First time TB-10 owner (nearly) one year in

AlexTB20 wrote:

Can you roughly estimate how much was the exterior (paint, rivets, etc.) as compared to the interior? Also, how come you have to replace so many rivets? Thank you again!

The interior was a flat 6k additional cost, which is frankly astounding given the level of craftsmanship and sheer number of pieces there are in a TB interior. That included painting or recovering every part, plus new leather and carpets. The rivets are still something I wonder about, TBH. This is something we trusted them on, but I have a feeling it wasn’t strictly necessary.

Tomorrow we will finally pick up the airplane, but it hasn’t been without some drama. We performed a check over video call on Wednesday, and we found two issues. The first was the autopilot initiating a left turn in heading mode regardless of the direction the bug was turned. It worked in other modes without issue. The second issue is that there’s no power to the KCS-55 slaved compass. I suspect the first is related to the second, since the HSI and compass are part of one system, but we will see.

So we had a bit of a crisis yesterday, since my partner was scheduled to fly to LT this morning. I called Termikas to let them know we would be postponing again, and I received a lot of pushback that they weren’t responsible for the compass or autopilot and couldn’t verify they were functioning when we arrived. They even tried to blame it on removal of the ADF and DME. Of course this was all BS, which is what I told them, especially considering we flew IFR using both on the trip from NL to LT. After a lot of strong words and negotiation, we agreed they will continue trying to fix the issues today, and if they fail to do so we will pick up the airplane anyway (barring other issues) at a discount that will allow us to get it repaired when we return. It’s not yet clear whether this will happen, but it’s a frustrating situation for sure.

The lesson learned here for anyone who is undergoing major work is to demonstrate that everything is working prior to having any major work done, and get it down in writing so there’s no dispute later. It’s also a risk we took on when having the airplane refurbished so far from home. Fortunately the work quality is very high overall, and in the long run it will be fine. But the logistics and stress of the distance have definitely been a feature of this project!

On Saturday we were finally able to pick up the airplane, and after a tourist stop in Gdansk Saturday night we arrived back in Rotterdam yesterday after an uneventful flight. As you can see in the pics below, the quality and attention to detail is amazing. There are lots of little things they did that we didn’t even ask for, like refinishing the door handles to match the paint (on the outside) or leather (on the inside), and even painting the tow bar! While the project required much more time than expected, the result clearly shows that Termikas is dedicated to doing the job correctly even if it takes extra time—and I would prefer this over trying to get it done on time.

We are still investigating the compass/HSI issue, but I will say I may have been too quick to dismiss the connection to the ADF, which was also slaved to the KCS-55 and remote gyro. Turns out there is power to the compass, but the HSI is not responding properly to heading changes. It moves slowly and erratically as the airplane turns, which may indicate something like faulty grounding due to removal of the ADF. This will require further investigation. The only other squawk we have is the door gaps are too big, so that needs adjustment. There’s lots of air leakage at the moment.

As for the final verdict on Termikas, I would say we are very pleased with their work overall, and both the owner and chief technician were always responsive and helpful. The area where they need improvement is on the project management and communications side, where the person who handled this for us was really difficult to deal with. This created a lot of (unnecessary) anxiety and drama at times, and it’s a point of feedback I’ve shared with them. The good news is they seem to recognize this, and we learned a bit too late just to communicate with the technician directly to avoid issues.

First impressions on arriving at Termikas:

Interior:

Stop in Gdansk:

Fuel stop at the lovely EDVC where there’s Avgas, no landing fees, and a nice lady who makes excellent currywurst if you ask:

Back home in the hangar!

Peter wrote:

The heading behaviour could be that the system is getting just the fluxgate data and this is not stabilised by the directional gyro. That is exactly the effect I get while the DG is warming up.

That seems logical and in line with my reasoning as well. What’s unclear is whether the ADF was getting heading data from the HSI via the bootstrap function, or whether it was somehow wired in series with the gyro. I haven’t investigated enough how this works to know if removal of the ADF would have somehow disconnected the gyro wiring. My first thought was the ADF was somehow functioning as ground and the signal is now noisy.

boscomantico wrote:

they finished way late

they did not communicate well

Absolutely their project management and estimation of timeline was terrible as I mentioned. It was a source of significant frustration. As I told the owner, it’s a good thing the work quality was good, because otherwise we’d be having a different conversation. The frustration was compounded by bad communication until I started working directly with the technician.

the did some work that was not comissioned (don’t be fooled, it will end up on your invoice)

The final invoice is paid, and there are no surprises. It was a big invoice for sure, and there were unforeseen issues that cost extra along the way. But the extras I mentioned did not result in additional cost.

they left you with massively leaking doors and a big avionics issue

The door issue is pretty easy to adjust, so I’m not super concerned about it. I had it already before and was able to fix it in a few minutes. The avionics problem resulted in negotiating a few k€ off the final invoice to compensate rather than having them continue to troubleshoot.

It may all be “normal” to a degree, but I don’t know if I would be so positive.

I was feeling quite negative until seeing the airplane in person and flying it 7 hours back home. The transformation is astounding, with an incredible attention to detail that I just haven’t seen with other paint and interior jobs. The avionics issue is frustrating but solvable, and I would have liked to have the airplane back sooner, but I plan to have this plane a long time and would take quality over project management any day. Having both would be much better of course!