Honeywell KFC225 autopilot roll servo failure

"Scott Skylane" wrote in message
...
Matt Barrow wrote:


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?



Matt,

See: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q36E21BDB

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.

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".


--
Matt

---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

In sci.electronics.design Peter wrote:
wrote
Try
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/produ...ols/index.html
maybe?

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 might be a silly amount of paperwork, but then you'd more than likely
have a reliable autopilot. As it stands, you are getting warranty
replacements, but there is a time and hassle factor of getting them
swapped out. Somewhere there is a break-even point.

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)

Have you checked out the rest of the electrical system on the aircraft?
Maybe there is some other problem that is burning this stuff out. This
might even involve hooking up some kind of data logger and flying around
for a while; some spikes might not show up in ground testing or on short
flights.

Matt Roberds

In sci.electronics.design Brian Whatcott wrote:
On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 01:37:37 GMT, wrote:
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/produ...ols/index.html

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!

I based my suggestion on a few different observations. I used to work
at a flight simulator company and it was a lot easier to make the
Collins radios work right than the King ones. At that job, and since
then, I have also noticed that the "cheap" avionics package often
involves King radios, while the "upgrade" packages involve Collins
radios. Finally, I went on a job interview with Collins in 1996 and was
totally impressed by the amount of shiny! stuff at the plant in Cedar
Rapids. (Got an offer, too, but chose another offer in Dallas over
Cedar Rapids. Probably should have picked Cedar Rapids.)

Matt Roberds

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:13:17 GMT, wrote:

///. I used to work
at a flight simulator company and it was a lot easier to make the
Collins radios work right than the King ones.
///
Matt Roberds


Hmmm.... radios are one of the items where simulators invariably use a
front panel mock-up with switches and pots signaling the host.
They are not designed or provided by the avionics makers.
Making a mock-up work doesn't have much relation to the
avionics OEM, seems to me??

Brian W

In sci.electronics.design Brian Whatcott wrote:
On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:13:17 GMT, wrote:
I used to work at a flight simulator company and it was a lot easier
to make the Collins radios work right than the King ones.

Hmmm.... radios are one of the items where simulators invariably use a
front panel mock-up with switches and pots signaling the host.

Not always. Many of the radios I worked with (business jet and up) were
the kind where there was just a control head in the panel and the actual
guts (tuner, etc) were someplace else. We used the real control heads
and just dispensed with the remote guts. For the Collins radios, you
could read the spec, set up the control and data lines to the control
head, and get it right fairly quickly. For the King radios, reading the
spec was only the first step of a long journey into undocumented
goofiness. This pattern repeated itself with other hardware where we
used the actual aircraft item complete, such as a FMS.

Matt Roberds