A quick follow up to Mark’s quick follow up post…
Peter, welcome to Meyers. You’ve been active on the forum for only a month and have already bagged a unicorn. Holy $#!+ !!! Your new Meyers family has been agonizing over how to achieve what you have done for years. If you do a search you will see the many different posts of false starts on how to get this done. My deposit to Stein (for tax reasons (let Biden pay for some) and to take advantage of the GI275 promotion) goes out today. Stein did not ask me for a deposit.
My plane lives at UXL on the Louisiana coast and Stein is at FBL 850.8 NM away in Michigan. I have a great avionics shop close by. Not considering them. I am emulating Peter and going to Stein to have this done for many reasons, but here are the top few. Foremost, Mr. Stein has a great working relationship with his local FSDO. No magic there, all by the book; but to get a complex approval such as this takes several months and a lot of cooperation on the part of the A&P and the FSDO going back and forth. Having a previous 337 in hand does help, but the days of “cookie cutter” FSDO approvals of previous 337s are gone. Ask me how I know? Without our beloved Nelson Harding’s help I’d be grounded on a much more simple 337 that is used on at least 40 of our fleet. Nelson saved me. Thanks Nels. I will save precious time and $ by following in Pete’s footsteps. I also feel a debt of gratitude towards Stein for breaking the code for our planes and want to show some Meyers loyalty to him.
As Mark said, Stein is a great guy. Very personable and accessible. His shop is busy and that is a testament to their work. Call and ask for Stein (651) 460-6955. If he’s buried in a panel he’ll still call you back quickly. http://www.steinair.com
Another deciding factor for me was Peter’s PIREP about how solid the installation is. I discussed this with Stein and he was totally thrilled with the performance of his install. Flying with Pete to dial things in has made Stein a big fan of the Myers 200. I loved hearing him talk about the speed of our old girls and how well the airframe and wing design of our airplanes puts them ahead of Bonanzas and Cirrus ( Cirruses, or is it Cirrie? Ah who cares, our planes and our pilots are better). I’ll go with a tried and true experienced installer instead of someone hacking around my plane and them making me a test pilot. I’m getting the install for safety to save me from having to hand fly IFR. Want that engage button two work properly after pressing it in the clag.
Let’s show Stein some love for having done this for Peter. When we passed a sign up sheet around a few years ago trying to convince TruTrack to certify an autopilot there were 18 people that said they were willing to put money down right away. Many more were on the fence. I am already behind two of our other Meyers brothers that are scheduled to have Stein copy Peter’s install on their planes. That will make me install number four. Get on the list. All of the kinks will be worked out.
Is the travel worth it to Michigan? That’s why I bought a fast airplane. As mentioned it’s 850.8 NM. Heading 359 for 5.6 hoursish depending on winds. I’ll top all four tanks, put my Little Johnnie red trucker jug on the passenger seat, file, climb to 10,000′ and do a non stop hoping that ATC doesn’t call in the middle of using Little Johnnie. I’ll go LOP and therefore have a full tank of fuel when I land. On the way back I’ll be all refreshed for Karen because my new George will have flown most of the way.
We’re actually getting a modern autopilot. Damn. Finally something going right in the world.