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 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
 
Caveman said:
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.
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I am just new owner of RV7 with an AF3500 EFIS. I left the master and I discharge the battery. I've charged the battery but I've got a problem with Plane power alternator wiht an intermitent charging problem and suddenly I've lost power on my EFIS and never come back. In the user manuel it said there is a diode protection but I don't know if that fail.
Is there anyone has found a similar problem with the AF3500 EFIS?
 
komodo58 said:
I am just new owner of RV7 with an AF3500 EFIS. I left the master and I discharge the battery. I've charged the battery but I've got a problem with Plane power alternator wiht an intermitent charging problem and suddenly I've lost power on my EFIS and never come back. In the user manuel it said there is a diode protection but I don't know if that fail.
Is there anyone has found a similar problem with the AF3500 EFIS?
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Have you tried powering the 3500 up on the bench? That will tell you if the problem is with the 3500 or some other issue in the Rv-7.

while the older AFS screens just seem to keep on working, have you considered upgrading to a current model? If you weren’t aware, AFS has a nice trade in program. I traded in a 3400 last year after ten years in my RV-10. there are significant performance improvement, as well as running the current operating system there are all kinds of neat bells and whistles available to help reduce your workload in the cockpit.
 
I have the 4500's. Love them... I keep looking for a reason to upgrade but cant find one.
 

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rleffler said:
Have you tried powering the 3500 up on the bench? That will tell you if the problem is with the 3500 or some other issue in the Rv-7.

while the older AFS screens just seem to keep on working, have you considered upgrading to a current model? If you weren’t aware, AFS has a nice trade in program. I traded in a 3400 last year after ten years in my RV-10. there are significant performance improvement, as well as running the current operating system there are all kinds of neat bells and whistles available to help reduce your workload in the cockpit.
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I am interrested indeed to this program but I guest my AF3500 has to be workable. I will call them Monday.

In the pilot guide it said with relay protection diodes installed, the AFS screen can be turned on before the engine is started. I don't know if is installed. May be this diodes is burned.

Or may be there is one inside the unit to protect the circuit. By chance, to you have the schematic diagram of the unit?
 
I am interrested indeed to this program but I guest my AF3500 has to be workable. I will call them Monday.

In the pilot guide it said with relay protection diodes installed, the AFS screen can be turned on before the engine is started. I don't know if is installed. May be this diodes is burned.

Or may be there is one inside the unit to protect the circuit. By chance, to you have the schematic diagram of the unit?
 
Please look at post #5 and then look again at my avatar. I have owned the plane since 2018 and am proud to carry on as the current caretaker of Stu’s RV-8 and will continue to use his avatar. Stu gave me my initial FFI check ride in this plane when I had an RV-4 and then flew with him many times since. I ditto his comments about AFS and I eventually did the touchscreen and ADSB upgrade he discussed. I made AFS aware of an issue I was having with very low AOA volume and they came up with a fix on a software update to allow more AOA volume and now everything works great. AFS Rocks.

How bout that- Stu & I are on the same post!

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komodo58 said:
I am interrested indeed to this program but I guest my AF3500 has to be workable. I will call them Monday.

In the pilot guide it said with relay protection diodes installed, the AFS screen can be turned on before the engine is started. I don't know if is installed. May be this diodes is burned.

Or may be there is one inside the unit to protect the circuit. By chance, to you have the schematic diagram of the unit?
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That may be a bad assumption. Talk to Trisha or Jenny about the trade-in program. They don’t resell the units, they use them for parts to repair other units.

Internal schematics aren’t available. All of the AFS screens can be on during engine start. I currently have two 6600s and a 5500 in my panel.

you are guessing at what might be the root cause. It is just one of many potential symptoms. If you pull the screen and test it on the bench using a spare battery or a bench power supply, it will confirm if the problem is in the efis or someplace in your panel. Have you ruled out having a open connection to either the power or ground?
 
A couple of years ago, the 4500 that was in my airplane went belly up.. (Xbow ADAHRS component died). Rob said that they could probably fix it, but the trade-up to a 5400 was such a great deal that I went for that (5400 uses same bezel and is same size as the 4500, so no panel changes needed). I was also using a 3500 as second display/moving map/ADS-B traffic and retained that. It was a difficult conversion but once completed works great and I was able to avoid the expense of a new panel.

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Dual AFS 5600T's in my -7 and just finished my Javron Super Cub with single 5600T. Both aircraft were AFS quick panel with the Advanced Control Module. I could not be happier. The whole AFS team is terrific!
 
AFS rocks! Kudos to Rob, Jenny, and the AFS team. The BEST customer service out there! I have AFS 5600's in the RV-7 and a Kitfox SS. Believe me, I've put them to the test in all kinds of flying conditions.
 
Comparisons of avionics systems are always... interesting. Owners will report favorable experiences, but real comparisons across vendors don't seem to happen. And it's this same way when owners compare airplanes. Disclaimer: I know nothing about AFS and have had zero interactions with the company or their products. I do note that some AFS have this very curious overlay of the HSI atop the attitude indicator. I guess folks get used to it, but then, pilots get used to all kinds of things. And it's also interesting to talk to the reputable avionics shops about various products and all the factors that go into comparison. Bottom line is that there's lots to learn beyond owner enthusiasm. And very few owners have any objectivity about what's in their airplane.
 
Ed_Wischmeyer said:
Comparisons of avionics systems are always... interesting. Owners will report favorable experiences, but real comparisons across vendors don't seem to happen.
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Heh...that describes virtually every product info post on this site. Personal preference and anecdotes rule the day. Caveat emptor... :)
 
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