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Advanced Flight Systems

H

Haines

Member
How do you guys feel about AFS avionics in the RVs? Especially the 4500 series. Thanks for any help. Ed
 
I've never had an AFS 4500, but between my two RVs I've owned 3 AF3500 series displays and am now running dual AF5600Ts. I've never had a hardware problem. Any other issues have been minor and dealt with immediately. I purchased the hardware for my last panel upgrade from them because of their continued good performance.
 
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I used them for many years in the RV-10 and the Kitfox. Really worked wonderfully. I have upgraded them to 5400's with touch.
Vic
 
Just upgraded to the 5500?s from the 4500?s don?t know why because the 4500?s were great. Had them for maybe 7 years, before that 3500?s. Great company and product. Larry
 
AFS 5500

AFS is the best. Hickmans are a great couple running a great company with a great product. They stand behind the equipment and are improving products as they mature. I have a 5500 in an RV-8 and could not be happier. At Oshkosh they came to my plane to load some new software to make sure it booted up correctly. I will soon upgrade to TOUCH and their ADS-B solution.
 
When it comes to EIFS, I am biased. For IFR flying strong preference towards GRT and AFS, though I have not had much experience with Garmin so can't say.
 
I have two AF-5600's in my RV-7 and couldn't be happier with them! Great products for VFR and/or IFR flight and unmatched support.
 
I have a printed copy of a 5600

Taped to my panel ----- it won't be long before I replace the paper copy with hardware!

Ron
 
I have an AFS Sport AoA in my Lancair 235 and am very pleased with it. It has saved my bacon a couple times. Their customer service is excellent, IMHO.
 
AFS is really good stuff and so is Skyview. When it comes down to it how they support you is what really makes the difference between them and the competition. I had dual 4500 displays in my RV 10. It got a little difficult for me when making the G430 work with the AFS but I would call Rob Hickman while sitting in the airplane and he would patiently walk me through it. Outstanding customer support. I would call him on weekends and he would still help me. See if Garmin will do that.
 
5600 & 5500

I have a 5600 and 5500 in my RV7 and love them. Been flying 2 years and 300+ hours. Bright screens and extremely easy to use. Two button pushes will get you any where you want with the screens! Try that with ANY of the others. The flight director works the way a true flight director should. Very important! Great people to deal with and a pleasure to talk to. Easy to update data and I download data after every flight on my data card and upload to Savvy Analysis to see EVERY paramater of my engine for every flight. Only takes seconds to do. I also download the logbook data and put it in an spredsheet. You can't go wrong here. I am not affiliated with them, but would be proud to do so. :D
 
I have an AFS 4500 in my RV8 and it works great. It has XM WX. It shut down once on a very hot California day. I had my canopy shut and left it in the full sun to bake for a couple hours. When I taxied out and did my run up the 4500 shut down. I was stranded on a Sunday and got an almost immediate response from Rob Hickman via email. My operating system was out of date, my bad. Let it cool and flew it home without issue. I followed Robs direction and updated my software and never experienced another issue.

The customer service from AFS is exceptional.
 
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Not much to add

I'm still using my vintage 2007 3500 EFIS / EMS. Rob has offered to make me a good deal on a newer model, but this thing has been bullet proof for over 500 hours. For a vfr pilot and plane I just haven't been able to justify upgrading. I'm used to it and I like it. When glass panels started coming out I was very conscious and concerned of the almost immediate obsolescence factor in the electronics industry. So far I have resisted the newer bling in the interest of my retirement. Maybe someday...

Oh I did have to replace the internal coin battery during the condition inspection after 7 years when the unit started forgetting some of its settings and defaulting to the originals. Not a big deal at all. I think it cost 3 or 4 dollars locally at Walgreens and took less than 15 minutes to replace. :) And I had an EGT probe go bad about a week before Oshkosh. It lasted like 8 years. I was concerned I might not have it in time to install and flight test. Shoot, Jenny had it to me in about 2 days and I'm half way across the U.S. No special freight charges, either. Great people, great product, satisfied customer.
 
And here I am hoping somebody is finally going to say they've had it with their AF3400 EFIS/EMS and they just have to upgrade. I've got a brand new, never flown AF2500 in the panel and the only box that will fit in there to replace it and bring EFIS capabilities to the same spot in the panel is the AF3400. Needless to say, I am not hesitating to keep moving forward with AFS equipment, especially as a dissimilar EFIS to augment my GRT EFIS equipment over on the pilot's side of the panel.
 
The best part of AFS is their customer support. Second to none. During my install, I had an issue (turned out to be the 430W), Rob sent me his personal cell #. I was able to find the problem sitting in the plane with him on the phone.
 
Great Stuff

I was an early user of the AFS2500 engine monitor. It worked flawlessly for the 800 hours I flew and owned the plane. It continues flying today with the new owner.

My new 7 has dual 5500T's. It has not flown yet but I like to turn it and look at the purdy screens!!

The customer service has been mentioned numerous times. With everything else being somewhat equal the company with the great customer service wins out. That's why I went with AFS.

If you just getting going and your panel is down the road a ways, definitely consider a pre made plug and play panel from AFS or Steinair. FYI, all non AFS equipment was purchased from Steinair. Both great companies.
 
AFS has always provided cutting edge software, integration, customer support, and upgrade paths. They are certainly industry leaders not to mention great people. Just my $.02 and yes I am biased... :D
 
While Rob, Jenny, and the gang provide outstanding support, their newest member outshines them all.

Just ask to speak with Truman...... :D
 
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