My attitude indicator showed signs during the last three flights of spinning up and erecting slowly. Just last week when I came home from Florida, the AI took 10 minutes to spin up and didn’t erect until after liftoff and and at full power.
I made the decision to watch it after I returned. Kinda tired of spending money and chasing squawks. That lasted for a few days, and as my next long cross country got closer, I ended up ordering a replacement unit. Georgetown Air Services graciously agreed to get the new unit here in a day, and get it installed by Wednesday. Nice.
Naturally, when I flew the airplane down there tonight(33N-KGED), the AI erected in less than two minutes, like nothing in the world was wrong. I used to let this stuff drive me crazy, but replacing this unit was the right thing to do. Particularly after all the low approaches I’ve been executing in actual.
Spoke with Chuck on the ground to make myself feel better: ‘an ounce of prevention’ is not a bad way to go. He’s right.