Honeywell KFC225 autopilot roll servo failure

Did you contact Honeywell in Phoenix Arizona?

Mark

Then why do you keep buying them?

martin

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Then don't do that."

Try

Matt Roberds

"Mark" wrote

H are looking at it; I have no idea how far up the organisation any of this has gone.

The indications to me (I am an experienced h/w and s/w design engineer) is that nobody has done any analysis on the failures, and that the failed units are simply repaired and recycled into the production process, or perhaps into "warranty exchange" units, as is normal in the avionics business.

In avionics, one tends to get items which are often several years old, when getting a warranty exchange unit. I've had a 10 year old KI229 RMI supplied in this way.

snipped-for-privacy@worldnet.att.net wrote

Well, yes, I am sure if I went through the massive paperwork exercise and installed something like that, or S-TEC, it would work just fine.

It has to be said that the KFC225 does a super job of controlling the aircraft, even in pretty bad turbulence. It just keeps packing up. I am on my 3rd main unit, too (the built-in altimeter and pitch gyro are prone to packing up)

Matt, check out "Background" on this page:

Happy Flying! Scott Skylane

neil skrev:

-Lasse

Speaking of that, were you in on the thread about autopilots and hijackers? Is it true that autopilots can land airplanes so precisely that they had to introduce dither so that they didn't wear ruts into the runways from all of the airplanes landing in the same spot?

Thanks, Rich

Background Current plan is to have Tomcats in service until mid-FY07. Tomcat squadrons have already started to transition to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, and will continue to transition in a phased approach.

That WAS the PLAN, back a couple years ago when the article was written, but I recall (for what that's worth) that the last one was retired (for carrier operations?) and the advanced Hornet was accelerated into operations. Wasn't that a thread here just a few weeks ago?

Hmmm...RC try to be customer-responsive these days, but I CAN remember when they upgraded the FMS 800 and the roll command (used to steer to the desired track), was reversed from its previous polarity - made for interesting waypoint/turn capturing!

Brian W.

Have you monitored bus voltage n transients? There is a role for a high power series resistor in servo drives! :-)

Brian W

I heard that the F14s now land so accurately

Rich Grise wrote

Not me.

And no it's not true :)

martin griffith wrote

I don't. Honeywell keep replacing them under warranty. Otherwise, they cost US$3000 each.

I'd really like to get my hands on either a schematic of one of these roll servos, or a faulty old one whose mechanics are perfectly OK. I'd happily pay a reasonable sum for one of these. Sure I can take one of my faulty ones apart but then I can't return it for the warranty exchange unit....

Matt,

See:

It's the Google group archive of J. Honecks thread. His first post has a link to an article that indicates the last F-14 squadron was just deployed to the Gulf.

Happy Flying! Scott Skylane

H are looking at it; I have no idea how far up the organisation any of this has gone.

By "IT" do you mean they are repairing your one particular unit or are they looking at the more general issue?

I would contact QC or engineering, not just the warrantee repair people.

Mark

I read Jay's post of "What an amazing run the F-14 has had. It will be terribly sad not to see them flying anymore.... ", but not the article. :~(

"The venerable F-14 Tomcat, a mainstay of naval aviation, Hollywood movies and air show awe since the 1970s, will retire for good after a final combat deployment, which began Thursday. " ... "The Tomcats require between 40 and 60 hours of maintenance for every hour in the air, LaBranche said. For the F/A-18s, it's more like 10 to 15."

----------------------------------------------------------- When I was a Norfolk a few years back, (2001) they (F-14's) were already decorating the static displays as "museum pieces".

"Mark" wrote

Honeywell won't get involved as a company; here in the UK they work only via avionics dealers. I have to fly the plane to one of these and they will change the servo (plus the main unit which is on its 4th failure; it randomly changes the pilot-selected VS value during a VS climb or descent...) and what if anything Honeywell do with what comes back to them I have no idea.

Based on past experience I doubt anybody at Honeywell will look at the faulty parts to see what the reason for the fault might have been. If they do, they sure keep it very quiet (and nothing gets done about it in the way of modifications).

If you have a contact, I would appreciate it! My email is at the bottom.

Peter.

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