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Rant: My backup transponder fried a circuit board mid-flight yesterday
Was coming into Austin Bergstrom around 3 PM. Mode C just died on the screen. No warning. Had to squawk 7600 and talk to approach on a handheld. Landed fine but the shop found a burnt regulator pin. Cost me $680 to swap the board. Anyone else seen these Garmin GTX units fail that suddenly?
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angela_carter3d ago
Mine did the exact same thing over Phoenix last year, cost me $720 at the repair shop.
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simon_sanchez583d ago
Cracked open my GTX 345 last year after a weird flicker and found a loose ground wire that was arcing across the board... not a full failure yet, but it was close. Wonder if Garmin's using cheaper components now or if it's just a batch issue from a few years back. Might be worth checking the power supply pins before they burn out, mine had a hairline crack in the solder joint that the shop totally missed until I pointed it out. Either way, $680 is rough for a board swap, but at least you didn't lose the whole unit mid-flight.
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