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Walt Aronow of Exp Aircraft

G

GaryChatelain

Member
Just wanted to compliment Walter Aronow on the excellent work he did on my RV8. He installed a new radio, moved some stuff around on my panel, and did some engine maintenance for me. I learned a lot just standing next to him. Walt is very capable, conscious, and very reasonable on his fees. I highly recommend him on any work that you might need. :)
 
Thanks Gary, but I'm still not signing you off on your A&P :D

And you need to post some pics of your plane, Gary definately has one of the nicer RV8's I've had the privilege to work on.
 
and one more

And I wanted to complement Walt on the fast job he did of recalibrating the freq on my Garmin GX320 transponder which was a little too high. The avionics shop here at Deer Valley Airport said the transponder frequencies couldnt be adjusted. I sent it to Walt and he recalibrated and yellow tagged it for me over last weekend and sent it back to me for $50. Thanks Walt!
 
Walt said:
Thanks Gary, but I'm still not signing you off on your A&P :D
Click to expand...

Ha! It was worth a try, anyway, Gary. ;)

Walt, I may be getting with you soon too, I didn't know you did all of this. Picked up a 6, and having a bit of background noise on my radio. I also have one of the old Vision 1000 systems, and it's heck trying to get the fuel gauges to read right. It always reads low fuel, about 95% of the time with full tanks. Not sure if you can help here or not, or what I should do. If no one can work on it here, I'll be looking you up next month if it's a good time for you, and it's something you think you might want to mess with.

John
 
John,
Did you sell the 4 kit?

I'm gonna bet (99% probability) that you have resistive senders in the 6 and generally speaking, at about 3/4 tanks they reach their upper limit and will show full. They should start reading accurately once you get under about 15 gal.

The radio we'll just have to look/listen to and see what's going on.
Walt
 
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Walt, the previous owner claims he had to change a battery out for it, and that?s when the problem started. He seems to think there is a loose wire somewhere, but I haven?t been able to find it, and I?m not sure that is the problem. I honestly haven?t a clue.

Yep, sold my 4, seems like everybody wanted the fuselage kit. I could have sold that kit a few times over. With the wing and tail kit, it took a bit longer, but managed to sell it not too long after. All were South TX builders who had built before. I?m confident they will finish it.

I've got somebody at my local airport that came highly recommended on these electronics. If he doesn't have the time for it, I hope to see you next month, if your schedule permits.
 
Contact Reggie

John,
Contact Reggie for your VM1000 issues. He is on VAF:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/member.php?u=13508

He has helped several guys on here.

The VM1000 does not take a reading from your fuel senders, but rather is just a fuel calculator that you input the fuel you added and it shows you what "should" be, vice what "actually is" in the tanks.

I use the Electronics International Fuel display connected to my resistance fuel senders to show where the floats are in the tanks. (Basically for fuel leak in flight) I use the VM1000 for fuel burn and remaining. The 1000 is very accurate to the 0.1 gallon on fill ups.

Walt is right regarding the resistance senders. I am able to acurrately record 16 gallons in the right tank and 14 gallons in the left. When I bought the plane in August the gauge and senders were worthless, but after recalibrating the senders, both have worked like a charm. Make sure when you calibrate the senders, you stop when the resistance value fails to increase. Otherwise you will get a large drop in fuel quantity when fuel drops to next lower resistance value. (Ask me how I know!)

Hope this helps.

Dan
 
THX Dan, all help is appreciated. He'll be another one I may have to seek help on. It's read crazy since I have had it, always saying low fuel warning, even though I take the necessary steps to program in the gallons after fill-up. Since it wasn't doing any good, I just gave up on it, and now estimate by time, making sure I have full tanks on take off, and having plenty of reserve.
 
And I agree with Dan, if the problem is with the VM1000 Reggie would be the man to talk with.
 
Have you replaced the battery in the DPU recently? If so you need to re-program the system for fuel quantity. When you top off tanks, make sure you put in greater quantity than max fuel capability. I.e.my tanks are 38 gallons, when i top off the tanks i put in 50 gallons. This resets the DPU to top off limits you programmed.

Dan
 
Yes, that was the battery the previous owner replaced,and hasn't been right since. I have the 38 gallons too, and was told I could round up to the nearest 10 gallon mark, so I went with 40. Unfortunately, it doesn't reset properly, and still gives me the low fuel warnings about 95% of the time.

Looks like I might have to get with Reggie since Walt recommends him too, if it turns out my local help isn't able to get to the root of the problem.
 
From VM1000 manual

2.5.1 INITIAL SET UP OF THE FUEL COMPUTER \_-' Your fuel computer features the capability of 'remembering'the SIZE of your fuel tank. This is setup once after you receive your system, or if for some reason the fuel computer memory has been lost. (NOTE: A lithium battery module is located inside the DPU and will require replacing about every three to five years.) Setting up this level is easily done by following these steps: Refer to 'VM1000 QUICK REFERENCE' in lllustrations section.

STEP 1: With power OFF, press and hold 'BUTTON 4', then turn power ON to the VM1000. Wait for the display test patterns to go off, then for the 'HRS', 'REM', 'BRN', 'ADD' indicators to activate, indicating that fuel tank setup mode has been activated

STEP 2: You will program the tank size in whole units. Press 'BUTTON 3'fortens ('10.0') and 'BUTTON 5' for ones ('01.0') . lf you accidentally went too high, then just repeat pressing 'BUTTON 3' until the display resets back to '00.0' allowing you to start over.

STEP 3: lf you like the value displayed, then press 'BUTTON 4'to accept the new maximum tank size, otherwise just leave everything alone and after 20 seconds the setup mode will automatically be canceled, leaving your previous tank size unchanged

STEP 4: ADD fuel to your computefs memory according to 'Adding Fuel to the Computer.

Give that a try.

Dan

P.S. 40 gals should be fine. Anything over max tank qty will reset to value you set using above steps.
 
Dan, that?s the procedure my manual says to go with, and what the previous owner also said he used on numerous occasions. Haven?t tried it in a while, but next time up, I?ll go through it all again just to see if I might have missed something.

THX
 
We love Walt!!!

Tony and I :D


While visiting Texas on some business I had a chance to have Walt working on my plane. He did transponder certification and fixed my intercom which was mispinned from the factory. Thanks Walt I have something else to fix next time.


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Walt has an inventory on his mobile shop. He handles paperwork on the spot and is able to pull any schematics.


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Reasonably priced. Highly recommended.


PS Walt, I don't have your red dykes in my plane. We used mine with yellow handles. Check with John it might be in his hangar.
 
Thanks Vlad, always great to meet my friends from VAF in person, and even better that I had an opportunity to get you fixed up while you were visiting TX!

Vlad has a nice clean 9, simple and totally functional, and I fell in love with the classic old clock in your panel, I think I need to find one just like it now :cool:
 
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