My friend Neal Colliver (NZ) tipped me off to a problem that I wasn't aware of. i.e. the mounting angle of my Tru Trak programmer. Neal had his mounted in a similar fashion and found that due to some internal position sensors within the unit that it would not behave appropriately. I checked the installation guide, and sure enough max angle is 12 deg. (mine was at 45-50 deg). So I disconnected all of the switches and AP and removed the center console. I then removed the switches and AP from the faceplate. I took it to a friend on the field who has a metal brake, and after covering it in masking tape I was able to bend the upper portion 40 degrees so that when the AP is mounted it will be near verticle. The good news is that I won't have to remake the faceplate and paint and silk screen!!!!. The next step was to build up the upper portion of the mounting deck to match the bent face plate. I used some foam blocks cut to shap and installed with 'bondo' then sanded flush with the console profile. Then I cut several strips of fiberglass cloth on a 45 deg bias, and layed them up in alternating/overlapping patterns over the built up area. It will cure tonight, and then I'd Dremel/chisel out the old fiberglass behind it and begine to prepare the new mounting deck for paint and remounting.
Upper portion of center console built up for vertical Autopilot mount
