Fond memories...
Ah, my old "Dog 10"!
I had one in my big-engined AA1 (Grumman) for close to 20 years, and except for the nylon gears on the OBS stripping out, so that you only had a couple of "sweet spots" that would actually turn the card), it worked without a hitch - probably put close to 2000 flight hours on it! It was great - an electric DG which gave me a little redundancy over the vacumn system, and an HSI - probably the best bang for the buck you could find! At the time I bought it, the thing was already two generations old, but I had a friendly avionics tech who knew how to find good used stuff, and it never came out of the panel after installation.
All those glowing words...but I doubt I'd buy one today! The newest one is probably 30 years old, and that is a long time for bearings to either run or sit unused. You probably won't find many people who know how to work on them, and if you do, they will have to have their own supply of spare parts, because Narco won't support them. You will also need to find some sort of electronics converter, because the only units that I KNOW it will play with are obsolete - like a Narco Mark 16, or older Mark 12....neither of which are even legal anymore. Oh, and the DGO is about a foot or more long - hard to fit one in a typical RV...
Yes, it was a great and revolutionary unit for it's time - an HSI for the masses - but it's time has passed....unless you're restoring an antique to original condition, go with a modern solid-state display....
Paul
