Hello Aerojack,
I think you're on the right track as far as static goes. When My cord started acting up, it started with minor glitches. Your airplane would take a "hit" about once every 15 seconds. then 10seconds. then 5. finally it would wind up totally uncontrollable. Because of this progressive nature, I blamed it on a component on the shrink wrapped board heating up. I put the cord in the refridgerator, but this did not fix the problem. Quite often static electricity problems do the same thing. static builds up as you slide your feet or scoot around in your chair. If you,ll read the thread entitled "AFPD drops transmitter calibration" or something like that, You'll see that one of our members touched on this subject. Actually I believe he hit the nail on the head. He noticed that another brand of simulator cable used resistors in the plug. These resistors probably run any static charge to ground, yet allow the desired signal to reach it's destination. If this fixes it I'll let Ikarus do it. I don't want my warranty voided. P.S. I still think my idea of a memory stick is much better than the current arrangement. The biggest problem with it is the fact that it is not currently being built that way & would require some change. I think STL Pilot would defend the current method to the bitter end simply because "thats the way it currently is." I have posted a picture of a USB memory stick on my thread to IKARUS.