Another reason to love your RV...

[videobobk]

Sad story. A nice guy at the airport today looked quite dejected. Seems he had flown through some rain and on the next flight (today) his DG and attitude indicator didn't work. His plane was recently painted and they didn't seal the windshield correctly, it leaked, entered his vacuum system and scrapped out two expensive instruments. Trash. He is ready for his instrument check ride and now doesn't have a flyable plane, nearing the limit to where he may have to re-take his test.

At least with a homebuilt you would be able to have the parts tomorrow and put them in yourself. He is dead in the water for who knows how long. There are just so many reasons here to be happy you are a homebuilder...

Bob Kelly

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by videobobk

Sad story. A nice guy at the airport today looked quite dejected. Seems he had flown through some rain and on the next flight (today) his DG and attitude indicator didn't work. His plane was recently painted and they didn't seal the windshield correctly, it leaked, entered his vacuum system and scrapped out two expensive instruments. Trash. He is ready for his instrument check ride and now doesn't have a flyable plane, nearing the limit to where he may have to re-take his test.

At least with a homebuilt you would be able to have the parts tomorrow and put them in yourself. He is dead in the water for who knows how long. There are just so many reasons here to be happy you are a homebuilder...

Bob Kelly

Sorry, I'm missing something here. How does a leaking windshield allow water inside the pitot-static system? I can see avionics issues but....

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[morlino]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Sorry, I'm missing something here. How does a leaking windshield allow water inside the pitot-static system? I can see avionics issues but....

Pitot static systems typically include airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator... Someone who knows more than me will probably clarify... but the directional gyro and the attitude indicator both use gyroscopes that are powered by an engine driven vacuum pump. I believe that the intake ports for the vacuum are located at each of the instruments, or at least under the panel somewhere where they would suck in water that may have leaked through the windshield. I think it is very likely that water contamination in your vacuum system is not real good for the instruments or the pump.

I don't know much about vacuum systems, and I don't ever plan on having one or learning much about them. I guess this is yet another reason for glass...

I wonder if paint shops are insured for this type of thing? It seems like they should somehow be held responsible?

[John Clark]

Sorry, I missed the point reading your post. Sounds like there was a major water leak and, probably, a questionable design in the vacuum system. The usual way is to have the air intakes connected to a filter. The filter mounting is critical to keep it from ingesting water.