2006 Annual -- My 8th "Owner-Assisted" Inspection

"Ross Richardson" wrote in message
...

I have an old Pointer with no panel switches. I believe that this new
remote requriement is to be sure you have an easy way to activitate the
ELT should it not go off when it should. I was surprised how easy it was
to set one off just by holding correctly and swinging it at arms length.
No force required.

The ELT is a mass, and you are accelerating it by "swinging it at arms
length".
That is a force, by definition.

Perhaps you meant "no impact/jolt required"?

Jeff Shirton (PP-ASEL)

I recall the impact trigger spec for an ELT is 10 gs of acceleration
(for ? milliseconds?). It should take a very violent arm shake to hit
10 gs. I understand it is common to bounce the ELT onto an inflated
A/C tire to get the ~10g pulse. Anyone know the rest of the numbers?

I'd hold my ground for the new unit(s). Whatever installation labor your
greasy charges will be more than offset by being able to use D flashlight
cells every 5 years.

Another thing: The Ameri-King ELT claims to have "voice capability" in
their ad. What the heck would one use that for?

I asked the sales rep at Spruce about this, and she really didn't have
an answer. I suppose we could visualize a crash where the panel radios
have been rendered inoperative, the ELT is still intact, you are
somehow still ambulatory enough to remove your microphone (the
Ameri-King doesn't come with a mike, that I can see), crawl to the back
of the plane and plug it into the Ameri-King unit, so that you could
yell for help? (It can't receive -- only transmit.)

Seems far-fetched to me.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
: Seems far-fetched to me.

Yeah, but it's a trivial mod to add to an already-existing transmitter. It
just bypasses the chirp generator and uses the mic as the modulation source. It's a
mod that costs nothing but the price of a mic jack and adds marketing value.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

Jay Honeck wrote:
I'd hold my ground for the new unit(s). Whatever installation labor your
greasy charges will be more than offset by being able to use D flashlight
cells every 5 years.

Another thing: The Ameri-King ELT claims to have "voice capability" in
their ad. What the heck would one use that for?

I asked the sales rep at Spruce about this, and she really didn't have
an answer. I suppose we could visualize a crash where the panel radios
have been rendered inoperative, the ELT is still intact, you are
somehow still ambulatory enough to remove your microphone (the
Ameri-King doesn't come with a mike, that I can see), crawl to the back
of the plane and plug it into the Ameri-King unit, so that you could
yell for help? (It can't receive -- only transmit.)

Seems far-fetched to me.

If you need to leave the plane for some reason, it's a lot easier to
carry your ELT with you than the panel mounted radio.

Personally, I'd rather just carry an HT, however.

-jav

Jay Honeck wrote:

Another thing: The Ameri-King ELT claims to have "voice capability" in
their ad. What the heck would one use that for?


To transmit in the blind to passing aircraft. Many in Northern Canada
keep a listening watch on 121.5. if you think about various situations
you can imagine it would be vary handy, even though it would be a one
sided converstion.

John

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...

...

Another thing: The Ameri-King ELT claims to have "voice capability" in
their ad. What the heck would one use that for?

I asked the sales rep at Spruce about this, and she really didn't have
an answer. I suppose we could visualize a crash where the panel radios
have been rendered inoperative, the ELT is still intact, you are
somehow still ambulatory enough to remove your microphone (the
Ameri-King doesn't come with a mike, that I can see), crawl to the back
of the plane and plug it into the Ameri-King unit, so that you could
yell for help? (It can't receive -- only transmit.)

Seems far-fetched to me.
--

A few years ago (thirty some), my brother and I were flying up the Alaska
highway in a Cessna 120 when we came up to a range of hills right at the
Canada - Alaska border that we couldn't get over due to low ceilings /bad
visibility so we decided to set down on a grass strip just short of the
border (I don't remember the name). Now, when I say grass strip, I mean
"grass strip". No buildings, no vehicles, nothing. Just a runway and a bit
of a clearing off to the side. After a while a Tri-Pacer drops in with a guy
and his young son who were on the way back home, but couldn't make it over
the hills either. We had a nice evening chatting in the tent pitched in the
mud. And, the next day things had cleared up some so we decided to try and
make it into Northway - just across the border. The Tri-Pacer got off first
and we followed. Now, Northway is a few miles off the highway, so once we
cleared the hills we "cut the corner" and headed directly to the airport at
a few hundred AGL over nothing but swamp and trees. About 5 miles or so
short of the airport, the guy in the Tri-Pacer announces that his engine has
failed. He sets up an approach to a bit of a clearing, sets it down very
nicely, rolls a short distance, then the mud took over and they flipped over
the nose and stopped upside down. After a short wait, both occupants
appeared outside the airplane and were sitting on the wing. They didn't look
too bad, but it was hard to be sure. So, someone got the idea to try and get
them to transmit with the ELT. So I grabbed our ELT out of the bracket
behind the seat and held it out the window with a microphone as my brother
made a low, slow, pass. They got the idea, got their ELT out, plugged in the
mike, and were able to tell us that they were pretty much OK. We couldn't
talk to them, but we answered their questions using the "wag the wings for
yes" technique. Except for a brief run into Northway for gas, we were able
to stay on station until they were picked up by a helicopter.


So, it's not so far-fetched as you might think. With the plane on it's back,
probably leaking fuel, turning on the master would not be the smartest thing
to do. And, the ELT worked fine as a transmitter.


--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
Spell checking is left as an excercise for the reader.

So, it's not so far-fetched as you might think. With the plane on it's back,
probably leaking fuel, turning on the master would not be the smartest thing
to do. And, the ELT worked fine as a transmitter.

Cool story, Geoff. I stand corrected.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Sounds like fun Jay!


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:USlUf.44595$oL.41488@attbi_s71...
So, our '74 Pathfinder (Cherokee 235) is back in for annual -- its fifth
one
with us -- and I spent the day working with my mechanic on my 8th
"owner-assisted" annual inspection. A few previously known squawks have
been addressed:

1. The ELT. It barely passed last year, and this year it didn't activate
when subjected to sudden deceleration. (It's the original Piper part, so I
think it has given its all...)

I've ordered a new Ameri-King model from Spruce, at a very attractive
price
($175) -- but I've found (much to my dismay) that a remote switch must be
installed in the panel for ANY new ELT installed. The old one did not
require this, and I'm a bit mystified as to why the new ones require
ripping
the panel apart to install yet another idiot light/switch, but oh, well.

Apparently the new 406 mhz ELTs aren't going to be required until 2010 (?)
now, so I've opted not to spend the $$$ on one right now. The folks at
Spruce said that deadline is "soft" anyway.

2. Fiberglass vertical stabilizer fairings. These two parts have been
getting obviously worse since we bought the plane in '02. My A&P let me
slide on it last year, but he said this year they must go. I bought the
big
part from Jay Masino last summer (thanks, Jay!), but had to order the
smaller forward fairing from Lopresti. (They were the only ones with that
part in stock -- and their price was cheapest, too!)

Best of all -- the ONLY person we know who can fit into the tail cone to
buck the rivets for the new fairing is Mary -- so you can look forward to
more pictures and interesting stories to come... :-)

3. Prop RPM a Smidge Low. This has been a real gradual thing, and could
be
the tach. Nonetheless, we've given the prop governor adjustment screw a
turn to the good.

And, of course, a couple of UNknown minor squawks have reared their ugly
heads:

1. Seat Adjustor Handle Springs. The little lever that allows you to
recline the seat is supposed to have two springs in it that make sure the
handle springs back. Both of my springs were broken -- something I had
never noticed, because the pilot-side seat never gets moved. (This was
the
very first thing I touched in the annual, as I was removing the seats.)

At first I thought "who cares?" but my A&P pointed out that without that
spring return, the handle could be in the wrong position at take-off, and
allow the seat to recline -- a very bad thing, indeed, while climbing out.
We called Piper and -- incredibly -- the springs are just $2.50 apiece!
Of
course, it took an hour of labor to dismantle the seat to get TO those
springs, but still -- that's pretty cheap for airplane parts.

2. Control Cables Loose. I asked how to check the tautness of the
cables,
and my A&P whipped out his brand new (and newly calibrated) cable tension
tool. Lo and behold, all of the cables in the tailcone were loose. So,
I've now learned how to tension control surface cables. Both the rudder
and stabilator cables were 25% down from spec.

Otherwise, everything has gone swimmingly. Compressions were perfect
(five
are 80/80, one is 79/80), timing is on the mark, our Iridium fine-wire
spark
plugs still look like new, our tires and brakes are nearly new, the prop
looks good for another year, the mags and wiring harness are still a-okay,
and everything in the panel works.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, but this is looking like a good one.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

For ours one good shake did the trick... No need to thow it against
anything...

nrp wrote:

I recall the impact trigger spec for an ELT is 10 gs of acceleration
(for ? milliseconds?). It should take a very violent arm shake to hit
10 gs. I understand it is common to bounce the ELT onto an inflated
A/C tire to get the ~10g pulse. Anyone know the rest of the numbers?