Yes, true. Thanks!
The “airline” from Shoreham to Pontoise used to do a T&G at LFAT – according to one passenger. It is possible they went via LFOP at some earlier time.
Peter wrote:
The “airline” from Shoreham to Pontoise used to do a T&G at LFAT – according to one passenger. It is possible they went via LFOP at some earlier time.
It seems like they used several airports. I personally saw it waiting on the apron at LFOP once when I taxied in. It waited until the tower confirmed customs had no interest in them and they could depart. Maybe it was weather dependent, and that particular day there was fog at LFAT…
After some times, my un-steady targets have turned to appear (again) in a wrong – opposite place, as I already had the opportunity to observe during a short time approximately 1.5 years ago (the episode had ended without doing anything)
This lead to many contacts, especially with Honeywell, who has been very helpful in troubleshooting and finding the best strategy. With their help, I have been able to download the log of the computer TAS (via a serial port), and check that there was no error in the history.
In the internal software of the computer, you can also check impedance values for the directional antenna (top). Those values were OK, which have been pretty confusing (see after).
Interfacing with the G1000 was not the source of the problem, as reinstalling the KTA870 software didn’t change anything. Heading source was suspected at some time, but not the actually problem.
We then checked the antenna connections and the cables: all were ok. At this point, the avionics shop also tried to ground test the TAS with an IFR6000 box: all targets did appear, but only to the right hand side of the vessel !! And erratically front target would appear to the rear, and vice versa. Kind of neurological phenomena…
At this point, two things remained to do:
- sending the computer to Honeywell for examination and repair would cost a flat 5000$
- but, before that, because it was cheaper, and because I suspected it from the beginning, I wanted to change the top antenna (KA815)
So I found a pretty recent used antenna on eBay, ordered and installed it. And…
The TAS regained clear view of the sky, and for my part, felt much relieved.
As personal analysis, I think the top antenna started to fail a long time ago, then normal operation resumed for some time, and finally it packed up.
I hope this story will help some of you. As some one finally told me, KA815 directional antennas are the Achille’s Heel…
