Compass Help

I have an Airpath compass mounted to the far right above the ignition switch in my RV8 panel. The roll bar brace on that side is affecting the swing and limiting it to only a range of 150-210. I knew this was a problem when I mounted it so close to the bar but this is the location I had left after filling the rest of the panel. Does anyone have any experience with a compass that might work better in this location or maybe degaussing the bar?

Thanks,

I received no comment on this, surely someone has had this situation come up in the past.

Thanks again,

no reply

I suspect nobody has a "wisky compass" that works properly in their RV. Actually my compass is more acurate than my Dynon heading indicator without the remote sensor. It was so far off it was outside the paramenters for correction. Good Luck or just forget about it if you have an EFIS.

CM

Vertical Card compass

may work because you can buy a compensating bar (AC Spruce) to help the adjustment. HOWEVER, I just removed one from the panel and attached it to the center bar because I could not make the adjustments on the RV-10.

I am not familiar with the cockpit setup in the -8, so my comments may or may not be useful.

Can you remove the brace? If so, take it to a shop that does magnetic particle inspection (AKA Magneflux) and they can demagnetize it. OTOH, if you park the plane with the brace in or close to a north-south direction, it will gradually remagnetize from exposure to the earth's magnetic field.

Also, the brace has a stronger magnetic field near the ends than in the middle. You can confirm this by suspending a needle on a thread and holding it next to the brace--you'll see it pulled to the ends of the brace more readily than the middle. If the compass can be moved toward the middle, it might reduce the problem. Doesn't eliminate it--on my Interstate the compass is close to the center of a steel tube and has errors of 15+ degrees in some directions.

Here's what I did: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=40673&highlight=degauss