Your Compass mounting experiences

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by Carl Froehlich

I had the local FAA FSDO office sign off my RV-10 four years ago. The inspector required a TSO compass in the plane - even though I had two independent EFIS ADHARS units.

No - this is not a requirement that I could find, but such was the cost of getting the plane signed off. Perhaps old thought such as this is working its way out of the FAA.

Carl

Aside from the argument of whether FAR91 requires a compass be installed in experimental aircraft, if we say that it does, FAR91 states that the aircraft must have a magnetic heading indicator (meaning an indicator that drives its heading info from the earths magnetic field). The magnetic heading indication in all (the ones I am familiar with anyway) modern EFIS meet that requirement.

Dealing with an inspector that invokes his own ideas of what is right versus what the requirements actually are is a common problem......

[BobTurner]

Originally Posted by Carl Froehlich

I had the local FAA FSDO office sign off my RV-10 four years ago. The inspector required a TSO compass in the plane - even though I had two independent EFIS ADHARS units.

No - this is not a requirement that I could find, but such was the cost of getting the plane signed off. Perhaps old thought such as this is working its way out of the FAA.

Carl

And where did he get the idea that it needed to have a TSO?

[bhester]

I've mounted my vertical card compass in two locations in the panel and it has worked great in both locations. In the current location it does swing when I turn the key to start but then goes right back to where it should be. I actually made a temp panel out of plexiglass to test it to insure that it would work properly in that location before cutting the real panel.

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by Carl Froehlich

I had the local FAA FSDO office sign off my RV-10 four years ago. The inspector required a TSO compass in the plane - even though I had two independent EFIS ADHARS units.

No - this is not a requirement that I could find, but such was the cost of getting the plane signed off. Perhaps old thought such as this is working its way out of the FAA.

Carl

You just reminded me, I velcroed a compass to my glair shield for the FSDO inspection and removed it as soon as the inspector left. He never said it was required and I never asked.

Doug Reeves now has that compass, which was only used once.

[NYTOM]

Back to my original question someone here or in a search thread stated his roll bar brace was made of stainless steel. Wow, that would kind of solve the problem as long as you mount it low away from the bar. Low and behold I just checked mine and its non-magnetic also. I'm thinking there all non-magnetic. The base mounting plate is ferrous but the tube itself is something else. Probably a higher grade stainless since lower grades are magnetic. I'm suprised only one person seemed to be was aware of that. As far as the inspection goes I've heard stories of inspectors being wrong about the regulations but also heard that it's not wise to argue with them since they can really ruin your day if they want.

[Xkuzme1]

I have an in-panel whiskey compas. In the beginning, it was unusable because there was just too many things happening around it and I couldn't isolate what it was. Eventually, I wrapped the top side of autopilot the autopilot with nickel sheet metal. With a little adjusting, I get a perfect bead on all four corners of the readings.

Nickel sheet metal. Works great!

[flightlogic]

Took my Sirs out. Sold it. Antique technology and rates as useful as Loran for navigation. 2016

[Robski]

Originally Posted by NYTOM

The base mounting plate is ferrous but the tube itself is something else.(

I think it is luck of the draw.
6 slider vertical brace on mine was so magnetic the SIRS compass only moved 30 degrees either side of N!

Removed compass. Removed brace from airframe. Bought an engineering shop degausser (as used for things that have been on a magnetc chuck or bed) and used it on the brace. Fixed the problem.

Since used the degausser on the trim springs in a Glasair. The owner was perplexed that his plastic fantastic airplane had a magnetic field that was upsetting his Garmin magnetometer!

[flyboy1963]

Originally Posted by NYTOM

.... I'm surprised only one person seemed to be aware of that. t.

perhaps just the way the title was phrased? anyway, my brace is stainless, has the compass, which can be swung to a vague approximation of the 4 cardinal bearings....but the bigger thing is the 17 times I've hit the thing with my head while doing annuals, loading things in the cabin etc....not to mention it will probably kill you in a real crash!
go for a panel mount, isolate the huge components that make it swing merrily in all directions, and then you likely will never look at it again, except for the annual swing you pretend to do for 4 hours out on the compass rose!