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S tec 50 autopilot

mooney11x

By mooney11x
in Vintage Mooneys (pre-J models)

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Ron McBride Mentor

Ron McBride

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I installed an S Tec 30 in my F. It works great. I have GPSS, Heading control on the DG and Altitude hold. It will follow the VOR's, heading, Loc or the GPSS. It will not follow the glideslope.


My radio shop did not think that the 50 had enough to outclass the 30. Remember the S Tec 50 requires one more hole in the panel.    Also see my pictures of the panel.  N9154V


Ron

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mooney11x Apprentice

mooney11x

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Quote: N9154V

I installed an S Tec 30 in my F. It works great. I have GPSS, Heading control on the DG and Altitude hold. It will follow the VOR's, heading, Loc or the GPSS. It will not follow the glideslope.

My radio shop did not think that the 50 had enough to outclass the 30. Remember the S Tec 50 requires one more hole in the panel.    Also see my pictures of the panel.  N9154V

Ron

 

Thanks Ron. do you have any pictures of the servo install?

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Ron McBride Mentor

Ron McBride

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There is 1 servo in the left wing, and 1 in the tail cone.  There are 4 unpainted rivets in the wing due to this install. There could be some on the belly, but the new plate to cover the ADF ant hole is part of this.


After removing the PC system, the controls seem lighter. I did a major panel redo and the end weight was very close to the original weight. Useful load changed slightly.  Mainly due to removing the 15# ADF.


Ron

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  • 4 weeks later...
mooney11x Apprentice

mooney11x

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Quote: Immelman

If you still need these I have an S-TEC 50 in my E. The pitch servo should be simple to photograph, the roll servos I'm not so sure about... will probably not be until this weekend that I can take those photos -- let me know on here or via PM if you still need them by then.

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DaV8or Grand Master

DaV8or

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OK, Here they finally are. The wing servo is tough to photograph. I'll start with the tail cone and the pitch servo. Seems pretty straight forward, however I don't really know where the cables connect to. I was so busy taking photos, I didn't really pay attention to how it was hooked up. You can see there is a cable pully that goes forward to something. I can say this, the pitch control does not work as well as the roll control. In my experience so far, (limited) the pitch works awesome until you hit some turbulance. If you get too much up and down turbulence, the system seems to go into an up and down oscillation that really makes you think something broke because it starts to over compensate. Light chop is OK. I smooth air, hands off, dead accurate.


 

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DaV8or Grand Master

DaV8or

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Now the wing servo. It's tough to photograph. There are two brackets that hold the servo in the wing. One on top of the servo and one on bottom. For this they have to drill and rivet eight new flush rivets. Other than the rivets themselves, there is no damage to the wing or paint. The control seems to be by rod rather than cable and perhaps this is why the roll contol is better. I don't have any problem with tracking even in turbulance. The rest of the installation takes place behind the panel and running cable to the servos.


Hope this helps.

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carusoam Grand Master

carusoam

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"however I don't really know where the cables connect to" - Dave


Dave,


You captured it!  The photo shows three control tubes, elevator, trim (rotates) and rudder.  If you look closely at your photo, the cable from the servo runs forward to a pulley and back to the push/pull tube of the elevator (near the hinged connection hanging from the cross brace) and then the cable returns to the servo.  This pulley arrangment allows for the pushing and pulling of the control tube.  servo runs one way, tube gets pulled.  servo runs the other way tube gets "pushed".


Overall the arrangement allows for pulling and "pushing" on a cable.


Best regards,


-a-

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