UPDATE from Yakima:
This afternoon we reviewed the DER's analysis of last week's flight test data then moved on to a review of the practical considerations (ease of installation, manufacturability, cost, etc.) of the final two designs. We chose the preferred design all things considered and set the remainder of the process in motion.
The chosen design will look much like the prototype pictured above but will have a spherical bearing pressed into the stainless steel fitting thus allowing the wire freedom to move in any direction. You won't really see it when viewed from the outside, and the stainless steel clevis and brass wire fittings will look essentially the same as pictured. Below is recap of what we know and what we don't as of today:
- Retrofit design locked as of today
- Most of the parts will be manufactured here at CC, internal drawings will be completed by the end of the week and manufacturing of parts will begin. A swing shift will be added in the machine shop for this purpose.
- The flying wires are sourced from an outside vendor. The wire order will be released tomorrow once a bit more fine tuning is done on the exact length spec. The first release of 100 ship sets has a lead time of approximately 2-3 weeks.
- Retrofit instructions are being written and photographed currently, and I believe a video of the process is even being shot.
- Though we don't have a final price I can commit that the parts kit will be under $400. That will be our internal cost on the kit and will not include any of the engineering costs which have totaled well into six figures.
- I don't yet have a date when we'll be able to start shipping, but I would estimate the first sets to ship later this month. I know that's vague, it's the best estimate we can make at this point.
I will try to get some accurate drawings of the final design posted to this forum by the end of the week so you can at least see what the final solution looks like, and will certainly post other info such as exact cost and ship dates as we have it.
There's no question we won't be able to ship nearly 300 kits simultaneously. As relayed previously we'll be using our new web store for fulfillment in a first-ordered-first-shipped manner. HERE is a link to the item if you haven't yet entered your order. As mentioned in the initial Service Alert, aircraft under warranty will be covered fully by CC. Jeff Glab, our Customer Support manager, and David Bingham, our Parts and Accessories Manager, will be managing the fulfillment process.
I am making this post with only partial information to hopefully reduce at least some of the anxiety this issue has caused with the idea that some information is better than none. Please bear with us, we'll get there!