Untitled

When my encoder failed, during a VFR flight, my first thought was to simply replace the encoder. The radio shop had other ideas. First they checked out the transponder. Then the technician told me he would replace the encoder. We were going to lunch together so we stopped by Aircraft Spruce and bought a Narco AR 850 encoder. Now you have to realize that the Technician was with me.

When I saw that the AR 850 was $244 I asked him about the cost of changing the wiring so I could use the ACK A-30 which cost $160. He said it was up to me. I wanted to get back home as soon as possible so I opted for the Narco encoder. I also had a fleeting thought that we should have taken out the Narco AR850 and look at it but Alfred told me it was unnecessary. What a surprise when he opened the box at the airplane and learned that we had the wrong encoder. We went into the parts manager and learned that Narco made a 20,000 foot model and a completely different 25,000 foot model. By now I had been in Griffin over 2 hours.

So one and one half hours later I returned from Aircraft Spruce with the proper Encoder. I needed the AR 850 for 25,000 feet. Cost was up to $350 for this model. By now I was really into the price range at which point it would have been much cheaper to change to the ACK A-30.

What I learned!! if anything. At your leisure change the encoders out to the ACK A-30 and have an A&P sign them off. This is much better than having an electronics shop charging $70 an hour with a two hour minimum. Also, I plan to send the old encoder back to Narco for repair. They will probably charge $150. Changing encoders takes 5 minutes.

I did send the original encoder to the factory and they returned it saying there had been water damage and it could not be repaired.