right? What a stupid and ignorant comment. This thread was about not about a single failure but rather the fact that it seems we have been unusually unlucky.

Only on PoA can you have a group of folks who would rather take shots at a fellow pilot than be a decent human to one another.
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Owao, u do have a short temper. I was kidding, but yah go on

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Ravioli said:
Sorry @CC268... but many of your threads include "asking my dad" or similar statements.

Perhaps "co-owner" may be a more apt description to avoid the undeserved comments that I and others have made.
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I wasn’t referring to your post even if it looked like it...I agree with you...I wouldn’t want to be my dad right now either ha...we both share the frustration
 
WannFly said:
Owao, u do have a short temper. I was kidding, but yah go on

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
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Ohhh you were kidding...yea you did a great job of conveying that :rolleyes:
 
1. You can all stop being whiny *******.

2. Are you in a wintery part of the US? The cold wreaks havoc on just about everything, including avionics.

3. I had to do this with my plane when I bought it. Almost every single box and gauge in that panel died, practically one-by-one, from the week I bought it until about a year ago. The cost of a plane that barely flew with the previous owner. The end result, though, is a bunch of fresh equipment that you can feel reliable flying IFR with.

4. (Yeah, shoulda went with the G5's).
 
jimmyjack said:
1. You can all stop being whiny *******.

2. Are you in a wintery part of the US? The cold wreaks havoc on just about everything, including avionics.

3. I had to do this with my plane when I bought it. Almost every single box and gauge in that panel died, practically one-by-one, from the week I bought it until about a year ago. The cost of a plane that barely flew with the previous owner. The end result, though, is a bunch of fresh equipment that you can feel reliable flying IFR with.

4. (Yeah, shoulda went with the G5's).
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I’m in Phoenix, Arizona so don’t have to worry about the cold much. The weird thing is that this airplane was flown a TON before we bought it. The owner before us put 1000 hours in the plane in 2 years...course he was flying VFR. But he never had to change anything out.

Anyways it’s been a nightmare I really hope we get it sorted out so I can get back to flying and make my checkride date. G5 would have been very nice.
 
One thing that your misfortune has taught me and is something that others have pointed out to me either publically or by PM.

AQI isn't the best place to buy overhauled avionics from. On a lighter note, I'm holding out for the G5 before I start up again on my instrument training so you are waaaaay ahead of me.
 
Timbeck2 said:
One thing that your misfortune has taught me and is something that others have pointed out to me either publically or by PM.

AQI isn't the best place to buy overhauled avionics from. On a lighter note, I'm holding out for the G5 before I start up again on my instrument training so you are waaaaay ahead of me.
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Wow that’s interesting that is the first time I’ve heard that but that is good to know.
 
Good news is that AQI is sending us out a new one ASAP. Should be here Wednesday or Thursday
 
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I had avionics problems when I was tied down outside. I haven't lost much of anything since the aircraft have been hangered. While I doubt eh cold helps things I suspect its he exposure that does on number on radios.
 
steingar said:
I had avionics problems when I was tied down outside. I haven't lost much of anything since the aircraft have been hangered. While I doubt eh cold helps things I suspect its he exposure that does on number on radios.
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Yea I’m in a hangar and it’s AZ so seems like I shouldn’t be dealing with that issue too much
 
CC268 said:
I’m in Phoenix, Arizona so don’t have to worry about the cold much. The weird thing is that this airplane was flown a TON before we bought it. The owner before us put 1000 hours in the plane in 2 years...course he was flying VFR. But he never had to change anything out.

Anyways it’s been a nightmare I really hope we get it sorted out so I can get back to flying and make my checkride date. G5 would have been very nice.
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IFR flight will bring avionics issues to your attention much faster than VFR flight will. The transponder in my plane is a good example of that. It was probably on the fritz for years but the first time we learned about it was on my long IFR cross-country lesson, because that's the first time in those years that the plane had been receiving radar service long enough to catch the fact that the mode A signal was dropping out (mode C was still responding, somehow, according to one controller, so they got an altitude report but did not get our squawk code; not sure how that was plotted on the scope).

When you take your own plane through the instrument rating, you end up with a more IFR capable plane/pilot combination. It costs money but it's still small potatoes compared to the hours of flying it takes to earn the rating. Keep your chin up and be happy that you're going to have the wrinkles worked out of your plane so you can trust it to go on those long IFR trips to the coast or wherever.
 
iamtheari said:
IFR flight will bring avionics issues to your attention much faster than VFR flight will. The transponder in my plane is a good example of that. It was probably on the fritz for years but the first time we learned about it was on my long IFR cross-country lesson, because that's the first time in those years that the plane had been receiving radar service long enough to catch the fact that the mode A signal was dropping out (mode C was still responding, somehow, according to one controller, so they got an altitude report but did not get our squawk code; not sure how that was plotted on the scope).

When you take your own plane through the instrument rating, you end up with a more IFR capable plane/pilot combination. It costs money but it's still small potatoes compared to the hours of flying it takes to earn the rating. Keep your chin up and be happy that you're going to have the wrinkles worked out of your plane so you can trust it to go on those long IFR trips to the coast or wherever.
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Yep this is so true. The IR training has definitely brought to our attention all the small issues that would have been fine for VFR flight. I really hope that everything will hold up for a while now that we have replaced half of the panel lol.
 
CC268 said:
Yea I’m in a hangar and it’s AZ so seems like I shouldn’t be dealing with that issue too much
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Oh thank goodness, you're on the other side of the country. I was worried you might come in contact with a plane I fly and contaminate it. :p ;)


Hopefully you have all of the issues ironed out and can finish up the IR.
 
wayne said:
Oh thank goodness, you're on the other side of the country. I was worried you might come in contact with a plane I fly and contaminate it. :p ;)


Hopefully you have all of the issues ironed out and can finish up the IR.
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Yea this has been nuts to say the least ha
 
C, if you're ever in need for a safety pilot you know that you can count on me and I think I can speak for Walt (Walboy) as well. Walt would be in a better position to help as he's closer and well, he can tell you the other reason. ;)
 
Timbeck2 said:
C, if you're ever in need for a safety pilot you know that you can count on me and I think I can speak for Walt (Walboy) as well. Walt would be in a better position to help as he's closer and well, he can tell you the other reason. ;)
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Haha thanks I’ll definitely have to stay current!
 
Sorry to hear about your avionics issues. Hopefully you can get everything worked out and get your IR finished up soon. Hearing your problems is one of the reasons I gutted my radio stack and started over with all new radios. I started my IR at Thanksgiving and I'm pretty frustrated too, but mine is because of scheduling issues, not avionics. It has been so hard coordinating lessons through the holidays and around weather.
 
MickYoumans said:
Sorry to hear about your avionics issues. Hopefully you can get everything worked out and get your IR finished up soon. Hearing your problems is one of the reasons I gutted my radio stack and started over with all new radios. I started my IR at Thanksgiving and I'm pretty frustrated too, but mine is because of scheduling issues, not avionics. It has been so hard coordinating lessons through the holidays and around weather.
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Yea it’s a bummer cause we’re limited to really old VORs/ILS/LOC indicators because we have KX170Bs. And of course it’s like $3k to replace one Radio with something newer like the TKMs. Really at the end of the day you have to be willing to spend a ton of money to upgrade otherwise your stuck with replacing everything with old stuff (overhauled) again.

I flew a 172 with a new Garmin VOR/ILS indicator and it is amazing how nice and crisp and precise it was compared to my old King 201C and King 214C indicators.
 
When I bought my airplane the radio stack was pretty awful. It was not a hard decision for me to pull the old stuff out and replace with new. I did it in two stages so I could stager and spread out the cost. I am really happy with what I have now though plus I'm 2020 compliant with ADS-B.
 

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MickYoumans said:
When I bought my airplane the radio stack was pretty awful. It was not a hard decision for me to pull the old stuff out and replace with new. I did it in two stages so I could stager and spread out the cost. I am really happy with what I have now though.
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Wow very nice....the big thing is my dad and I agree that we don’t really want to put a bunch of money in avionics in this thing. Mostly due to the fact that it’s a Cherokee 140 and performance (climb and cruise speed) are not exactly the best. If this was a 182, Dakota, Bo, Mooney, heck maybe even a Cherokee 180 we would probably feel more compelled to put more money into it. It’s just hard to justify spending 10-20k on a 30k airplane that does 100 knots and climbs at an average of 300 fpm (that’s my best guess). If we were on the east coast and we didn’t have the high terrain to worry about like we do out here then we probably wouldn’t care so much about the lack of performance. Not trying to bash the Cherokee...just the reality of it.
 
I'm in the southeast so my Cherokee meets my needs pretty well. The large majority of my flights are less than 200 miles. I will be the one flying this plane as long as my health holds out and I can maintain my medical. I will be the one to get the good out of my radios so I'm not concerned about resale and all of that.
 
MickYoumans said:
I'm in the southeast so my Cherokee meets my needs pretty well. The large majority of my flights are less than 200 miles. I will be the one flying this plane as long as my health holds out and I can maintain my medical. I will be the one to get the good out of my radios so I'm not concerned about resale and all of that.
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Yea if we had the Cherokee where you lived we probably would feel the same way
 
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