Lancair Super ES
Well Known Member
Below is an excerpt of an e-mail that I sent to Chad at Ballard/Astronics regarding multiple CU failures in my legacy VP200. I was hoping to get some more insight into the problem before I rip out a system that has very good functionality and I have otherwise been pleased with. My only hope is that Marc Ausman will see this and chime in to help, because Ballard won't/can't help. My direct e-mail is [email protected]
Hi Jason! It was good catching up with you at the Lancair fly-in in Denver last week. I appreciate your ideas for dealing with my VP200 shutdown issues. I am copying Chad Jensen on this so he is in the loop.
I had my 3rd CU failure flying home from Denver last Monday. Flying along in a thin, light stratus layer at 9000’ for quite some time. All goes dark. I had the foresight to have the COM1 and AP bypass relays already ON. The AP did lose the GPSS signal but I switched over to AP TRK. Rebooted VP200 with the green, still on, button. Came up in manual mode, then it switched to automatic. Both pitot heat and strobe devices were faulted when it came back up. Descended out of clouds, and just left them alone for remainder of trip.
As you may recall, my first failure was the day about 2 months ago that I called both you and Chad. That also happened in IMC…clouds, rain, bumpy. Diverted to KSGJ and landed to sort it out. Rebooted fine on ground; called both you guys. Flew home a bit later in VFR conditions. That first event was at about 150 hours TT, and shortly after final paint was done (had been flying in primer up until then). The second event was about 20 hours later and, ironically, about the same geographic area, heading the opposite direction! Just punching through some isolated small cumulus clouds. Rebooted that time as well, this time in the air. Monday's’s 3rd failure was at about 195 hours TT.
It seems being in the clouds is common to each failure. Also, seems to me that the recent painting may have an effect? I had zero problems up to the first failure. Could it be static? What can be done to mitigate that?
I am going to check the ground wire to the VP CU case this weekend. My builder’s log shows that I installed it as required, but I don’t have a good picture in my file to verify that.
I have lost confidence in the VP system, and short of some solution from Ballard/VP, I would like for you to work on designing a replacement solution as we discussed. I am open to the VPX route you mentioned, but wonder if I will have the same issue. The other option is to go to fuses and switches installed in the area vacated by the DU. I guess we can wait for Chad and VP to chime in before doing any hard core design work.
Chad, any thoughts or direction? I realize the VP200 has been orphaned and is not supported by Ballard, but would appreciate any input you, Marc, or the engineer may have.
Thanks, guys.
Gordon Porter
Lancair ES
N144GP
Hi Jason! It was good catching up with you at the Lancair fly-in in Denver last week. I appreciate your ideas for dealing with my VP200 shutdown issues. I am copying Chad Jensen on this so he is in the loop.
I had my 3rd CU failure flying home from Denver last Monday. Flying along in a thin, light stratus layer at 9000’ for quite some time. All goes dark. I had the foresight to have the COM1 and AP bypass relays already ON. The AP did lose the GPSS signal but I switched over to AP TRK. Rebooted VP200 with the green, still on, button. Came up in manual mode, then it switched to automatic. Both pitot heat and strobe devices were faulted when it came back up. Descended out of clouds, and just left them alone for remainder of trip.
As you may recall, my first failure was the day about 2 months ago that I called both you and Chad. That also happened in IMC…clouds, rain, bumpy. Diverted to KSGJ and landed to sort it out. Rebooted fine on ground; called both you guys. Flew home a bit later in VFR conditions. That first event was at about 150 hours TT, and shortly after final paint was done (had been flying in primer up until then). The second event was about 20 hours later and, ironically, about the same geographic area, heading the opposite direction! Just punching through some isolated small cumulus clouds. Rebooted that time as well, this time in the air. Monday's’s 3rd failure was at about 195 hours TT.
It seems being in the clouds is common to each failure. Also, seems to me that the recent painting may have an effect? I had zero problems up to the first failure. Could it be static? What can be done to mitigate that?
I am going to check the ground wire to the VP CU case this weekend. My builder’s log shows that I installed it as required, but I don’t have a good picture in my file to verify that.
I have lost confidence in the VP system, and short of some solution from Ballard/VP, I would like for you to work on designing a replacement solution as we discussed. I am open to the VPX route you mentioned, but wonder if I will have the same issue. The other option is to go to fuses and switches installed in the area vacated by the DU. I guess we can wait for Chad and VP to chime in before doing any hard core design work.
Chad, any thoughts or direction? I realize the VP200 has been orphaned and is not supported by Ballard, but would appreciate any input you, Marc, or the engineer may have.
Thanks, guys.
Gordon Porter
Lancair ES
N144GP
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