FYI for anyone interested in the continuing saga of Terra avionics, the
following item appeared in May 1999 issue of IFR magazine.
"TRIMBLE BAILOUT DUE TO WEAK MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION
Trimbles's decision to bail out of the light airplane GA avionics market
was due to a weak distribution and marketing network, according to
Trimble CEO Bradford Parkinson. Interviewed by Aerospace Daily,
Parkinson said Trimble was happy with it's re-engineering of the
Terraline, which it bought in 1996, but lacked money to market the
equipment and losses were mounting. Trimble is still looking for a
buyer for it's light GA line and says it will remain in the airline
market."
FWIW, although AMP Mate-N-Lok II connectors have many plus features
which make them an excellent choice for use in homebuilt aircraft,
builders need to be aware that AMP spec data for this particular series
specifies durability at 50 cycles, mating and unmating. No problem for
low count cycle applications, but it does raise a long term reliability
issue for high count cycle applications such as wing to fuselage
disconnects for trailered Europas where wings are mated/demated
repeatedly. Anyone with in-service problems in this regard or other
type connectors you are using?
Avioniker Jim
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