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dan carley

Well Known Member
I've tried a few compass in my rv-4 with very little luck. what do most of you do? apparently panel mounts don't work well. what kind and where to mount them?

thanks
dan carley
 
Forget it

I have tried a couple in mine, panel mount was terrible, and since there isn't a glareshield, any attempt to mount to canopy frame puts it too far back. I need readers to see close anyway, and my personal opinion is there is no need for a compass. I have 3 different GPS systems, a small panel mounted Ipac based, a Nexus 7 on a knee pad, and my Android phone if needed, all having very accurate heading indication . Removing the old Whiskey bubble was the smartest thing I did.
 
Never found a good spot to mount my vertical card compass in my 6A. It's off by as much as 15 degrees at some points, but I leave it in because if I lose all 3 gps's I want some means of knowing/holding heading. I carry a diver's wrist compass in my flight bag on the theory that I can use it to correct my panel mounted compass in a pinch. John
 
oh well

I left my vertical card on the panel because the hole is round. Nothing else I have is round anymore. It sort of points the correct way. Mostly not though...
 
Isn't a magnetic compass (that doesn't require power to operate) on the minimum equipment list?

Bevan
 
Bevan said:
Isn't a magnetic compass (that doesn't require power to operate) on the minimum equipment list?

Bevan
Click to expand...

Different rules in Canada and US. This gets brought up all the time - there are essentially NO required instruments in the US for an experimental operated under DVFR.
 
I am not sure how different the 8 is from a 4, but I mounted a Vertical Card Compass on the left side of my panel.

I had access to a de-gauss (sp?) machine and de-gaussed the snot out of the roll bar thinking that would be the weak link for magnetic error.

I have very good results with almost no correction.
 
Ironflight said:
Different rules in Canada and US. This gets brought up all the time - there are essentially NO required instruments in the US for an experimental operated under DVFR.
Click to expand...

Also, a magnetic direction indicator built into your most EFIS (all?) displays is a legal replacement for a whiskey compass.
 
I have a panel mount. I have mine dialed in near perfect and I have mine packed with instruments. I had to selectively wrap some the surrounding instruments in nickel foil. Works perfect. I was nearly 90 degrees off.

X
 
Nickel foil

X
Is that nickel foil "Mu metal" by any chance?
I have had the mag compass problem being 60 degrees off in a Pitts S1S years ago because the battery was behind the seat with the frame being the ground return...whala...frame magnetized, took a AC welder to fix it, with a new ground line return to engine starter. I tried to fix a Belanca Viking the same way, use a small compass to find where the magnetism was in the frame and push some AC through it. I had no luck in this case, very complicated magnetism pattern.
Do we need a mag compass, no, but it's cheap insurance and simple.
John
 
Mine's fine too

Xkuzme1 said:
I have a panel mount. I have mine dialed in near perfect and I have mine packed with instruments. I had to selectively wrap some the surrounding instruments in nickel foil. Works perfect. I was nearly 90 degrees off.

X
Click to expand...

The magnetic variation is 10 degrees here, but mine works fine?

OSH is zero, mine read correctly.

mounted rt side (low).

Hummph.
Guess that fancy brass screw driver can stay in the tool box.

Daddyman
 
My -4 will be IFR in about a week. So I did want, at a minimum, a good head on the compass to set the DG. I do like to put the airplane upside down, so sometimes the gyros can be more of precession instruments instead of precision instruments.
 
Mine is built into my panel. It was terrible trying to get a bead on it until I got advice off of the forum here to wrap some adjoining instruments in nickel foil. I couldn't find foil, but I found thin nickel sheet. Works like a glove. My compass is dead on (after a little adjusting with a brass screw driver).
 
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