flickroll
Well Known Member
One (actually two) of the upgrades that I made to the disassembled RV-8 that I bought last fall was to install TCW Technologies Intelligent Flap Controller (IFC) and their Safety Trim servo controller
After about 6 hours of flight the IFC controller failed. This happened on a Friday after work, so on Saturday I went to the hangar to troubleshoot. The failure mode was it would run the flap motor up, but not down. Thinking perhaps I had a broken wire in one of my harnesses, I removed all of the floorboards and started verifying the wiring. That looked OK, so on a whim (it was Saturday....) I called Bob Newman, the owner of the company. He answered the phone, I described the problem, and he was very helpful and patient as we worked through the issue. We exchanged numerous phone calls that day as he helped me work through the problem.
He indicated he had never had a failure of one of his devices and was puzzled about the issue, but at the end of the troubleshooting concluded the wiring in my airplane was good and the controller had failed. He sent a new controller out Monday, it came Wednesday and after I plugged it in the flaps started working again in both directions. Bob even included prepaid postage to mail the bad controller back to him. He received it Saturday and immediately figured out what had happened. On this particular device a wrong component was installed which subsequently blew a transistor in the down circuit. He then checked all of his inventory and found that my box was the only one that had the wrong component.
So kudos to Bob for his super customer service, especially over a weekend. On top of that his products are excellent. The Safety Trim is designed to prevent a run away trim servo, and the IFC is the logic behind the control of flaps with a flap switch on the pilot stick and a flap switch on the cp stick. Both products work great.
After about 6 hours of flight the IFC controller failed. This happened on a Friday after work, so on Saturday I went to the hangar to troubleshoot. The failure mode was it would run the flap motor up, but not down. Thinking perhaps I had a broken wire in one of my harnesses, I removed all of the floorboards and started verifying the wiring. That looked OK, so on a whim (it was Saturday....) I called Bob Newman, the owner of the company. He answered the phone, I described the problem, and he was very helpful and patient as we worked through the issue. We exchanged numerous phone calls that day as he helped me work through the problem.
He indicated he had never had a failure of one of his devices and was puzzled about the issue, but at the end of the troubleshooting concluded the wiring in my airplane was good and the controller had failed. He sent a new controller out Monday, it came Wednesday and after I plugged it in the flaps started working again in both directions. Bob even included prepaid postage to mail the bad controller back to him. He received it Saturday and immediately figured out what had happened. On this particular device a wrong component was installed which subsequently blew a transistor in the down circuit. He then checked all of his inventory and found that my box was the only one that had the wrong component.
So kudos to Bob for his super customer service, especially over a weekend. On top of that his products are excellent. The Safety Trim is designed to prevent a run away trim servo, and the IFC is the logic behind the control of flaps with a flap switch on the pilot stick and a flap switch on the cp stick. Both products work great.
