Company Bites The Bullet And Supports Customers After Supplier
Solutions Reportedly Fell Through
In a move that company
officials admit may cost them as much as a quarter of a million
dollars (for a product that they do not manufacture), Direct-To
Avionics (D2A) has announced a full recall of the Crossbow 425EX
AHRS, a derivative of Crossbow's NAV420.
The recall affects over 100 aircraft.
Specifying unsuccessful long term efforts to reach a solution
with supplier Crossbow Technologies (and indeed, several months of
paperwork confirms the extended nature of this problem),
D2A will pay for the replacement of all the units in question...
out of their own pocket. D2A tells ANN that they are hoping that
Crossbow will eventually reimburse them for the units pulled from
the field. Unresolved problems with the Crossbow 420 Series AHRS
will also preclude Direct-To Avionics from incorporating Crossbow
in future experimental Chelton Electronic Flight Instrumentation
Systems (EFIS).
"Direct-To Avionics is committed to providing the best, most
reliable, and most accurate components for our Chelton EFIS
systems. Our customers want to know that when they're flying with
their families, they're flying with the highest quality, best
performing equipment available," said Kirk Hammersmith, President
of Direct-To Avionics.
"Therefore, in our ongoing commitment to bring our customers the
best in state-of-the-art EFIS systems, Direct-To Avionics will now
supply the Pinpoint Inertial Inc. GADAHRS with our experimental
Chelton EFIS systems.
In side by side comparisons with certified systems by Rockwell
Collins, Litef, and others, and after exhaustive, real-world flight
testing, the Pinpoint Inertial GADAHRS (GPS/AirData/Attitude and
Heading Reference System--shown below) has proven to exceed all
performance and reliability parameters established by D2A."
In an exclusive note to ANN, Hammersmith added that, "Attitude
is everything when it comes to an EFIS, and customer safety is
paramount as far as we’re concerned. We refuse to
support a product that can give a pilot erroneous attitude
information, and we’ve experienced 100% failure of the
Crossbow 425’s that have been put out in the field. Crossbow
was given ample time to resolve the issues and after many delays,
we made the decision to bite the bullet and replace these plagued
units. We can’t expect our customers to endlessly wait
for a potential 'fix,' especially when they’ve waited so
patiently, and we’re fortunate to be able to now offer a
replacement unit (Pinpoint Inertial) which exceeds our AHRS
requirements and performance expectations."
Based on technology
currently used in certified commercial and military applications,
the Pinpoint Inertial unit is the first and only GADAHRS optimized
for reliability while working within the dynamics of
high-performance experimental aircraft.
The shift to the Pinpoint Inertial system has been precipitated
by performance and reliability problems plaguing the Crossbow 425EX
(shown right). Direct-To Avionics requests that all Crossbow units
be removed or henceforth limited to Day/VFR flight conditions until
a control group has logged 100 hours each without any performance
problems.
Direct-to-Avionics is the exclusive distributor of Chelton's
experimental EFIS line. D2A also participates in the development
and evaluation of future Chelton systems for both certified and
experimental aircraft.
Officials at Crossbow Technologies were contacted for this
report but have yet to respond... we'll keep you up to date.
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