That Schleicher canopy thing again

Before a test flight yesterday I noticed I wasn't getting anything out
of the radio speaker in my not-yet-one-year-young ASG-29. Volume up,
squelch down, nothing.

Last spring I had problems with the flap position sensor not working
when the canopy was open. (I think it still has the problem -- I gave
up checking with the canopy up.)

But when I put the canopy down yesterday, the speaker worked.

wtf. This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

~ted/2NO

At 14:23 10 January 2009, Tuno wrote:
Before a test flight yesterday I noticed I wasn't getting anything out
of the radio speaker in my not-yet-one-year-young ASG-29. Volume up,
squelch down, nothing.

Last spring I had problems with the flap position sensor not working
when the canopy was open. (I think it still has the problem -- I gave
up checking with the canopy up.)

But when I put the canopy down yesterday, the speaker worked.

wtf. This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

~ted/2NO

Stealth safety gear- Nothing works with the canopy open so you don't go
flying without closing it.

Make sure the radio is locked into the case positively. Push firmly while
setting the locking screw. Also check to see that nothing interferes with
the radio sliding to the back and engage the plug 100%
Experiment by moving the radio in and out a millimetre or two to see if it
makes good contact with the plug in the back.
Udo

At 14:23 10 January 2009, Tuno wrote:
Before a test flight yesterday I noticed I wasn't getting anything out
of the radio speaker in my not-yet-one-year-young ASG-29. Volume up,
squelch down, nothing.

Last spring I had problems with the flap position sensor not working
when the canopy was open. (I think it still has the problem -- I gave
up checking with the canopy up.)

But when I put the canopy down yesterday, the speaker worked.

wtf. This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

~ted/2NO

On Jan 10, 7:23*am, Tuno wrote:
This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

My 28 uses the factory speaker and power wiring but all the other
electrical wiring was installed by myself. I have experienced no
electrical problems.

On my 28 the speaker wires and the battery power wires run through the
fuselage canopy rails so the routing into the hinged instrument pod is
different from the air data lines which run under the seat pan. That
wire routing also makes them hard to service as the rails are foam
filled somewhere aft of the air vent. I found that out when I tried
to run the microphone lead the same way as the speaker wires.

Andy

At 15:21 10 January 2009, Andy wrote:
On Jan 10, 7:23=A0am, Tuno wrote:
This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

Ted

On my 27 all the wires from the panel to the fus run through a single
multiway connector behind the panel. When the canopy goes up / down so
does the panel and the tensions on the connector change slightly. Whenever
I have experienced problems such as you describe a little switch cleaner /
lubricant sprayed onto the male / female parts of the connector has done
the trick.

Jim

"Best practices" with wiring is to _never_ place a connector where it
can get
tugged at by moving cables. Immobilize the wiring on both sides of the
connector.

Special design and care should be taken when you need to flex a wire or
wire bundle.

Larry


"Jim White" wrote in message
:

At 15:21 10 January 2009, Andy wrote:
On Jan 10, 7:23=A0am, Tuno wrote:
This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

Ted

On my 27 all the wires from the panel to the fus run through a single
multiway connector behind the panel. When the canopy goes up / down so
does the panel and the tensions on the connector change slightly. Whenever
I have experienced problems such as you describe a little switch cleaner /
lubricant sprayed onto the male / female parts of the connector has done
the trick.

Jim

The wiring bundle going from the panel to the fuselage flexes at the hinge
point as the canopy is opened/closed. Some of the wires in the bundle on my
ship are pretty tight as they are run on the outside of this bend radius.

I had one of the small wires to the gear/spoiler alarm fail due to this.
When I replaced this wiring, and to install additional wiring, I first
installed a flexible plastic conduit (thin wall Teflon tubing from
McMaster-Carr) pushed from behind the panel forward passed the hinge point.
Solved the problem.

To see if a broken wire is the problem, slowly open/close the canopy with
the radio on and squelch off - - you've probably done this already. If sound
intermittent. Then remove canopy, and do the same with panel only. Then with
speaker working, tug on wires etc. Check speaker wires with ohm meter.

bumper
ASH26E
zz
Minden
"Tuno" wrote in message
...
Before a test flight yesterday I noticed I wasn't getting anything out
of the radio speaker in my not-yet-one-year-young ASG-29. Volume up,
squelch down, nothing.

Last spring I had problems with the flap position sensor not working
when the canopy was open. (I think it still has the problem -- I gave
up checking with the canopy up.)

But when I put the canopy down yesterday, the speaker worked.

wtf. This seems like too much of a coincidence. Has anyone experienced
any similar problems in a recent Schleicher?

~ted/2NO

With the canopy off, tilting the panel up reaches a point where the
speaker engages. Just above this point, with the speaker off, if I
push down very gently on the wire bundle where it can be reached just
fore of where the bundle exits the panel structure, I can make it
toggle on/off. And I mean *very* gently.

All this points to a b0rken wire ... just hard to imagine having two
wires to two places having the same problem on a new glider.

I can tell that the wire bundle at that location gets quite a bit of
stress when the panel is up. Hopefully the factory is tuning into
this ...

2NO

On Jan 10, 11:23*am, Tuno wrote:
With the canopy off, tilting the panel up reaches a point where the
speaker engages. Just above this point, with the speaker off, if I
push down very gently on the wire bundle where it can be reached just
fore of where the bundle exits the panel structure, I can make it
toggle on/off. And I mean *very* gently.

All this points to a b0rken wire ... just hard to imagine having two
wires to two places having the same problem on a new glider.

I can tell that the wire bundle at that location gets quite a bit of
stress when the panel is up. Hopefully the factory is tuning into
this ...

2NO

Next step is probably to check the actual continuity end to end. The
wires that run through molded parts of the fuselage would need to be
spliced I guess. You might be able to pull an new one through while
yanking the old one out, but that's risky methinks.

Do you think the wires got damaged in last summer's hard landing? I'm
trying to visualize that but having a hard time with it. More likely
on the radio a broken pin in the connector - I had that happen many
years ago on a vario. There's more ways to get shock damage when you
have some mass to throw around.

The other possibility, of course, is Gremlins.

9B

On Jan 10, 12:23*pm, Tuno wrote:
With the canopy off, tilting the panel up reaches a point where the
speaker engages. Just above this point, with the speaker off, if I
push down very gently on the wire bundle where it can be reached just
fore of where the bundle exits the panel structure, I can make it
toggle on/off. And I mean *very* gently.

All this points to a b0rken wire ... just hard to imagine having two
wires to two places having the same problem on a new glider.

I can tell that the wire bundle at that location gets quite a bit of
stress when the panel is up. Hopefully the factory is tuning into
this ...

2NO

A friend had a 29 new in 2007 that had the same problem with the
radio. Not sure which wire, but stopped transmitting after lass than
10 flights because a wire broke.