On Thu, 6 May 2004 22:52:58 +0200, "Frode Berg"
wrote:

Hi!

Just a question if there are any mechanics here.

What would the normal install time be for an S-TEC system 20 one-axis
autopilot be into a 1968 Piper Arrow?
Presuming the directional gyro/heading bug is OK, and the NAV instruments
are up to it off course.

Just to have an idea.

I got a price quote from one shop here, and they claim approx 30-50 hours
install time.
I find this figure quite high, but if anyone has any experience with this,
let me know.


The club put an S-Tec 30 into its Cherokee 235 last summer. One of
the club members is friends with a guy who has a licensed repair
station in the California Sierra foothills (not Jim). They let our
guy do a lot of the dog work and crawling around. The two guys, our
member and his mechanic friend used to own a PA28-161 together, so
they both know the planes.

Complicating the installation was the fact that we also installed an
old Morrow GPS at the same time, so our situation is not exactly the
same as yours.

The job took a whole weekend plus. I'll call our guy tonight and get
his estimate of man-hours.

But I don't think your shop is sandbagging you.

Don

In the end, we were $300 over budget. I'll get the actual figure
tonight as well.