From: "Marvin Kaye" <marv@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [LML] Re: Pinpoint GADAHRS
To: lml
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:42:08 -0500
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In-Reply-To: <001401c640e0$60fbbb40$660610ac@tgourley>
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Posted for "Tom Gourley" <tom.gourley@verizon.net>:

  Right or wrong Kirk's statement to Aero-News Network was pretty strongly
worded.  Here's a quote form his statement to Aero-News:
  
  "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."
  
  That seems to me to be fairly strong language for a press release.  I'll
leave it up to the reader to decide if this qualifies as flamed or not, but I
do hope Direct To does not, at some point in the future, find it desirable to
re-establish a business relation with Crossbow.
  
  Regarding DO-160E compliance I noticed that Pinpoint's site says their unit
is DO-160E compliant for EMI/HIRF/Lightning protection.  They don't state that
it is fully DO-160E compliant, which, according to one lab website I found,
includes: Temperature & Altitude, Temperature Variation, Humidity, Operational
Shock & Crash Safety, Vibration, Explosion Proofness, Fluids Susceptibility,
Sand and Dust, Fungus Resistance, Salt Spray, Magnetic Effect, Power Input,
Voltage Spike, Audio Frequency Conducted Susceptibility -- Power Inputs,
Induced Signal Susceptibility, Radio Frequency Susceptibility (Radiated &
Conducted), Emission of Radio Frequency Energy, Lightning Induced Transient
Susceptibility, Lighting Direct Effects, Icing, Electrostatic Discharge, Fire.
  
  
  Whew!  That's quite a list.  Is Pinpoint compliant for more than
EMI/HIRF/Lightning Protection?  Probably.  But since they don't provide
details on their website we don't know.  To be fair, I couldn't find a
reference to DO-160E in Crossbow's Nav420 spec so we don't know how it stacks
up against DO-160E either.
  
  Regardless of the level of testing and compliance of Pinpoint's GADAHRS (do
we really need a seven letter acronym?) I heartily agree with your statement
about testing the integrated system in your own airplane before trusting it
with your life.
  
  Tom Gourley