Tactair AP

[OkieFlyer]

Does anybody know anybody that knows anything about Tactair Autopilots?

This 182 I bought has a Tactair T3 unit and I'd like to see if I can get it working. Sounds like they were fairly common on old Bonanzas. I guess they work on vacuum, and that is the extent of my knowledge on them. I assume they would use the attitude indicator in the system, and the one in this plane seems to be crapping out. I'm not sure if that's the problem, but I'd like to get ahold of someone who might know how to work on them.

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[Henning]

Does anybody know anybody that knows anything about Tactair Autopilots?

This 182 I bought has a Tactair T3 unit and I'd like to see if I can get it working. Sounds like they were fairly common on old Bonanzas. I guess they work on vacuum, and that is the extent of my knowledge on them. I assume they would use the attitude indicator in the system, and the one in this plane seems to be crapping out. I'm not sure if that's the problem, but I'd like to get ahold of someone who might know how to work on them.

Any info would be appreciated.

Yeah, I had one, don't remember what model but I had old AN style gyros. It's an all vacuum system from what I remember, and you are dependent on those gyros. When it came time to bring the panel up to spec there was no way at the time to have modern gyros with that AP, so I scrapped the AP.

Make sure you don't just need to change out the vacuum lines if you are having issues.

Good luck finding someone to work on it, I would hit the Beechtalk forum for that, but most Bonanzas I see have had them replaced with an STEC unit.

 

[OkieFlyer]

Thanks Henning. I did a little perusing over at Beechtalk and found some posts about the Tactair units. The only contact they mentioned was Jeffery Noyles at Modern Avionics in Ohio. Those posts were several years old, so I don't know if they are still valid. I'll just give them a shout and see. I did find an old troubleshooting guide as well. Heck, I'm not even sure the airplane has the components necessary to run it. I'll likely either make it work (if it don't cost an arm and a leg), or tear it out. Don't think I can afford a new one, and it's probably not worth it an old VFR C182. I'll just give the old one the ol' college try.

 

[Henning]

Thanks Henning. I did a little perusing over at Beechtalk and found some posts about the Tactair units. The only contact they mentioned was Jeffery Noyles at Modern Avionics in Ohio. Those posts were several years old, so I don't know if they are still valid. I'll just give them a shout and see. I did find an old troubleshooting guide as well. Heck, I'm not even sure the airplane has the components necessary to run it. I'll likely either make it work (if it don't cost an arm and a leg), or tear it out. Don't think I can afford a new one, and it's probably not worth it an old VFR C182. I'll just give the old one the ol' college try.

Basically what I did, my system had so many problems that it just wasn't worth fixing and putting the gyros for it on the right side. I'm not a big A/P flier.