Yes that is true. Well, Socata is a very small Airbus supplier, but a lot of Socata’s business is military and civilian airframe parts.
The spars were milled in-house. They changed the material some time after the GT first came out, due to the well known spar corrosion issues (which were common on the TB9/10 but a lot less on the TB20/21).
Never before saw that FB page. Is it some sort of advert by Socata, or did somebody do it?
greg_mp wrote:
but no airliners.
True, they do however supply parts for airliners.
Just reached that mark with my TB20GT Over 2400hrs airborne time.
Congrats! Here’s to the next 2400 hours… in 10 years… in a TBM 😬👍
Congrats! Time flies. I remember reading your peter2000 site when I wanted to know what this IFR stuff is about. It was useful and so is the forum you created.
Thank you Loco. That is so wonderful to hear!
Yes unfortunately I am responsible for depleting the bank accounts of quite a lot of people 
Not buying a TBM… would need much better ground facilities for a (Part 91) TBM than what I have at Shoreham.
2400 hours is massive for a GA private owner and you have hit the reliability issues on the head, it’s about doing what is seemingly Niff-Naff & trivia items properly.
I am not altogether convinced the Avidyne kit is the way to go but without a look at all the current kit in your aircraft and knowing exactly what you expect from the new panel my opinion is no more than not sure…………….. and I am not going to get into a Garmin vs Avidyne firefight as I am sure it could rival the entrenched opinions found on other forums when talking about electronic conspicuity.
I would have thought that installer issues are unlikely as most of the stack could be built and function checked on the bench while your aircraft was still flying and the interconnect between the kit is well known so this should take no more than good planning.
I would normally like to quote for your Avionic upgrade but we have a massive order to upgrade some aircraft and like all small GA companies have capacity issues.
This is the existing panel
A while ago I did this photoshop job for the Avidyne option
and this is the Garmin version (showing the TKS control panel in the centre stack, but this is now on the left)
Extracting the centre stack is indeed the way to do it but – various previous threads – it’s not a small job because Socata ran a lot of wires directly into it, bypassing the big circular connectors. These wires would need to be cut and connectors inserted. The job would need an intelligent installer due to the SN3500 interconnections (they would be fed with ARINC429 and would perform a “roll steering converter” for the KFC225 autopilot). Basically I would end up doing the design, like I did for the existing mods, around 10 years ago.
One driver for this would have been Shoreham getting LPV but they won’t anytime soon so I would gain only the +V landing mode which, while illegal below the RNP20 LNAV minima, would be safer.
Not sure where Avidyne are these days in the UK. I want to upgrade the TAS605 to TAS605A (ADS-B IN as well as active TAS/TCAS1) but need an exchange unit, which they are unable to supply, so nothing is happening on that either.
Happy anniversary Peter!
On a (much) more modest scale, I bought into my Warrior in 2002, and have owned it outright for the last 10 years. In that time it’s made about 2000 Hrs, mostly mine. I’m strictly VFR and operate many short hops in UK as well as occasional odessys to the Balkans and Baltics. I’m planning my first post-Covid trip for next week and we shall see! Remind me – which way is Sweden?
David
Peter
The our current very big contract requires a modern GPS integrated with the Sandel HSI, this is quite simple using the ARINC data bus.
Autopilot integration is not my area but I have come to the opinion that Bendix/King equipment is well past its sell by date ( the failure of one unit as I past Northampton on the way to Canada has cemented my opinion even if it did improve my hand flying skills ) So I wonder if a Garmin autopilot would be a good idea but I can also see the if it’s not broke don’t fix it argument.
There is a lot of kit that has arrived on the market over the last few years that is very reliable and you could ditch all the mechanical instruments if you wished…………… all it takes is money !
