Vertical card compassa as a DG?

[Camillo]

Hi to all. I'm about to complete my panel and would like a help from you.
I'm going with a classic 6 instruments in front of pilot (as per old Cessnas 152, 172...), with the difference that gyro horizon is replaced with a Dynon EFIS D10A and the turn coordinator will be replaced with a Trutrak ADI Pilot II (tbc...still wondering if going witha simple turn and bank). I bought conventional TSO'd airspeed, altimeter and VSI (United).

I am now worrying about the absence of conventional directional gyro (it helps making radial interception easier, etc...). I saw Falcon DG's are not reliable and the others (Sigma tek, Mid continent etc...) are very expensive.

So, why not adding a precision vertical card compass as a substitute of the DG? I'm aware of some magnetic interference (Spruce sells a nickel sheet to minimize this). Apart from this, how would you feel this idea? 277 against 2000is a lot... And vertical card compass needs not to be resetted...

Camillo

[Dave62]

I tried to do the same thing in a Swift...did not work. Too much vibration in the pannel even with a smooth IO 360 Continental. Vertical Card Compas hunts way to much to use as a DG. To be honest it does not even work very well as just a compas on top of the pannel. Now a 396/496 on the instrument page will work....
Dave (Swift Driver)

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by Camillo

So, why not adding a precision vertical card compass as a substitute of the DG? I'm aware of some magnetic interference (Spruce sells a nickel sheet to minimize this). Apart from this, how would you feel this idea? 277 against 2000is a lot... And vertical card compass needs not to be resetted...
Camillo

For straight VFR, no problem. A vertical card compass is exactly that, I little better view of the same old problems. Have you ever tried to turn to a heading using only a compass? You need to be a master of "lead and lag" to make it work. Way too much work in the clouds. I have a vertical card compass in my '8' that I am planning on replacing with a standard compass. As Dave62 said, the vibration makes the reading very flaky and, interestingly, if you put one in a vibration free environment it will usually stick and not read correctly.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[mdud]

I asked a similar question a while back. I did not receive any positive feedback from anyone with vertical card compasses. I was advised to use the remote compass head for the Dynon and not spend money on the vertical card compass. I am not in the air yet but so far it "looks" good.

Mike 9A builder

[Camillo]

It seems I have to buy a DG.

I cannot place there a 296 or 396. I already have it in the left-middle subpanel and have not enough space to fit in a 3 1/2'' width space.

I only need something which displays magnetic heading in a 360? way. Magnetic heading may come from EFIS's magnetometer (for redundancy, I will have ADI, compass and GPS). It seems such a simple display doesn't exist...

[RONSIM]

I have put a vertical card compass in several airplanes I have owned over the years, including RV-8 and -10 ----- installation location is critical, but once that is overcome, terrific backup for heading info! The one I recently put in the -8, I used the GPS to "swing" it --- works just fine!