Walt
Well Known Member
Kinda scary stuff for me...
Finishing up a Condition Insp on an aircraft for a new owner today, the aircraft is a 'modern' RV, recently purchased with 390, glass panel, full EFII, dual batteries and dual plane power alternators, etc.
When he dropped it off his only squawks were minor stuff.
So I push the airplane out to run it and the battery is dead, push it back it and check both batteries and find them both dead. Charge them up overnight and go out for another run, no surprise that the main alternator is toast.
Call the owner to advise him of my findings and he acts like everything has been working fine, except it's been hard to start and he's had to jump it and just put a new battery in it... and voltage has been running around 12.5 volts in flight after he would get it going. He flew it in that way....
The system has a row of switches on a lower panel for all kinds of stuff related to the EFII, I have no idea what most of them actually do and I seriously doubt the owner does either. They are hard to see/read while seated and poorly labeled. The checklist in the aircraft has nothing other that how to do a normal start, no emergency procedures, no after start checklist, no procedure to check the EFII system, nothing on what to do in the event the engine stops.
This guy was totally reliant on a POS PP BU alt, if that would have quit he would have had very limited time with both the batteries practically dead.
My personal opinion, I don't think anyone should build a complex aircraft and then sell it to an unwitting buyer.
This guy had no idea how close he came to being an NTSB report.
Finishing up a Condition Insp on an aircraft for a new owner today, the aircraft is a 'modern' RV, recently purchased with 390, glass panel, full EFII, dual batteries and dual plane power alternators, etc.
When he dropped it off his only squawks were minor stuff.
So I push the airplane out to run it and the battery is dead, push it back it and check both batteries and find them both dead. Charge them up overnight and go out for another run, no surprise that the main alternator is toast.
Call the owner to advise him of my findings and he acts like everything has been working fine, except it's been hard to start and he's had to jump it and just put a new battery in it... and voltage has been running around 12.5 volts in flight after he would get it going. He flew it in that way....
The system has a row of switches on a lower panel for all kinds of stuff related to the EFII, I have no idea what most of them actually do and I seriously doubt the owner does either. They are hard to see/read while seated and poorly labeled. The checklist in the aircraft has nothing other that how to do a normal start, no emergency procedures, no after start checklist, no procedure to check the EFII system, nothing on what to do in the event the engine stops.
This guy was totally reliant on a POS PP BU alt, if that would have quit he would have had very limited time with both the batteries practically dead.
My personal opinion, I don't think anyone should build a complex aircraft and then sell it to an unwitting buyer.
This guy had no idea how close he came to being an NTSB report.
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