Dual glide slope, $95...priceless!
It's funny how anything less than $100 seems cheap when it comes to
fixing something on an airplane (especially when it's your own
airplane). Hmmm, must be because after the inevitable $1000+ repairs,
anything less than $100 seems like chump change. Go figure.
When we bought the Arrow, one thought I had when looking at pictures of
the panel was "Cool, dual glide slopes!"...only to later discover that
the glide slope in the #2 nav head didn't work. I don't recall if we
were told or if we surmised that we may not have a glide slope receiver
for the #2 nav. After just now poking around a bit on the web, I've
learned that our nav radios have built in glide slope receivers.
We had the plane at the avionics shop to get the VORs tuned since it's
never good when the #1 VOR indicates six degrees left of course when the
#2 VOR indicates (correctly) that you're on course. It turns out this
was an easy fix for the avionics guys. While doing the work, they
informed us that we do indeed have a glide slope receiver on the #2 nav
and that the problem can likely be fixed for an hour of labor ($95). We
authorize the hour for diagnosis and the problem turned out to be a few
recessed pins in a connector. The end result? We now have a functional
#2 glide slope and it only cost us $95...ah, life is good. Compared to a
rough estimate of $1700 to buy/install a second glide slope receiver,
the $95 option is...well...chump change.
Of course, now we *need* to go test fly the plane. Like I said, life is
good! :-)
--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
"To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become
a private pilot you must strive to master four of them"
- Rod Machado
(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)
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