woodmanrog
Well Known Member
Here is what happened.
On a flight last week, my wife and I noticed that all of a sudden our EIS system was showing an steady voltage DROP and an INCREASE in amperage. As the lights started dimming and things started shutting down in flight, we shut down all of the electrics except for the transponder which was now squauking 7600. Since we carry a handheld radio on board, it turned out to be a non-event as we flew home and landed. It seemed even though the XPNDR wasn't blinking, it still was putting out a signal as our tower guy asked me to ident and he was able to read where we were.
As we flew along before I shut things down, I noticed that the voltage was steadily dropping and the amps were steadily climbing all the way up to 60.
After landing, I put the battery on a trickle charger and went home.
Here is the mystery:
The next morning per instructions from my partner who is a respected AP, I pulled the plane out of the hanger, pulled all of the circuit breakers, noted the voltage (13.6V) before starting the engine and cranked her up. After the engine was running, I started adding electrical components one at a time to see if there was a short or excessive draw from any one component. The voltage held steady at 14 volts and the amp meter read a draw of anywhere from 1 amp to a maximum of 5.The maximum occurred when I turned on the strobes. At this point everything seemed normal so I took "Cloud Dancer" up for a few laps over the airport. When I landed, everything was again as it should be.
My first inclination was that my voltage regulator/alternator was going south so I ordered a new Plane Power. At first I hadn't considered that I may have a bad battery because we just replaced it 6 months ago.
Now I'm thinking that the battery may in fact be faulty because the alternator was trying to replace voltage/amps that were being drawn by the battery as it was failing. Of course I am just making guesses so I thought I'd ask the experts out there for any advice that could be offered.
Thanks,
Woodman
On a flight last week, my wife and I noticed that all of a sudden our EIS system was showing an steady voltage DROP and an INCREASE in amperage. As the lights started dimming and things started shutting down in flight, we shut down all of the electrics except for the transponder which was now squauking 7600. Since we carry a handheld radio on board, it turned out to be a non-event as we flew home and landed. It seemed even though the XPNDR wasn't blinking, it still was putting out a signal as our tower guy asked me to ident and he was able to read where we were.
As we flew along before I shut things down, I noticed that the voltage was steadily dropping and the amps were steadily climbing all the way up to 60.
After landing, I put the battery on a trickle charger and went home.
Here is the mystery:
The next morning per instructions from my partner who is a respected AP, I pulled the plane out of the hanger, pulled all of the circuit breakers, noted the voltage (13.6V) before starting the engine and cranked her up. After the engine was running, I started adding electrical components one at a time to see if there was a short or excessive draw from any one component. The voltage held steady at 14 volts and the amp meter read a draw of anywhere from 1 amp to a maximum of 5.The maximum occurred when I turned on the strobes. At this point everything seemed normal so I took "Cloud Dancer" up for a few laps over the airport. When I landed, everything was again as it should be.
My first inclination was that my voltage regulator/alternator was going south so I ordered a new Plane Power. At first I hadn't considered that I may have a bad battery because we just replaced it 6 months ago.
Now I'm thinking that the battery may in fact be faulty because the alternator was trying to replace voltage/amps that were being drawn by the battery as it was failing. Of course I am just making guesses so I thought I'd ask the experts out there for any advice that could be offered.
Thanks,
Woodman
