RV7 AVIONIC ISSUE NEED HELP

[Kylec]

I purchased Craig Sawka's beautiful RV7. I have Dual 5600 advanced flight system screens, 650 Garmin. Advanced Flight Systems Auto Pilot and Second Radio I learned to fly in a Citabria when I was 14 and have not flown since. I am now 58 have wanted an RV for 20 years. I have a wonderful instructors, Joe Cabe and his brother Bob and they are both RV lovers and owners. OK I get that this is a lot of plane to learn in, however I had a beautiful solo the other day and on my second landing while announcing my down wind leg on the radio, my noise cancelling headphones went loud and I looked down and all of my screens were dark. Let me tell you ladies and gentlemen that second solo landing was pretty lonely. I taxied back to Joe with a funny look on my face, he got in and we quickly found that my master avionics fuse had popped. We pushed it in, flew 30 miles back to Boerne, tx, my home base and on final it popped again and I made my second avionics out landing of the day. I have pretty good log and records from Craig Sawka, who built it. (Those of you who know Craig please send out a prayer as he had heart bypass surgery yesterday) I obviously cannot fly again under these conditions and my local APIs are to busy to mess with me. Can anyone recommend a mechanic in my area? Since my solo, flying my plane is all I can think about and I have a job. I am asking for a mechanic, not a four page dialogue of what could or couldn't have happen as I have already been through that. I need a smart avionics guy with an amp meter, an ohm meter and some patience. I have money and can't continue on with my life until my baby flies again. My phone is 210-373-6889
Kyle Courtney

[Mike S]

Kyle, welcome to VAF

Congrats on the new plane

Try talking to Jay at RV Central, 817 271 0594. or Walt at Expaircraft, 972 746 5154.

They are both active here, both have ads here on VAF......look at the sidebar on this page, and the home page.

Both of them are probably at OSH, so you might need at wait till next week.

[Jpm757]

Kyle,
I have the same setup in my RV7. I would first check with Rob Hickman at AFS for his thoughts (he is likely at OSH). If your system uses the red ACM module then I would first check the 8 ga. feeder wire that supplies power to the whole system, it should be connected directly to the master solenoid. Sounds like a feeder fault short to ground. Look for any wire chafing as it passes thru bulkheads etc. If you have a backup battery, I don't know if that will kick in if the ACM is shorted out. The AFS website has all the wiring diagrams available.

Good Luck
Jake

[Carl Froehlich]

Originally Posted by Kylec

SNIP
I taxied back to Joe with a funny look on my face, he got in and we quickly found that my master avionics fuse had popped. SNIP
Kyle Courtney

Whatever you do, eliminate this single point failure. Having all avionics on a single avionics master switch or breaker provides no benefit and as you found out, is an unnecessary risk.

There are so many better ways to do power distribution than something like this left over from a 1960 Cessna.

Carl

[Kylec]

Thanks for the help. I have gotten it repaired and am back in the air.
Kyle

[DaleB]

What did the problem turn out to be?