400A autopilot

Pete Somers · #1 02-26-09, 03:05 AM

Dave
As Ernie has said the 400A is a good A/P and like all things subject to aging, however there is plenty of shops to repair them and still a lot of spares available. It works fine and easy to use.
Stick with it, you will find it an excellent system.

Pete

rhurt · #2 02-26-09, 08:53 PM

Has anyone hooked one up to a Garmin 430/530W with a gpss convertor? Does the gpss make it track better on a cross country course and will it fly procedure turns and gps approaches?

CO_Skymaster · #3 02-27-09, 01:02 AM

I'm curious about the same if I hook an Aspen Pro into the autopilot.

Pete Somers · #4 02-27-09, 10:53 AM

If you hook this system up to the A/P and you have a Course/Heading input and a left/right and operate it in NAV mode should be no problem.

Pete

Ernie Martin · #5 02-27-09, 02:57 PM

Pete, I'm no expert on this, but the "if" in your sentence is significant. I think it may be hard to get the two units to "talk" and "handshake" effectively. And lots of luck finding a shop with experience in marrying a modern GPS with a legacy ARC autopilot. Again, I could be wrong, but could you expand on the difficulty in achieving this?

Ernie

Pete Somers · #6 02-27-09, 03:18 PM

Sorry Ernie, I did not take the time to think about this one and put it into something that made some sense. But Ok here we go.

In normal NAV mode the 400A takes heading information which on a HSI is provided by the Course (yellow arrow with the L/R bar in the centre on the King system).

Left/Right is provided by the NAV system to provide track error.

All or most GPS provide a track error signal that can be displayed on a standard CDI for track error, this left/right can be wired through a switch and you will be able to either use NAV or GPS. However you will have to use the No1 NAV system as this supplied the CRS error signal.

Hope this make sense

Regards
Pete

rhurt · #7 02-27-09, 07:07 PM

I have the Garmin 530W and Aspen Pro installed and should have the 400A installed by April 2. I am expecting hands off waas approaches, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I understand the GPSS should send 'approach' sensitivity to the 400A for more precise tracking even during regular cross country GPS navigation. Do you guys agree?