Hector Posted July 3, 2014 Report Posted July 3, 2014 This post is mainly to acknowledge the folks at Brittain, specially Gerry, who do an outstanding job of supporting their customer. Since I purchased my bird a couple of years ago I've had problems with the Brittain A/P. Initially thought the Accutrack controller was at fault but Gerry tested it twice and could not duplicate the probelm. After some guidance from Gerry and some tips from Mike in this forum I finally traced the problem to the servo control valve. When the Mooney went in for annual two weeks ago I removed the servo control valve and returned it to Brittain. They replaced some electrical components and it now works beautifully!! Because Gerry had previously charged me to test the controller, he fixed the servo control valve at no cost under warranty!? This was totally unexpected. between the time Gerry spent on the phone with me and the actual repair of the servo control valve, I seriously doubt I justly compensated them for their effort. It is refreshing to still find a small company like this that actually cares about their customers and will go the extra mile to help them. The guys at Brittain are first class all the way. I guess the only way to get this level of support is to put the customer first before profit and there just aren't many businesses left that are willing to do that. Anyway, I guess the least I can do is tell other folks here about my experience with Brittain and I hope they stick around for while longer. Together with a couple of tips I got from Mike my Brittain A/P now follows the magenta line like its on rails!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD 1 Quote
22 others Posted July 3, 2014 Report Posted July 3, 2014 When I began my search for a Mooney, I priced aircraft with Stec and KFC autopilots above those old vacuum Brittain systems. Thanks to Mooneyspace, I changed my tune. Stories like yours are the reason I sought out an airplane with a Brittain system. Simple, reliable, and reasonable to repair. Quote
tony Posted July 3, 2014 Report Posted July 3, 2014 Hector, I agree with you 100 percent. Jerry, Ceci, and Kevin all do an outstanding job of supporting their customers. Now if Jerry would just stop playing with that motorcycle and focus on the pitch stabilization and altitude hold tooling...... 1 Quote
Hector Posted July 3, 2014 Author Report Posted July 3, 2014 Hector, I agree with you 100 percent. Jerry, Ceci, and Kevin all do an outstanding job of supporting their customers. Now if Jerry would just stop playing with that motorcycle and focus on the pitch stabilization and altitude hold tooling...... Yeah, now that I have this working and seeing how well it works coupled to a GPS, I want to add the heading bug and then altitude hold. I guess I'll start looking at eBay for the required components. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Quote
Hank Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 Love my Brittain! Heading bug is wonderful. Wish altitude hold was available, then I would have all three. Quote
larryb Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 If they are so great why doesn't the company build new parts? It seems like there are $'s to be made with all this demand. Two years ago I was looking at a C and put myself on the list. They never called. Quote
Hank Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 I think it has to do with a change in the rubber compound from the manufacturer, which to the FAA means recertification of the system. There's not enough sales to pay for the testing. Quote
tony Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 The FAA oversight they experience makes a lot of their producibilty improvements cost prohibitive. So they focus on repairs, keeping their existing customers flying. Quote
N33GG Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 I am supposed to be on the list for altitude addition when available. I fear my Mooney career will end before I ever see anything. Quote
N601RX Posted July 4, 2014 Report Posted July 4, 2014 Back in the 60's and middle 70's many of these were produced and installed as oem equipment. Around the middle 70's the oem's switched over to all electric newer systems and Brittain kind of went into a repair mode. New autopilots were relatively cheap and there wasn't much demand for the old stuff. Then new autopilots prices started doubling and tripling and people changed the way they looked at these older systems. Back about 8 years ago an aviation magazine did an article on Brittain and the great value they were. The demand returned, but they had no way to produce new parts. Much of the tooling had been setting for 25-30 years and had rusted or been lost by subcontractors. If your seriously looking for these parts go around to a few of the old school avionics shops in your area that are still left and see what they have setting on the back of their shelves. Take pictures of the parts you need so you can show them what you are looking for. It will take a little work but you can find the parts you need and them send them to Brittain for refurbishment. I did this about 3 years ago and was able to find all the parts I need for the Accuflite, Accutrac, and altitude hold. I dropped them off at Brittain early Monday morning while in Tulsa on other business and picked them back up Friday as I was leaving. My IA and I installed all of it and it worked flawlessly on the 1st test flight. 1 Quote
Hector Posted July 5, 2014 Author Report Posted July 5, 2014 And by the way if anyone has an Accuflite system t Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Quote
Hector Posted July 5, 2014 Author Report Posted July 5, 2014 And by the way if anyone has an Accuflite system t Weird.....would not let me edit. Anyway if anyone has an Accuflite system they want to sell, drop me a line Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Quote
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