Aztec Driver
Line Up and Wait
So I am at a decision point here. Do I spend the money to upgrade some of the avionics, or do I just repair what absolutely needs repaired and deal with it until I get another airplane with better working avionics?
I really love my Twin Comanche, but I cannot afford to keep it on my own and still upgrade it. My partner would prefer to have a Mooney, but I wanted the extra payload and slight speed of the TwinCo. Most of the Mooneys he likes are twice the price I paid for Twinkie. That leaves a lot of room for upgrades.
The autopilot is mostly non-functional. (Unless you are an adventurous type) It will roll you into a death spiral in no time if you try to intercept a heading that is more than 10 degrees off your present heading. Altitude hold does not work. The heading indicator has begun to rotate full circle for several minutes before finally erecting and solidifying. It may take 10-15 minutes to do so. It works well after that, though. Nobody wants to repair the autopilot, and tell me that it is better to put a new one in, as mine is not supported anymore and would cost more to rebuild than it is worth.
That means I can have several options for upgrade. But they all cost 25-30K to complete. That puts the amount of money into the airplane at more than it is worth, even with the upgrades. The STEC 30 autopilot is around 13K, and then since I will need an HI, which I figured I might as well have an HSI, that starts to get close to the price of the Aspen Avionics unit. So it keeps spiraling upward in cost. Add non compatible radios and a non standard panel and it gets daunting. As much as this airplane has taught me that I can fly an airplane without a working autopilot in hard IMC, it is not a fun workload, and I need to enjoy my time in the air.
So, is it worth it to put this much money into an aging aircraft?
I really love my Twin Comanche, but I cannot afford to keep it on my own and still upgrade it. My partner would prefer to have a Mooney, but I wanted the extra payload and slight speed of the TwinCo. Most of the Mooneys he likes are twice the price I paid for Twinkie. That leaves a lot of room for upgrades.
The autopilot is mostly non-functional. (Unless you are an adventurous type) It will roll you into a death spiral in no time if you try to intercept a heading that is more than 10 degrees off your present heading. Altitude hold does not work. The heading indicator has begun to rotate full circle for several minutes before finally erecting and solidifying. It may take 10-15 minutes to do so. It works well after that, though. Nobody wants to repair the autopilot, and tell me that it is better to put a new one in, as mine is not supported anymore and would cost more to rebuild than it is worth.
That means I can have several options for upgrade. But they all cost 25-30K to complete. That puts the amount of money into the airplane at more than it is worth, even with the upgrades. The STEC 30 autopilot is around 13K, and then since I will need an HI, which I figured I might as well have an HSI, that starts to get close to the price of the Aspen Avionics unit. So it keeps spiraling upward in cost. Add non compatible radios and a non standard panel and it gets daunting. As much as this airplane has taught me that I can fly an airplane without a working autopilot in hard IMC, it is not a fun workload, and I need to enjoy my time in the air.
So, is it worth it to put this much money into an aging aircraft?