One of the outcomes of our trip to Van?s back in September was a religious conversion (courtesy of the evangelical Jerry VanGrunsven) to a belief in the effectiveness in AoA systems in reducing a measurable percentage of EAB accidents. I?ll be doing some writing on this in the near future, but in order to come up with meaningful comments, I figured it was time to install a real, sensed system in the Valkyrie (and compare it with the derived system I have on the GRT EFIS), so last week I received a nice box of parts from Advanced Flight Systems, and the Val went down for minor surgery.
Of course, minor surgery is a matter of perspective. The Advanced Pro system is very well packaged, with good instructions, but it is a bit invasive ? I needed to run sense lines from the wingtip and an additional micro-switch to pick up a ?flaps deployed? indication ? which meant pulling up floors, removing a wingtip, and pulling the intersection fairing. Then, of course, there is the brain box, switches, and indicator, which means that the panel had to come out?.
By the time I got very far into it, I figured ?what the heck??.might as well just sign off the Condition Inspection when I get done!
One of the lessons I?d share from an installation like this is the careful planning of wiring interfaces. Since my panel is removable, anything that crosses the interface between panel and airframe has to have a disconnect. The AoA system has a harness which is centralized on the brain box and needs power, ground, inputs from the switches, and outputs to the indicator and audio system. Good planning puts the brain box on the airframe side of the panel interface, and minimizing the number of disconnects meant putting the witches on the fixed portion of the panel (the airframe side). This means that only ONE line has to cross the disconnects, and that is the audio output from the AoA to the audio panel (mounted in the removable panel). It took some doodling at the design desk to come up with this realization ? well worth it before diving into the project!
I figure that a few day?s work will see the system back ready for flight.
Paul
Of course, minor surgery is a matter of perspective. The Advanced Pro system is very well packaged, with good instructions, but it is a bit invasive ? I needed to run sense lines from the wingtip and an additional micro-switch to pick up a ?flaps deployed? indication ? which meant pulling up floors, removing a wingtip, and pulling the intersection fairing. Then, of course, there is the brain box, switches, and indicator, which means that the panel had to come out?.
By the time I got very far into it, I figured ?what the heck??.might as well just sign off the Condition Inspection when I get done!
One of the lessons I?d share from an installation like this is the careful planning of wiring interfaces. Since my panel is removable, anything that crosses the interface between panel and airframe has to have a disconnect. The AoA system has a harness which is centralized on the brain box and needs power, ground, inputs from the switches, and outputs to the indicator and audio system. Good planning puts the brain box on the airframe side of the panel interface, and minimizing the number of disconnects meant putting the witches on the fixed portion of the panel (the airframe side). This means that only ONE line has to cross the disconnects, and that is the audio output from the AoA to the audio panel (mounted in the removable panel). It took some doodling at the design desk to come up with this realization ? well worth it before diving into the project!
I figure that a few day?s work will see the system back ready for flight.
Paul