Michel TKM MX11

When I bought 146, the radios were literally junk. So said the folks that did the pre-purchase inspection and they were right.  The #1 radio still had tubes and the other one didn't work all the time.  So, in August of '94 I bought a nice Michel MX 11 radio.  I chose this model as it didn't include a VOR as I was wanting to get a handheld GPS. The folks at Arizona Air Craftsman installed it for me and did a very nice job. The weight savings was 10 pounds. It has given me some problems but  the TKM folks fixed it. As a result, I'm recommending TKM Inc. 14811 North 73rd Street, Scottsdale Arizona (Phone 480-991-5351) and Arizona Air Craftsman in Prescott Arizona phone 928-717-1680.

A little bit about the radio problem.  It seems that sometimes after takeoff, say 10 minutes, the radio would get very noisy for about a minute and then the problem would go away.  I didn't know if the transmitter was involved or not.  This was in oh, probably 1999, 5 years after purchase.  I took it into TKM and they worked it over but couldn't really get it to fail.  Well, it continued to fail but only once in a great while.  Finally after it seemed to get a little worse I bought a tape recorder and taped my communications each time I flew.  Well, it wasn't long and it acted up again so I called the tower, not being far away, and they had trouble receiving my transmissions.  It quickly cleared up but I had it on tape.  Fortunately the tape recorder had a counter so I simply took the radio, the tape recorder, and a sheet indicating what was happening where into TKM and they fixed it.  Cost was $80 but was well worth it.  It hasn't acted up in at least a dozen flights.  I'm very satisfied with TLMs work.

For comments, suggestions, or questions please e-mail me at ken@cessna150.net.