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Murphy's Law at work

Ed_Wischmeyer

Well Known Member
So I'm flying home from Oshkosh after visiting friends in Cedar Rapids. Very, very long story later, I made it home with the GTN650 telling me cooling fan failure (not that unusual for GTN650s) and then display overheat. Hmm.

Plane still flyable if I don't fly too long and don't let things get too hot. Okay...

So this morning, I have an appointment at the radio shop to get it fixed -- they're squeezing me in -- and, surprise! No cooling fan failure message.

So I tell this to the tech, and he turns on the system, and surprise! The message is back.

Not sure if this is Murphy's Law or if he moved out of the way for intermittent gremlins...
 
Why do you say “not that unusual for GTN650”? I’ve never had that happen before
 
650 displayed fan failure from day one!

When I installed my new 650 in 2017, it displayed fan failure --- I verified that the fan was, in fact, operating normally. I checked the yellow wire (fan tach) and everything appeared normal. To this day, still get the warning, but fan is operating OK.
 
Plane still flyable if I don't fly too long and don't let things get too hot. Okay...

Hmmmm, that's a pretty fancy box of electrons if it's required to make the plane fly - and I always thought it was pitch & power?!?!?
(sorry, couldn't resist)

Been thinking about avionics & redundancy lately, so this has been on my mind. Carry on...
 
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When I installed my new 650 in 2017, it displayed fan failure --- I verified that the fan was, in fact, operating normally. I checked the yellow wire (fan tach) and everything appeared normal. To this day, still get the warning, but fan is operating OK.

For the price of this box, an intermittent, recurring error like this would P*SS ME OFF no end, and the vendor would get to know me on a first-name basis until it was dealt with.

What are they, $13 large just for the box, not to mention any peripherals, antennae, databases, etc.?
 
Hmmmm, that's a pretty fancy box of electrons if it's required to make the plane fly - and I always thought it was pitch & power?!?!?

It is neither electrons nor pitch and power that makes your airplane fly.

It is and always has been……





MONEY! :p
 
BTW, the tech fixed it in an hour.

If I'd tried to do it, I might have spent all day. He knew what he was doing, I would have klutzed around and taken apart lots more than was needed.
 
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