>Bob,
> I know a guy who was flying an Arrow from Orlando, FL, to Corpus
>Christ, TX. As he was getting into the pattern, he dropped his retractable
>gear. Suddenly he found that he had no electrical power, and the lights
>weren't going green -- he heard the thumps but no light indication. He went
>to NORDO procedures and the airport rolled out the red carpet in the way of
>emergency vehicles and foam machines. It turns out that his gear was down,
>and he made a safe landing. Later he found out that the problem was caused
>by his flying for 3.5 hours with the alternator switch off. He had been
>running on the battery the whole time and didn't even know it!
EXACTLY!!!!!!! Not one single certified light aircraft I'm
aware of ever left the factory with the most rudimentary
of electrical systems instrumentation - ACTIVE NOTIFICATION
OF ALTENRATOR FAILURE - in the form of low volts warning for
bus below 13.0 volts. . . .
Sometimes we get so enamored of all the things we CAN do in
terms of whippy avionics we forget the basics. I'm working a
problem right now on a certified aircraft that has cost about
$10,000,000 in warranty service in the field . . . the study
is zeroing in on a change in MATERIAL about 10 years ago
that cost under $1.
> So I say that there are still reasons for modern aircraft to suffer an
>electrical emergency of some kind. If you factor in pilot error, there
>could be an emergency, just like above. And I am sure that are other ways
>of having electrical emergencies. After all, they were invented and built
>by humans, so electrical systems, just like other systems, are prone to
>failure.
I disagree . . . certified aircraft are NOT modern . . . Independence
KS and company are the Jurassic Parks of aviation. Your #1 sources
for brand new 40 year old airplanes. Airplanes built in people's
basements and garages CAN be modern if the builder so chooses. The
guy's Arrow would have benefited greatly from the addition of a
simple, $50 warning light.
> To be fair, I plan on going all electric with redundancy, just like you
>say below. But I do plan on having emergency procedures in case those
>redundant systems fail.
Please do everything you can to strike the word "EMERGENCY" from
the lexicon of electrical system speech . . . it's high school
physics and application of rudimentary logic to design a system
that is failure tolerant of any single component failure. Electrical
sytem PARTS failures should not precipitate flight SYSTEM failures.
> . . . When I get to the instruments and electrical system
>on my Aerocanard, I would like to talk to you about it. I want a highly
>reliable redundant electrical system and instruments with good lighting for
>night operations. I'm sick and tired of these production aircraft that have
>poorly lit instruments that can't hardly be seen at night.
Good for you! Please reste assured that it's not difficult . . .
Bob . . .
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( Knowing about a thing is different than )
( understanding it. One can know a lot )
( and still understand nothing. )
( C.F. Kettering )
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http://www.aeroelectric.com
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