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KFC230 / Aerocruze

One report from the US: it will not accept the ADHRS of the GI 275 which adds another $4000.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

A well respected Mooney service centre posted on Mooneyspace about installing one in an M20K. Interesting quote: " if you have KFC 150 servos in working condition doesn’t mean it will pass the Preflight test on KFC 230".

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/36455-aerocruze-230-autopilot-install/

EIMH, Ireland

KFC200 is now eligible for slide-in replacement as well (on certain acft models).

EBST, Belgium

if you have KFC 150 servos in working condition doesn’t mean it will pass the Preflight test on KFC 230".

That could be if they are a bit shagged. There is a fair range from “perfect” to “too shagged to work” which will “function” as far as the average pilot can tell. The commutator on the motor gets buggered and there is no service option other than a new motor+gearbox assembly but overhauling a King servo does not include replacing this part!

In fact the motor (brushes+commutator) wear – rather than gear etc wear – is the main long term issue with these servos. The motor+gearbox assembly does exist as a P/N but seems impossible to purchase. The best source is a relatively new servo but with a burnt-out amplifier, which is a fairly common occurence with the KFC225 With the KFC150/KAP150, the servo burnouts are not common because one of the holes in the cheese (a KC225 firmware bug) is missing.

KFC200 is now eligible for slide-in replacement as well (on certain acft models).

I found something here.

Honeywell has added to the number of aircraft that can utilize it three-axis AeroCruze 230 autopilot—adding those airplanes with the BendixKing KFC 200 installed to the list. The AeroCruze 230 is now compatible with more than 35 aircraft models, including the Beechcraft Baron and Bonanza, twin Cessnas, Mooneys, and the Piper Malibu, Mirage, and Seneca. It boasts the only touchscreen autopilot interface in general aviation, according to Honeywell’s press release, and it offers automatic wings level—which will return the airplane to level flight with one button push if the pilot cannot recover from an unusual attitude, or during convective or turbulent weather. The autopilot is capable of couple approaches and altitude pre-select; a yaw damper function comes separately.
Starting at a retail price of $9,800, the AeroCruze 230 is a form-fit replacement for the BendixKing KFC 150 and KFC 200—using the servos that are already in place in the airplane. Expected downtime is reduced as a result, going from three weeks normally to just one week, according to the company. With the installation, owners get an automatic two-year addition to the warranty on their existing servos, as applicable.

Someone told me the yaw damper is vapourware, however. The KFC225 supports that but almost nobody installed it.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

How does that 2-year warranty on servos work ? Let’s say my servos pass the test and are just good enough to work with the KFC230 but after 3 months one of them gives the ghost. Do I get a replacement/overhaul of that servo on BK’s expense ?

EBST, Belgium

That would be my reading of it, but what is the small print?

It costs HBK no more than a few hundred $ to overhaul a servo, so they can take the risk of doing that within 2 years.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

That would sweeten the deal, imho.

EBST, Belgium

I’m not going to link to another forum, but on THE Beech Aircraft forum there is a topic about a guy who just installed an Aerocruz 230 (that’s the digital KFC150 !!) in his acft and just started testing it. It doesn’t look like a sales pitch. The goods and the bads.

EBST, Belgium

I’ve seen that. Interesting, and scary! The “slide-in replacement” took 6 weeks and was a huge job. This report is also interesting:

I spoke with autopilots central. They had a aerocruze 230 to install… they messed around with it for months. I guess the engineers are in Europe for this system… they wouldn’t show up to conference calls, the unit was not working correctly, nobody could figure it out and they ended up removing the 230 and the airplane left with a new garmin autopilot.
It was explained that the marketing department decided when the autopilot was ready. Not the engineers.

Not yet ready for prime time, it would appear.

And it flies an ILS “like a drunken sailor”.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

TB20:


EBST, Belgium
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