Piper Meridian, Failed Testflight With Brandnew G1000 NXi

Saturday Nov 5, 2022. After the Meridian spent 7(!) weeks at Piper-Germany in Kassel (EDVK) the brandnew G1000 NXi was finally installed. As part of the scheduled 500 hours maintenance requirement the FCU (fuel control unit) had been removed and sent to the manufacturer abroad, checked and overhauled. Illness-related the reinstallation of the FCU has been a time consuming effort ... so now everything should be ready for picking up the (M500-like) upgraded Meridian. Unfortunately our expectations were disappointed not only because terrain and obstacle data couldn't be downloaded into the NXi system (Jeppesen's website had been hacked!!!).

During this professionally accompanied test flight several severe bugs occured. Both transponders didn't transmit any signal - so our IFR flight to FL240 in order to check the reinstalled FCU could not be carried out. Like before the maintenance, a reported hydraulic failure was still indicated during retracting the gear, and a new silly "TAXIWAY TAKEOFF" message was displayed at the PFD during the whole flight ... Well, we hope for a "quick solution" ...

UPDATE Nov 8, 2022: Piper Germany in Kassel reacted immediately and competently. All the technical errors during the test flight obviously resulted from a defective SQUAT SWITCH on the nose wheel. The general delay and the associated problems were caused by an extraordinary cold epidemic and the resulting understaffing of the Piper crew. An other test flight was successfully conducted the next day by Albert Türling from AT Aviation Services.

Pilots: Markus Riedel (PIC) and Albert Türling (Safety Pilot)