AeroCruze foibles

[Jakes Simmons]

Curious to know if anyone with an AeroCruze 100 and M20C is having the same new problem. ‘76 M20C Ranger. Paid for AP kit some time ago. Kit arrived last month at my avionics shop. Scheduled the install and flew the Mooney down. A day later get a call from shop, aileron pushrods for Aero Cruze aren’t in kit. A call to Duncan was made and apparently not all Mooney’s have the same aileron linkage length, and of course the airplane used for the STC is different from mine. The whole kit is held up by the need for slightly shorter pushrods which we were told needs to be re-STC’d. No predictions or guesses when that will take place. Back to square one.

[donkaye]

I've been using Turbotax to prepare my tax return for years.   There are a number of companies that sell it on the cheap.  I tried one of them last year.  While it eventually worked out, there was a time where I thought I had been taken.  This same company was back this year with terrible reviews for the most part, but several who indicated satisfaction.  What to do?  Remembering the hassle of last year, it was not a hard decision to just pay retail and be done with it.  I downloaded the product and was up and running in just a few minutes.  The analogy should be apparent...

[Ragsf15e]

10 minutes ago, donkaye said:

I've been using Turbotax to prepare my tax return for years.   There are a number of companies that sell it on the cheap.  I tried one of them last year.  While it eventually worked out, there was a time where I thought I had been taken.  This same company was back this year with terrible reviews for the most part, but several who indicated satisfaction.  What to do?  Remembering the hassle of last year, it was not a hard decision to just pay retail and be done with it.  I downloaded the product and was up and running in just a few minutes.  The analogy should be transparent...

Now Don, I love my garmin stuff too, but they have been “working” on the oscillation issue some people have for more than a year.  Every company is going to have growing pains with 50 year old, handmade airplanes.

[donkaye]

1 hour ago, Ragsf15e said:

Now Don, I love my garmin stuff too, but they have been “working” on the oscillation issue some people have for more than a year.  Every company is going to have growing pains with 50 year old, handmade airplanes.

Do you think Garmin will resolve their issue?  I used to be a big fan of Bendix/King, but based on their recent performances, do you really think they will resolve their issue---in this Century?

[Utah20Gflyer]

As a person interested in the aerocruze 100 auto pilot I’d be very interested in getting more information about which models the auto pilot is compatible with.  Is the issue short body vs mid or is it an early Mooney vs. later Mooney issue? I was under the impression that we all essentially had the same wing?  

On 11/26/2023 at 3:47 AM, Jakes Simmons said:

Curious to know if anyone with an AeroCruze 100 and M20C is having the same new problem. ‘76 M20C Ranger. Paid for AP kit some time ago. Kit arrived last month at my avionics shop. Scheduled the install and flew the Mooney down. A day later get a call from shop, aileron pushrods for Aero Cruze aren’t in kit. A call to Duncan was made and apparently not all Mooney’s have the same aileron linkage length, and of course the airplane used for the STC is different from mine. The whole kit is held up by the need for slightly shorter pushrods which we were told needs to be re-STC’d. No predictions or guesses when that will take place. Back to square one.

If you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me the part number that is incompatible with the auto pilot?  If I had that I could check my parts manual and possibly determine compatibility.  
 

Thanks, 

[Lionudakis]

I have an issue I'm working closely with Duncan/BK/ and the engineering group on a midbody oversite. I'll say depite the setback, the communications are beyond what I've experienced from others

Another competitor had a local neighbors plane tied up for quite some time with a system partially installed under the assumption it fit, and it didnt, with zero communications, he was furious. I give BK credit for trying to stay in the game and make it right despite their hurdles they have to overcome. 

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, Lionudakis said:

I have an issue I'm working closely with Duncan/BK/ and the engineering group on a midbody oversite. I'll say depite the setback, the communications are beyond what I've experienced from others

Another competitor had a local neighbors plane tied up for quite some time with a system partially installed under the assumption it fit, and it didnt, with zero communications, he was furious. I give BK credit for trying to stay in the game and make it right despite their hurdles they have to overcome. 

Thanks for the input.   Is the issue the sort of thing you can share details about once it gets sorted out?

[McMooney]

1974 E here, i'm wondering if i'd have the same issue, 

please share anything you have

Edited December 20, 2023 by McMooney

[Lionudakis]

Absolutely once it’s figured out. I believe the oversight is only with the J.
 

I’ve worked on many different mooneys of all variations, and I don’t see the difference in any of the aileron systems pertaining to pushrod length from where the servo mounts, And honestly, the push rod is nothing more than an aluminum tube threaded internally. If that is my only hang up I would be done. I’ll update this week.  For that it’s worth, I’ve had hangups as an A&P/IA with the other big companies, and nobody has been as open in communicating like BK has on this. 

[Jakes Simmons]

Update. Apparently the avionics folks who were working on my Ranger discovered the aileron pushrods for the Piper AeroCruze install would work for the Ranger. Not desiring to take on liability for an informal fix, they are currently petitioning the local FSDO for a one time approval for my aircraft. Reasoning that since the part is already approved in another install, should work for me. We will see. Holidays have slowed all processes down and I flew the Ranger back home until I hear about some resolve.

[hammdo]

Very interesting, but that would be a pain for those of us who would consider AeroCruze in our short body Mooneys if we needed a FSDO approval after buying the STC’d kit…

-Don

[LANCECASPER]

6 hours ago, hammdo said:

Very interesting, but that would be a pain for those of us who would consider AeroCruze in our short body Mooneys if we needed a FSDO approval after buying the STC’d kit…

-Don

If it's approved, sharing the paperwork could be helpful.

[Jakes Simmons]

Will do…

[Hank]

17 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

If it's approved, sharing the paperwork could be helpful.

Especially for those of us who still fly Rangers.

14 hours ago, Jakes Simmons said:

Will do…

Thanks, Jake!

I want to upgrade my Brittain, and am just waiting for a practical route for one of these, or for Dynon to get approved. Whichever comes first . . . . . .

[OR75]

On 11/26/2023 at 8:15 AM, donkaye said:

I've been using Turbotax to prepare my tax return for years.   There are a number of companies that sell it on the cheap.  I tried one of them last year.  While it eventually worked out, there was a time where I thought I had been taken.  This same company was back this year with terrible reviews for the most part, but several who indicated satisfaction.  What to do?  Remembering the hassle of last year, it was not a hard decision to just pay retail and be done with it.  I downloaded the product and was up and running in just a few minutes.  The analogy should be apparent...

i can see how there can be an analogy ...

however, there are still plenty of alternatives to Turbotax (all the way down to walking to a Treasury office and get paper forms)

the day Turbotax is the only game in town, we will be sending them more money than we actually send to the Treasury     

[PT20J]

1 hour ago, OR75 said:

i can see how there can be an analogy ...

however, there are still plenty of alternatives to Turbotax (all the way down to walking to a Treasury office and get paper forms)

the day Turbotax is the only game in town, we will be sending them more money than we actually send to the Treasury     

Well, if you've ever read any of the articles about how TurboTax has effectively lobbied for years to prevent funding for the IRS to develop a free tax program, then you'll understand how we have already begun traveling down that road 

[Danb]

TurboTax being under $100, not a realistic comparison, although paying a tax professional $1,000 plus is another story

D

[donkaye]

On 11/26/2023 at 8:15 AM, donkaye said:

I've been using Turbotax to prepare my tax return for years.   There are a number of companies that sell it on the cheap.  I tried one of them last year.  While it eventually worked out, there was a time where I thought I had been taken.  This same company was back this year with terrible reviews for the most part, but several who indicated satisfaction.  What to do?  Remembering the hassle of last year, it was not a hard decision to just pay retail and be done with it.  I downloaded the product and was up and running in just a few minutes.  The analogy should be apparent...

Since this was brought up again, I tried to open Turbotax 2022 yesterday while doing EOY tax planning and it failed to open after a Turbotax required update.  The Company that sold it to me, BigHomeTax.com, failed to respond so I called Intuit, gave them my startup code and they proceeded to tell me it was no good.  BigHomeTax is not an authorized Seller.  Since I need the program, they gave me a 20% discount on last years' product.  All in all it cost me more than just buying the Program from Amazon last year.  Although it's big thread drift that maybe can help someone else, at least in my case, thank goodness there is a Turbotax.  At under $100, for what it does, it's one of the best programs I have outside of Quicken for the Mac, the best program for me out there.  At 260 pages filed and 473 pages including all worksheets, I shudder to think what I would have to pay to have it prepared by someone else.  I wouldn't have any time to Flight Instruct.  And to think that just out of school (more than a few years ago) I hand prepared other people's taxes for H & R Block at $1/hour just so I could learn taxes.

[EricJ]

I used TurboTax for many, many, many years and always liked it.   About ten years ago I decided to try an accountant (CPA) that a friend recommended, to do both my business (which is very simple) and personal returns.    He saved me $10k the very first year.   If he never saves me another dime he'll have more than paid for himself compared to depending on TT, but he's continued to help me do things a bit better.

 

[MikeOH]

Forgetting the tax software tangent, I sure am glad I have an STEC-30 with altitude hold...over six years of reliable service.  Not a chance in Hell I'd replace it with this AeroCruze gizmo!

[Will.iam]

On 12/20/2023 at 7:32 PM, EricJ said:

I used TurboTax for many, many, many years and always liked it.   About ten years ago I decided to try an accountant (CPA) that a friend recommended, to do both my business (which is very simple) and personal returns.    He saved me $10k the very first year.   If he never saves me another dime he'll have more than paid for himself compared to depending on TT, but he's continued to help me do things a bit better.

 

I too used turbo tax and then got a CPA that saved me over $2k that turbo tax did not find. Even though the CPA is $600 i still save more then if i used turbo tax. CPA went to my previous year and found $900 so again i saved $200 after taking out the cpa’s fee and turbo taxes purchase. Plus i sleep better at night knowing i had a second set of human eyes look over my return instead of reliving on a computer program.

[donkaye]

33 minutes ago, Will.iam said:

I too used turbo tax and then got a CPA that saved me over $2k that turbo tax did not find. Even though the CPA is $600 i still save more then if i used turbo tax. CPA went to my previous year and found $900 so again i saved $200 after taking out the cpa’s fee and turbo taxes purchase. Plus i sleep better at night knowing i had a second set of human eyes look over my return instead of reliving on a computer program.

Was it a computational error the accountant found or an unknown to you deduction?

[Will.iam]

22 minutes ago, donkaye said:

Was it a computational error the accountant found or an unknown to you deduction?

Don’t know just that turbo tax calculated a few hundred dollars back and the cpa got me a couple grand. That prompted the CPa to audit the taxes the year before and they got another $900. That was enough for me to stop using turbotax. 

[EricJ]

36 minutes ago, Will.iam said:

Don’t know just that turbo tax calculated a few hundred dollars back and the cpa got me a couple grand. That prompted the CPa to audit the taxes the year before and they got another $900. That was enough for me to stop using turbotax. 

My experience was similar.    I think it's a combination of Turbo Tax not finding things that are possible, but maybe subtle or rare, or you as the user not knowing that it needs to be entered or indicated in a particular way for TT to recognize that there's a deduction or credit that could be applied.   For people that have simple or straightfoward returns it's probably not an issue, but if there's much complexity (own a business, multiple sources of income, diverse investments, etc.), an accountant may be able to more than pay for themselves.   TT was fun when I did it, but in hindsight I wish I'd gotten an accountant much sooner.

[donkaye]

27 minutes ago, EricJ said:

My experience was similar.    I think it's a combination of Turbo Tax not finding things that are possible, but maybe subtle or rare, or you as the user not knowing that it needs to be entered or indicated in a particular way for TT to recognize that there's a deduction or credit that could be applied.   For people that have simple or straightfoward returns it's probably not an issue, but if there's much complexity (own a business, multiple sources of income, diverse investments, etc.), an accountant may be able to more than pay for themselves.   TT was fun when I did it, but in hindsight I wish I'd gotten an accountant much sooner.

It's probably appropriate that the AeroCruz discussion has digressed because it will never compete with the Garmin autopilots.  Regarding Turbotax, I don't do the guided return, but instead flip to the forms and enter all that is applicable to me.  I have all the above, but do have an accountant do the Corporate tax return.  I then review the flow from data entry to 1040.  The complexity of some of the flow is amazing to me.  I personally would never have been able to figure it out.  This year due to the significant tax increase, I have set up an appointment with my corporate accountant to review on a macro basis my personal return  to see if I missed something.  I expect him to find nothing, but it's worth the time and money to confirm what I think I already know--it's time to move to Florida.