At JDC in Fort Lauderdale, above, hundreds of instruments await repair or overhaul.

by Larry Anglisano

While glass cockpits seem about to render the common iron gyro a barbaric antiquity, most of us still fly behind a combination of vacuum and electric attitude, directional and rate gyros. Like any mechanical device, they wear out and fail, inviting disaster if the failure occurs in IMC.

When a gyro rolls over and dies, what do you do? Should you shotgun the entire instrument for a new one? Fix what’s wrong? Pay for a complete overhaul? And which shop do you pick to do the work? In this article, we’ll attempt to sort through the fog of gyro repair decision-making. …