Garmin Snafu Also Affects Other Airframers

At Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, Kan., production has continued despite the G1000 problems, Director of Corporate Communications Doug Oliver told AVweb on Tuesday. “We anticipate a resolution from Garmin literally any minute,” he said. However, deliveries of single-engine piston aircraft are suspended until the issue is resolved. “Mustang deliveries were originally suspended as well,” Oliver said, “but due to its lower production rate its avionics systems were installed some time ago, before the suspect batch was produced. This has, of course, been confirmed through testing and approved by the FAA.” Oliver said he doesn’t anticipate any impact on production at Cessna. At Diamond Aircraft, spokeswoman Heike Larson told AVweb that production will continue. “We view this as a mere blip,” she said. “We’re not stopping production, and we have inventory on hand with unaffected units to complete current customer deliveries.” Garmin is being “very proactive” about the problem, she said, but it’s possible that “customer deliveries might be affected by a week or two” before all is back to normal. At Hawker Beechcraft, spokesman Mike Turner said the problem has “minimal” impact. Deliveries of Beechcraft G36 Bonanzas and G58 Barons are on hold for now, but production is not affected, he said. At Mooney Aircraft in Texas, spokesman Dave Franson said the interruption of G1000 deliveries will have little immediate affect. “We have inspected the G1000 components we have on hand and believe that we have a sufficient quantity of acceptable units to sustain our current delivery schedule for approximately two weeks,” Franson said. “We will continue to work closely with Garmin during this situation and will keep our customers advised through direct communications and updates on our Web site.”