Thanks. Nice evolution.
What is the avionics shop who overhauled the Century IIIb autopilot?
Thanks.
Niner_Mike wrote:
What is the avionics shop who overhauled the Century IIIb autopilot?
It’s Avionik Straubing, and I was very pleased with their service and speed. They also assisted my NL shop with troubleshooting the NAV coupling issue (the 530W wasn’t installed when they did the overhaul, so they couldn’t address it directly). Also, I think it’s worth saying that many people spend huge amounts of money to replace older autopilots when the issues are often simple to fix. It’s not a GFC500, but it works great and is plenty good enough for IFR flying. Properly coupling one with a modern navigator really brings new life to old autopilots.
UdoR wrote:
Such findings are the reason why I did not want to start to make any upgrade or conversion on my panel. It may just turn into an open wormhole labelled: “just place money here”.
You aren’t wrong about that! It’s funny because it wasn’t originally the plan to do the audio panel, but eventually the extra 5k became just noise in the context of the broader project, and it seemed silly to leave a dinosaur audio panel inside a nice “new” airplane!
dutch_flyer wrote:
It’s Avionik Straubing, and I was very pleased with their service and speed. They also assisted my NL shop with troubleshooting the NAV coupling issue (the 530W wasn’t installed when they did the overhaul, so they couldn’t address it directly). Also, I think it’s worth saying that many people spend huge amounts of money to replace older autopilots when the issues are often simple to fix. It’s not a GFC500, but it works great and is plenty good enough for IFR flying. Properly coupling one with a modern navigator really brings new life to old autopilots.
Pilot
dutch_flyer
EHRD, Netherlands
I think I might have pointed to this before, but quite a few Piper Autopilots are augmented with the Stec 30 Alt or 60PSS system, which then give you altitude hold or a full vertical channel. I had once a chance to fly with one of those and they work just fine. Maybe that would be the perfect addition to your Piper AP. Also, Straubing and other shops quite often have them second hand, as they get replaced with GFC500 installations these days.
Other than that, what a project but the outcome will be lovely. Hope you get a lot of flying done with your TB10 once it is done.
RE: THE RIVETS. REPLACING THOUSANDS OF RIVETS IS NOT NORMAL.
What has happened to this airframe? I guess if the repair has already been done, it is done, but WTF? My 12,000 hour cherokee might have had a smoking rivet or two (which were replaced) and some cracks in skins that were stop drilled… but nothing like this.
It seems unlikely that this many rivets can be drilled out perfectly. There are going to be some holes that are enlarged or oval, or whatever. Are you adding defects faster than you take them away?
Great write-up!
Given I’m just getting into riveting (and reading a lot about it) with my upcoming RV-7 build, I’m also surprised to read about them replacing so many rivets.
Drilling out a rivet is pretty difficult. It doesn’t work out perfectly every time, no matter how skilled you are. One has to drill away enough of the rivet to allow the rest to be picked out with something strong, slender and fairly sharp. It is very difficult to do this without enlarging the hole and I don’t know how you’d do it on an assembly where you cannot access the back of the rivet.
The line Vans take in their construction notes is that a rivet has to be pretty awful to warrant the risk of drilling it out to try again. I must have drilled out a few dozen now on my practice pieces, and an indication of the phenomenal strength of even a poorly-done rivet is just how much of it you have to physically destroy with the drill before the rest can be persuaded to come out!
Of course you can drill the holes oversize and there are ‘repair rivets’ available with a thicker shank on the usual size head. 6000 of those may add a little weight though! I find it hard to believe that those rivets really needed to come out, unless the airframe had been subjected to some truly awful stresses. Most likely your perfectionist shop just didn’t like the quality of Socata riveting…. perhaps understandably because now I’m learning RV building I tend to look at certified aluminum aircraft and think that no LAA inspector would have signed off that riveting!
dutch_flyer wrote:
Nosewheel shimmy: Turns out the previous owner flew without the wheel fairings and from a grass field, and the shimmy only showed itself with the fairing and on asphalt.
My experience is that it is reasonably common that you get shimmy on asphalt and not on grass.
Yes agree, I should have mentioned that. Nose wheel shimmy in the TB10 is common on tarmac – just push the pedals a little either way and it stops.
It is one of those things you can spend as much money as you want on trying to fix, but no guarantees, even if you replace the whole damn landing gear.
Did it ever recur?
Canuck wrote:
RE: THE RIVETS. REPLACING THOUSANDS OF RIVETS IS NOT NORM
Ok I made a serious mistake in my post! It should have said 600, not 6000! I’ll correct the original post for future readers.
Airborne_Again wrote:
My experience is that it is reasonably common that you get shimmy on asphalt and not on grass.
I’ve also experienced shimmy many times on aircraft, often when landing fast. But this was something different, and nothing would stop it.
Graham wrote:
Did it ever recur?
Not once since the repair.
