achimha wrote:
I immediately ripped out the complete panel and put in glass stuff.
Now you are not depending on the vacuum pump just the whole electrical system which by the way also can fail. Then you are without radios AND “gyros”.
An aircraft owner I know threw out his gyros and put in a full aspen panel. On one of his first flights it went black on final approach.
I left the vacuum AI in as a completely independent backup to everything electronic.
The electronic stuff can fail as well but it usually has better behavior on sensor issues, i.e. integrity checks and annunciation. Also it is easy to fix. When my Aspen broke, I had a loaner unit the day, just had to swap it as the complete config is part of the cabling behind the panel. The failure mode of my gyros was so nasty that I wanted something else.
I have a vacuum wet pump and an electrical castleberry back up with flag (however not on batt) installed next to the EHSI. In case the vacuum goes down I only need to change the re scan from vertical to horizontal. In addition I carry post-it it to cover the failed instrument
I see on some aircraft the back up is installed on the opposite side, this creates an additional head movement and potential difficulties for the scan in case the main ATT goes down in IMC
Peter wrote:
Two rare posters suddenly popping up in 46 and 47…
Over 1,700 posts is “rare” ?
In fact, I’ve posted many more that have been wrongly wrongly removed …
Only offensive stuff has been removed, Michael. And everybody old enough to get a PPL knows the difference exactly. It’s just that some people change when they get behind a keyboard.
achimha wrote:
Michael is in IFR training and doesn’t know that “reckless and irresponsible” soon becomes SOP
Indeed, after over 1,500 hours of reckless & irresponsable “all weather” VFR flying, I’m training hard to get my IR be year’s end.
Speaking alot with other “private” Instrument rated pilots, I am shocked at the lack of general knowledge and proficiency of the “average” IR pilot.
A couple of “pearls” :
- A recent CPL/IR/ME pilot I spoke with did not know that when an vacuum AI fails it just “keels over” to the side;
- Another IR pilot was unable to identify the main source for his KFC150 autopilot
when an vacuum AI fails it just “keels over” to the side
It might or it might not do that.
You can demonstrate this with a spare KI256 and connect a vac pump to it. Or just look at your own one after engine shutdown. Sometimes it just stays more or less level. I have often seen mine end up within 5 degrees of level.
Peter wrote:
Only offensive stuff has been removed, .
Alas, it seems that this is dependent on the Admin’s humeur du jour …
I agree Michael, systems knowledge is very limited among most instrument rated pilots. It is much easier for an owner pilot to get down to the gory details of the personal aircraft than a renter who flies different aircraft. It is very important to understand how things play together and what the individual failure modes are. I got bitten myself (see above) with gyros having non obvious failures and it was an eye opener.
Remember that SR22 crash in Zurich? The guy had no clue about the redundancy and electrical system of his aircraft. Air France 447 wasn’t that different either — a crew losing situational awareness in a rather standard partial panel situation.
PS: Michael is even more offensive in person 
achimha wrote:
PS: Michael is even more offensive in person
Careful with that, lest I become defensive and it gets real ugly 
