Dugaru
Well Known Member
It was kind of annoying when my brand new Garmin GSA28 pitch servo died not long after it was installed. It was more annoying to learn, from the distributor, that there had in fact been a "rash" of such failures.
To me, that qualified as "information that would have been nice to know before installing the servos."
In any event, I began waiting for the replacement pitch servo. Given the "rash" statement, I asked Garmin if they would also replace my roll servo. It was a consecutive serial number with the pitch servo, and it sounded like there was some sort of problem with the devices.
Garmin declined. I asked them, in a post here, how many servos had failed. Garmin said it was only a "low number." Garmin did not identify the number. For anyone interested in the exchange, it's here:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=148740
After someone in that thread suggested I contact Garmin offline, I did that. I was told the following:
"We have thousands of servos in the field, so if we put a percentage to servos in the field, to servo failures, it would probably be less than 1%.
Problem has been resolved on our end and I am confident this will not happen again."
So I got the pitch servo replaced, and left the roll servo as is.
Well, apparently I was lucky enough to hit a 1 in 100 chance two times in a row. Despite Garmin's confidence, today my roll servo died. Same error message, same apparent fault.
Note that I am not the only person that has had both Garmin servos die:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1173408#post1173408
So that's at least two people who hit 1/100 odds twice in a row. We should head for the track.
The thing is, none of this hassle had to happen. If I had known that there had been a "rash" of failures, then I could have postponed my installation and installed reliable servos when Garmin had them ready. After blowing that opportunity, if Garmin had simply recalled these servos, then I'd have both of them replaced by now, and I would be happily heading for Cape Cod with a working autopilot.
Anyway, I thought somebody might find my story useful. I know I would have loved to have known this information before doing my panel upgrade.
To me, that qualified as "information that would have been nice to know before installing the servos."
In any event, I began waiting for the replacement pitch servo. Given the "rash" statement, I asked Garmin if they would also replace my roll servo. It was a consecutive serial number with the pitch servo, and it sounded like there was some sort of problem with the devices.
Garmin declined. I asked them, in a post here, how many servos had failed. Garmin said it was only a "low number." Garmin did not identify the number. For anyone interested in the exchange, it's here:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=148740
After someone in that thread suggested I contact Garmin offline, I did that. I was told the following:
"We have thousands of servos in the field, so if we put a percentage to servos in the field, to servo failures, it would probably be less than 1%.
Problem has been resolved on our end and I am confident this will not happen again."
So I got the pitch servo replaced, and left the roll servo as is.
Well, apparently I was lucky enough to hit a 1 in 100 chance two times in a row. Despite Garmin's confidence, today my roll servo died. Same error message, same apparent fault.
Note that I am not the only person that has had both Garmin servos die:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1173408#post1173408
So that's at least two people who hit 1/100 odds twice in a row. We should head for the track.
The thing is, none of this hassle had to happen. If I had known that there had been a "rash" of failures, then I could have postponed my installation and installed reliable servos when Garmin had them ready. After blowing that opportunity, if Garmin had simply recalled these servos, then I'd have both of them replaced by now, and I would be happily heading for Cape Cod with a working autopilot.
Anyway, I thought somebody might find my story useful. I know I would have loved to have known this information before doing my panel upgrade.