Looking for a partner to build a set of Bendix King radio/nav equipment

[Shawn]

No worries Husker, I was busy all this summer as well. I'm still with you on the project. I hopefully can cut out a tester to send you soon.

Cheers
Shawn

[xplanematt]

Not to de-rail the project too much, but if those old classic-style Bendix heads are what you seek, the real thing can be picked up on ebay (or possibly from a scrapper) for next to nothing. Interfacing is relatively easy, they are basically just big switches. Just a thought.

[Shawn]

I had thought about that but only for a minute. Building the part is half the fun for me. Actually I spend way more time building than flying

[SimSupervisor]

I never see them that cheap on the Bay...

[xplanematt]

Oh you just have to be patient, and don't be too restrictive with your search terms.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONTROL-HEAD...-/171415518126

http://www.ebay.com/itm/King-KFS-560...-/370341726460

This seller is a very cool dude and tends to be fairly accepting of reasonable "best offers"...you could probably get this particular unit at an even better price:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aircom-VHF-N...-/111232670894

Or, knock out the entire stack in one fell swoop, for under $100 (assuming no one else bids, which is likely):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gables-NAV-C...-/161885843490

This was just from a quick search for nav heads, I didn't even look for COM or transponder.

Not trying to detract from the OP's idea, just showing SimSupervisor the sweet deals. Again, if you are patient and keep your eye out for what you need, you can get even better deals. A while back I picked up 20+ DIGITAL heads for around $170...and most of that was shipping (it was a HUGE pile of goodies).

Matt

[Shawn]

Wow Matt, I looked on Ebay right after you mentioned this and didn't see anything worth buying. You seem to have some extraordinary search ability : ) I appreciate the suggestion but I do like to design and build the panels from scratch.

[xplanematt]

Then by all means carry on, building things is awesome. Yes, when your dreams are bigger than your budget, you get very creative in your search terms and networking skills!

Matt