Most airplanes one loose wire and you have no electrical power!

The battery Contactor on MOST GA airplanes is
'powered' ( grounded) by ONE wire!

You GAMBLE your life and you Pax's life in IFR conditions by
way of:

One Battery, One battery Contactor, ONE primary Battery buss wire,
One contactor control wire, a few Ring terminal lugs, One
Master Switch.

When the Battery contactor circuit opens / fails you WILL loose
the alternator because the battery acts as a capacitor to smooth out
DC power fluctuations, spikes, and AC ripple : the alternator
field current will go wild and the overvoltage regulator will cut
out. With out field current you have no Alternator!

In IFR You have HAD IT! NO DC power!

Wonder how many 'good' pilots have been killed in IFR with a total
power outage?? no Radio distress call because of no electrical
power!........ no radios, no lights, no auto pilot, no
transponder, no turn and bank indicator ( Partial panel capability
lost) ......... everyone wonders what happened????

Seconds to live, ....... because of ONE........ get it!!! ONE
common point failure of an essential IFR system!

wrote in message
...

In IFR You have HAD IT! NO DC power!


Holy Crap!! You mean there's RISK in GA?

I guess I'll give up flying and become a USENET troll.

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:30:17 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The battery Contactor on MOST GA airplanes is
'powered' ( grounded) by ONE wire!

You GAMBLE your life and you Pax's life in IFR conditions by
way of:

One Battery, One battery Contactor, ONE primary Battery buss wire,
One contactor control wire, a few Ring terminal lugs, One
Master Switch.

When the Battery contactor circuit opens / fails you WILL loose
the alternator because the battery acts as a capacitor to smooth out
DC power fluctuations, spikes, and AC ripple : the alternator
field current will go wild and the overvoltage regulator will cut
out. With out field current you have no Alternator!

In IFR You have HAD IT! NO DC power!

Wonder how many 'good' pilots have been killed in IFR with a total
power outage?? no Radio distress call because of no electrical
power!........ no radios, no lights, no auto pilot, no
transponder, no turn and bank indicator ( Partial panel capability
lost) ......... everyone wonders what happened????

Seconds to live, ....... because of ONE........ get it!!! ONE
common point failure of an essential IFR system!

the only solution is to fly with another aeroplane. this halves the
odds that it will be your aircraft with the problem.
fly with two other aircraft and the odds drop to a third. and so on.
so the only way to minimise the risk is to fly in tight formation with
lots and lots of other aircraft. 'specially through cloud.

or you could stop being afraid of the dark and learn why we use
magnetos.

and yes I have flown in conditions so dark that I could not see any of
the aircraft structure around me. nothing at all.
I flew on waiting for a full moon to rise.

Stealth Pilot

Wonder how many 'good' pilots have been killed in IFR with a total
power outage??


Have you? If so, tell us!

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On Mar 27, 1:30*am, wrote:
The battery Contactor on *MOST *GA *airplanes *is
'powered' ( grounded) * by ONE wire!

This is true.

When the Battery *contactor circuit opens / fails *you WILL *loose
the alternator *because the battery acts as a capacitor to *smooth out
DC *power fluctuations, spikes, *and * AC ripple : *the alternator
field current *will go wild and the overvoltage regulator will cut
out. * With out field current you have no Alternator!

That depends on how the alternator controller works, and what kind of
alternator you have.

For example, many of the later Raytheon/Beech airplanes use a self-
exciting alternator. You can literally start the engine, turn off the
master, and you maintain power to the bus from alternator only. Of
course if you turn off the field, you can't get the alternator back
without battery power. Seen this on the Duchess.

Then there are the generators. They don't need the battery at all,
assuming a decent load on the system and a decent controller. The
Zeftronics systems are like that - lose battery or contactor, and you
maintain generator power.

The stock Piper and Cessna systems - not so nice... If you're going
to fly IFR, choose your system wisely - and understand how it works.

*In IFR You have HAD IT! * * NO DC power!

Really? Why? Most planes flying IFR these days have a handheld GPS
for backup nav, and have primary (attitude and heading) gyros driven
by vacuum/pressure pumps, which are engine driven. Of course since
the engines have magneto ignition, they'll keep spinning - and driving
the gyros.

The all-electric airplanes have backup power systems, as well they
should, and do not rely on a single bus.

Seconds to live, *....... because of ONE........ get it!!! ONE
common point failure of an essential IFR *system!

Um, no - not seconds to live. Even without the handheld GPS for
navigation, you have primary gyros, compass, altimeter, engine power,
and your flashlight (if it's night) - and can probably fly to an area
of VFR or, last ditch, make a letdown over water or flat land. You
probably have hours to live and try to resolve the problem. A
handheld GPS and batteries make a cheap backup and allow you to shoot
most VOR (and all NDB) approaches to better accuracy than the
underlying approach, making the electrical failure no big deal. Now
if you lose the engine as well... But now we're talking two
simultaneous unrelated point failures.

For that matter, why not start with the engine? That's where you
really have the problem, assuming you only have one. And the pistons
are all linked to ONE crankshaft, which is housed in ONE case,
supplied by ONE oil pump, fed through ONE fuel line, etc. Fail any of
those and the engine will stop making power long before you can get it
on the ground in IFR conditions.

There are risks to flying IFR, but the particular risk you mention is
quite manageable and not the death sentence you make it out to be. In
other words - you don't know what you are talking about.

Michael

Many, like my seneca III have an emergency avionics bus switch.

Now I am curious and will look around ifr certified aircraft and see
which ones do not have one.




wrote:
The battery Contactor on MOST GA airplanes is
'powered' ( grounded) by ONE wire!

You GAMBLE your life and you Pax's life in IFR conditions by
way of:

One Battery, One battery Contactor, ONE primary Battery buss wire,
One contactor control wire, a few Ring terminal lugs, One
Master Switch.

When the Battery contactor circuit opens / fails you WILL loose
the alternator because the battery acts as a capacitor to smooth out
DC power fluctuations, spikes, and AC ripple : the alternator
field current will go wild and the overvoltage regulator will cut
out. With out field current you have no Alternator!

In IFR You have HAD IT! NO DC power!

Wonder how many 'good' pilots have been killed in IFR with a total
power outage?? no Radio distress call because of no electrical
power!........ no radios, no lights, no auto pilot, no
transponder, no turn and bank indicator ( Partial panel capability
lost) ......... everyone wonders what happened????

Seconds to live, ....... because of ONE........ get it!!! ONE
common point failure of an essential IFR system!

wrote in message
...
The battery Contactor on MOST GA airplanes is
'powered' ( grounded) by ONE wire!

You GAMBLE your life and you Pax's life in IFR conditions by
way of:
...


I feel that it is my duty to warn you against flying with someone like
MXSMANIAC - something as simple as tripping over the power cord would result
in a TRAGIC end to the "flight"!!!!!!!

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

Holy Single Points of Failure, Batman!!!!!!

My airplane only has one engine with one crankshaft and one
propeller!!! And only one rudder too!!!!!

ZOMG!!!!! I'm gonna DIE!!!
And so are you.
And that's guaranteed. 100% of us are all gonna die.

(but not necessarily today, and not necessarily in an airplane crash
either)
(and until my day comes, I'm going to keep on flying as long as I have
my health and can afford to buy the fuel)

wrote:


Seconds to live, ....... because of ONE........ get it!!! ONE
common point failure of an essential IFR system!

What are you selling, parachutes?

On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:17:11 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Holy Single Points of Failure, Batman!!!!!!

My airplane only has one engine with one crankshaft and one
propeller!!! And only one rudder too!!!!!

ZOMG!!!!! I'm gonna DIE!!!
And so are you.
And that's guaranteed. 100% of us are all gonna die.

(but not necessarily today, and not necessarily in an airplane crash
either)
(and until my day comes, I'm going to keep on flying as long as I have
my health and can afford to buy the fuel)


that attitude is an absolute disease.
I know this for certain.
I think I'll sneak down to the hangar tomorrow morning and go for a
fly...
Stealth Pilot