I am not the plane's owner, or a pilot yet, but my dad just purchased a 1982 Saratoga that has just been 100% refurbished. As part of that the main avionics were replaced. Now the plane has a Garmin g500 main avionics panel, a Garmin G750 gps main, and a Garmin g530w as the backup gps. The remaining instruments are the original instruments with he original HSI as the navigational backup to the G500. All units are linked. The autopilot is a King KFC 200 linked into the new system via a digital to analog interface.
After initial flight testing a problem was found with the HSI, which was fixed. The G750 operates correctly for navigation, but is having intermittent problems with the touch screen, which is now in for repair.
So onto the autopilot. Twice while using, the autopilot initially seemed fine and hold course altitude, etc. Then is seems to drift a little off course, than make a dramatic banking correction to the left (I think). The first time it happened was when the plane was being flown to its new home for the first time. The second time the unit worked perfectly for 15 minutes then did the same thing. Now the company who refurbished the plane agreed to pick it up for repairs, the pilot taking the plane back to the shop flew the plane for 2 hrs, mainly on autopilot, and no issues.
So theories?
1. Software issues with the G750
2. Autopilot overheating
3. Bad digital to analog interface
4. Interference from the old HSI unit which had not been adjusted when the pilot was on, but it is set as secondary
Any other ideas?
After initial flight testing a problem was found with the HSI, which was fixed. The G750 operates correctly for navigation, but is having intermittent problems with the touch screen, which is now in for repair.
So onto the autopilot. Twice while using, the autopilot initially seemed fine and hold course altitude, etc. Then is seems to drift a little off course, than make a dramatic banking correction to the left (I think). The first time it happened was when the plane was being flown to its new home for the first time. The second time the unit worked perfectly for 15 minutes then did the same thing. Now the company who refurbished the plane agreed to pick it up for repairs, the pilot taking the plane back to the shop flew the plane for 2 hrs, mainly on autopilot, and no issues.
So theories?
1. Software issues with the G750
2. Autopilot overheating
3. Bad digital to analog interface
4. Interference from the old HSI unit which had not been adjusted when the pilot was on, but it is set as secondary
Any other ideas?
