Just Curious Does Anyone Have a Brittain B6 A/P that is still working as installed from Mooney?

[cliffy]

Just curious if anyone has a B6 still working as was installed when airplane was new

If so do you use it?  Just curiou

[carusoam]

Quite a few MSers have been able to keep their systems leak free, and have direction control, and some have alt hold connected as well…

All parts of the full Brittain system…

Works magically well for a 1960’s analog system…

Best regards,

-a-

[Vance Harral]

If you'll give credit for a near sibling, the B-5 autopilot in our airplane was installed at the factory, and is still operational in all three axes today.  Not without some servicing over the years, though.  Servo cans, boots, and tubing are straightforward to understand, we've replaced with new or overhauled parts from Brittain when they were still in business.  We also had the magnetometer in the tail and the complex rotary switch in the head unit overhauled by Brittain, some dozen years ago when they were still in business.

The next time any of these complex components give up the ghost, I don't think there will be any legal way to repair them.  Brittain has technically been "in hibernation" since the senior family technician passed on and they lost their repair station license.  Another family member supposedly found a buyer and had hopes of making the company a going concern again.  But it's been years since there was any news on that front, and I think it's extremely unlikely they'll ever come back to being able to provide parts and/or support.  I'm bummed about that, because Jerry and CiCi were very good to us on support for a number of years.  But one has to be realistic.

 

[smwash02]

When I sold my C in 2019 I had recently had the whole B6 system overhauled by Jerry and had the altitude hold added. Jerry was a great guy and helped me out a bunch.

It was great. It followed the line, held the altitude, and would climb/descend based on how you set it.

Edited October 12, 2021 by smwash02