Thanks AATG

[PJClark]

All,

many of you have seen my panel--a work of artistry by AATG in Greeley CO in 2019.

Well, last week on a trip to St Louis on business I had some "Trim Down" indications on my PFD and then intermittent trim when resetting after landing.  I called AATG on Friday after getting home on Thursday night.  Steve Odean (who did my fam/training and is the supervising tech and guru at AATG) called me back in less than an hour, gave me some tips, told me to get the datacard from the G3X and send him the log files.

I did that Saturday.  He sent them to Garmin and, chased them down (no mean feat if you've ever tried it) handled the chat with them about what that showed.

I moved the airplane up the road to KMGY yesterday morning to be looked at by the Garmin dealer/shop there.  Didn't get a very fuzzy feeling about that initially.  Steve rolled in this morning with guidance from Garmin on how to verify CAN bus/wiring was OK by looking at the G3X page, and to then focus on the servo and/or the jackscrew or some other binding.

I passed those instructions on to the technician about 1340L.  He called me back in less than an hour and confirmed that the servo is bad--and fortunately under warranty for 6 more days.  Much better result than his estimated "up to 8 hours to troubleshoot the wiring" when I got there yesterday.

So--I've recommended AATG many times here when folks have asked about G3X installs, panel design and pricing. I hope some of you have gone there and used them. This is my first experience needing/using service or support after the sale--but clearly the 1000 miles distance from my installer is not an issue 2 years later. Outstanding support, persistence even, in getting the right answer quickly with no collateral damage to my system due to inexperience at an unfamiliar shop.

Just outstanding. If you're looking for a new panel--it's an airplane, you can go anywhere. DO NOT overlook AATG even if they're a long way from home!

Also great support and suggestions from the SAVVY team!

PJ

[PT20J]

I think that the GFC 500 servos are weak. According to a Garmin post on BeechTalk they are less powerful than GFC 600 servos which makes sense since they were designed for experimental aircraft. My Garmin dealer tells me that they have been getting revisions to STC installations that call for increasing the torque settings to 100%.

I have gone through my trim system to eliminate friction including replacing the eyeballs on the control shafts when the GFC 500 was installed in my M20J recently, so I think my trim system is in pretty good shape. The old BK KAP 150 would spin the trim from stop to stop pretty effortlessly on the ground. The GFC 500 trim servo slows noticeably when trimming up from neutral and almost stalls just before reaching the up stop, Per the STC, torque is set at 100%. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Skip

[carusoam]

Great pirep for AATG PJ!

Thanks for sharing it.

There are a few pireps on ‘bad servos’ from Garmin… around here lately…

Best regards,

-a-

[201Mooniac]

15 hours ago, PT20J said:

I have gone through my trim system to eliminate friction including replacing the eyeballs on the control shafts when the GFC 500 was installed in my M20J recently, so I think my trim system is in pretty good shape. The old BK KAP 150 would spin the trim from stop to stop pretty effortlessly on the ground. The GFC 500 trim servo slows noticeably when trimming up from neutral and almost stalls just before reaching the up stop, Per the STC, torque is set at 100%. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

I'm surprised by this as my trim doesn't slow that I've been able to notice as it approaches the stop.

[PT20J]

Try this: when the trim servo is spinning the trim wheel, grab the wheel with your hand and note how easy it is to stop it. Not a lot of torque there.

Skip

[201Mooniac]

25 minutes ago, PT20J said:

Try this: when the trim servo is spinning the trim wheel, grab the wheel with your hand and note how easy it is to stop it. Not a lot of torque there.

Skip

I'll give that a try but I would expect it to be reasonable to overpower the trim.  I guess if it stops for gentle drag of a finger on the wheel that would be a problem but I often have my hand on the trim wheel while the servo is spinning it and haven't felt anything different than when I had an S-Tec 55X automatic trim system.  I'll let you know what I find.

[LANCECASPER]

On 10/21/2021 at 10:17 PM, PT20J said:

I think that the GFC 500 servos are weak. According to a Garmin post on BeechTalk they are less powerful than GFC 600 servos which makes sense since they were designed for experimental aircraft. My Garmin dealer tells me that they have been getting revisions to STC installations that call for increasing the torque settings to 100%.

I have gone through my trim system to eliminate friction including replacing the eyeballs on the control shafts when the GFC 500 was installed in my M20J recently, so I think my trim system is in pretty good shape. The old BK KAP 150 would spin the trim from stop to stop pretty effortlessly on the ground. The GFC 500 trim servo slows noticeably when trimming up from neutral and almost stalls just before reaching the up stop, Per the STC, torque is set at 100%. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Skip

You have a valid point.

 

I was hoping the GFC600, with the much more robust servos,

would be certified for Mooney, but now it doesn't look like it will happen.

Here's another post from today: 

https://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=201294