It's always disheartening to see your plane in pieces.. much nicer seeing them come together. But we are trying to sort out an electrical fault that has us grounded for the moment. There are a few opinions but as it unfolds it would appear to be to do with a possible overload of circuits with the generator of the plane struggling to keep the batteries topped up with an adequate supply and also possibly blowing the regulator. There may also be battery failure and failure of some of the elctrical devices. The problem appear to be not uncommon and while we were working on the plane, the Sling next to us from Ayre Aviation was also in for a failed regulator and they were becoming scarce. The regulator on that plane blew at 700 hours with the second one blowing within the next 80 hours.
Jean and James from The Airplane Factory are marvelous however and determined to see their babies back in the air. Long term solutions are not clear, but it seems for those Slings where the Regulator was initially installed inside the engine compartment where excessive heat can cause failure, the recommendation is to move it to the cabin side of the fire wall. It also seems like the addition of an alternator to deliver a better power supply will obviate future overload problems. We also changed all of the batteries as they were underperforming or faulty. So thanks guys for all the help and advice.. we will be in the air shortly. Just also a note from an insurance point of view, be aware that your aircraft insurance does not cover electrical faults, so replacing any blown equipment could be expensive.
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| Getting in behind the cockpit dash to replace the twin Efis backup batteries. |
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| Dave gets a "crash" course in electrical systems |
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| Kevin from AeroNatal gets a hand to the backup batteries, whilst the regulator in it's new position above the pilot's pedals can be seen. |
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