Avionics Nightmare

M

Marshall

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Dec 29, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Western MD
Display Name
Display name:
Lee
1976 206G I bought 8 months ago is still being worked on by Avionics guy. Was previously flown as a spotter plane Part 135 for Forest Services for fires in west.
Had Iridian Satellite and FM radios needed to be removed. The previous owner had a major Avionics upgrade in 2002 and 2009 by the same Avionics shop. They had a wiring diagram and previous experience. On way to airport, the main attitude indicator quit, and the seller deducted the cost of replacement from the selling price. The seller took plane to this Avionics guy to have ADSB installed per agreement.
So after changing my mind several times, I am having an Aspen Pro Plus MAX with ACU that drives Century 2000 autopilot, a JPI 930, a GTX345R, a GMA345 Audio, and GTN750i., keeping DME, Garmin 430, Radar Altimeter, and Traffic.
The plane was gutted, old wiring pulled, A Garmin 530 and audio panel was sold on eBay by Avionics Guys.
I have to travel 5 hrs by car to the airport, so I can be there for a few days, cannot rent a plane.
I have had little to no movement since January 2020.
I had another avionics guy take a look at pictures and he estimates 3 to 4 weeks work needed and he wants to travel to the airport 5 hrs away and work for a week and ferry to the local airport.
Looking past the money, I do not want to burn a bridge behind me.
I have paid for hardware and labor up to this point. The engine monitor is about completed. We would mount an AHAURS on wing tie-down to run Ipad and get a ferry ticket.
Local Avionics guy that is ferrying to local airport says he will stay on the job till completed but wants to redo the entire wiring diagram that has just been completed....he found some mistakes.
I do not change contractors on anything midstream....but I am at end of rope.
I would like to keep the original Avionics guy happy, which could be useful in the future.
This is my first plane ....any suggestions.
 
sounds like a one-man band with way too much going on it his life. Is this the result of some sort of family crisis?
 
Marshall said:
but wants to redo the entire wiring diagram that has just been completed....he found some mistakes.
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How does this harnyuck no what's right or wrong in a wiring diagram for a plane he's never seen? Or did he shag his butt over there to look at the work he's trying to relieve your current shop of?

Fish? yeah, fish. I smell something fishy.
 
Ravioli said:
How does this harnyuck no what's right or wrong in a wiring diagram for a plane he's never seen? Or did he shag his butt over there to look at the work he's trying to relieve your current shop of?

Fish? yeah, fish. I smell something fishy.
Click to expand...
After he saw a digital picture of the wiring diagram he noticed the 750i wired as com 2 and nav1 and the Garmin 430 com1/nav2 , maybe there is a reason for that....over my pay scale. Just a quick glance some questions??
 
Marshall said:
After he saw a digital picture of the wiring diagram he noticed the 750i wired as com 2 and nav1 and the Garmin 430 com1/nav2 , maybe there is a reason for that....over my pay scale. Just a quick glance some questions??
Click to expand...

That’s odd, unless you were installing a GMA35, which would be correct (you then configure com2 to be com1 in software, it’s a fail safe provision so the other radio gets connected if the GTN goes offline), but you mention the 345.
 
So what's the story out of the original shop? If it was just dragging on that's one thing, but if they are actively not working on it, that's a whole other ball of wax. What kind of communication are you getting from them?
 
Need to see the physical layout of the panel. What is Nav1 driving, what is Nav2 driving, is there an A/P that is driven specifically by the 750?

There's just a lot of reasons why.
 
Ryan Klems said:
That’s odd, unless you were installing a GMA35, which would be correct (you then configure com2 to be com1 in software, it’s a fail safe provision so the other radio gets connected if the GTN goes offline), but you mention the 345.
Click to expand...
Wow I cannot believe it, you saved me from a awkward situation. Thanks! We are using a GMA35 remote audio that if the 750i takes a dump, you would have no way to switch to a com 2. I failed to get it correct hardware in my original post. Sorry. This is the kinda thing I wanted to prevent between avionics switch. The second guy also had wrong info from me.
That explains it, and I remember many months ago having this conversation.....and credit to second Avionics guy ...he told me maybe a conversation would clear it up why wired like that.....but not a good thing to question.
Thanks for your time, and reading between the lines.
 
Honestly, it sounds like both situations are going to result in pain. Obviously only getting bits and pieces of the story, but from what you're relaying the second guy sounds like he could also be a disaster, albeit not as bad as current.

Also, the current avionics shop has royally f**ked you if they haven't made material progress in 6mo. I wouldn't give a second thought to burning that bridge all the way to the ground. Frankly, you'd be an absolute fool to ever use that shop again, for anything. You know the definition of insanity...

I'd get a 2nd (or 3rd?) opinion on what's going to be involved in finishing the job.
 
Unfortunately, my experience has been that the avionics guys are worse than A&Ps in terms of quality and ability to deliver on-time. Even if you're in town with them.

I wish you good luck.
 
Most shops have been honest about their workload since ADSB push...sounds like this guy wasn’t. I’d be going ballistic by now.
I saw on another board a guy’s plane has been in a shop since September. Owner got sick...you know the rest.
 
wsuffa said:
Unfortunately, my experience has been that the avionics guys are worse than A&Ps in terms of quality and ability to deliver on-time. Even if you're in town with them.

I wish you good luck.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have had a few bad experiences of your own. There is no excuse for the lack of service the OP has received. Not all avionics shops are out to get you....
 
Stories like this are why I'm so glad I undertook my avionics upgrade on my own. Approach Fast Stack hub/harnesses + a cooperative A&P/IA that was willing to supervise + a lot of my own blood, sweat and tears. With custom pre-fab harnesses, most of the skilled work is done for you. The rest is mostly just tedious removing old equipment, removing old wires, routing new wires and installing new racks. It's not that technically challenging. And, setting aside the value of your own time, it's much cheaper.
 
Doug Reid said:
Sounds like you have had a few bad experiences of your own. There is no excuse for the lack of service the OP has received. Not all avionics shops are out to get you....
Click to expand...
No, there are some good ones, but finding the good ones can be a challenge.

The first one I used - affiliated with but no owned by the shop that did a good job on the MX on my plane - earned the name of 'cluster f^<k' avionics. They installed my GNS-430 and it took 3 months to get the plane back. After some intermittent issues, I took it elsewhere, who found that they mangled one of the slide-in connectors so badly that the install had to be redone. (When my plane was suffering its fate, there was another gentleman with a 210 similarly getting worked over by the shop. The shop ended up going out of business mane a year later.)

I used another one later that had a stellar reputation - a few weeks after I got the plane back the remote gyro on the HSI lost lock on occasion. It was fine when it went in the shop, stable as a rock. Got my attention making an IFR departure out of Four Corners. Took the plane to a different shop, only to discover that the remote gyro had been replaced with a bad one full of 'radio shack' parts. We checked the serial numbers against the one that should have been in the plane - no match. Only one place where it could have disappeared. It was cheaper to get a new one than overhaul the bad one.

And another one in the DC area that screwed a couple of folks (including the airport manager of another area airport) on IFR certs. THAT made the rounds and the shop is now out of business.

Unfortunately, some of the avionics stuff can be badly installed but the problem doesn't show up until later. I learned that even the best of recommendations was no guarantee.
 
Gel for ya. You got a cool plane with plans for a cool panel and no joy. It sounds like you need to just have a sit down and heart to heart with who is working on it now and hammer out a written timeline.
In their minds have probably spent more time than they feel is fair to charge her for not getting much done and now I’ve gotten tired of working on it so it just sits. There’s a Plane like that in our local shop that needed a lot of stuff done but not almost a years worth of stuff. It just gets pushed to the back of the shop and sits
 
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