Ratherbflying

And what kind of data plan would be required for your "GSM to access"?

Yetti, all nice things to have, but would require a persistent wi-fi connection which would be, if not available at your hangar, $10-40 month. The nice thing about the cell switch set up is that you can use alarm-system-style plans that are readily available for $3/month. Perfect for a cheap bastard such as I and my partners. If you do pursue, I have a Python code daemon I wrote to get my raspberry pi to do the simple on/off functions that I would be glad to contribute to the cause.

+1. TMobile is the only option left for GSM.

https://www.savvyaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/articles_eaa/EAA_2014-11_prebuy-dos-and-donts.pdf From the article: The purpose of an annual inspection (defined by FAR §43.15) is to identify all airworthiness discrepancies, whether trivial discrepancies that cost $50 to cor- rect or major catastrophes that cost $50,000 to resolve. Once started, an annual inspection must continue to completion of all inspection checklist items, and always results in a logbook entry (per FAR §43.11) that declares the aircraft air- worthy or unairworthy.

Make sure your mechanic knows the proper way to clean fine wire plugs. Treating them like massives could be the reason the plug was damaged. http://www.tempestplus.com/Portals/0/PDFs/Sparkplug Cleaning The Right Way 061212.pdf

Done.

Um... yeah. The reason this keeps coming up is: 1) There are a number of different manufacturers in China getting in on producing these boxes. The later ones appear to have cut corners (e.g. Putting in a wimpy 10 amp PCB-mounted fuse instead of a 20 amp socket mounted fuse) on the boxes they make. 2) Another way they cut corners is to reuse the translated-to-English specifications from the original design. So, no way they can handle anywhere close to 18 amps, but they say they do anyway. 3) 18 amps is more than enough to handle most engine heaters and a small ceramic heater on low/medium setting. 4) We get these boxes and think they can handle 18 amps, and bam... fuse blows. Yes, we lose time and perhaps don't fly on a day we meant to, but we stick it back in the box and Amazon makes good financially. Welcome to Amazon and the "new economy"... globally produced crap that may be true to the design specifications or may not. Fortunately, they are funded by a permanently high stock market and don't have to worry about things like profits and loss, so they happily refund our money or send us a replacement box. If I ordered a new one of these, the first thing I would do is open it up and take a look at the internal wiring, and more specifically the fuse, in order to understand what I really had.

First of all, as others have said, congratulations and great job on getting yourself safely on the ground. I find that any problem is multiplied by 10 in intensity if I'm IMC, and sounds like you handled it like a pro. And I do understand that after a stressful event, anything, especially a brush with the FAA, isn't going to be welcome. But in reading your description of the inspectors actions, and sitting out here in the cheap seats, I don't find this alarming. Your profile says that you are near ATL... did the event happen in/near ATL airspace? If so, as we all know, they are kind of protective of that particular airspace, and they probably have FSDO inspectors sitting on their ass just to chase down things like this when they happen. And the fact that the inspector wanted to check out the repairs gives me the sense that maybe he had prior experience with something like this. Again, fantastic job handling the emergency. You took the right actions, and the investigation being closed without any further action absolutely proves it.

I didn't install a fuse holder. The real estate on the circuit board is pretty tight, and I agreed with larryb that this particular version of the GSM switch was never going to handle the claimed load, so I soldered in the replacement fuse and committed to babying the thing from here on out. Here's the fuse: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/85-11226

Does your heater have a Low or Medium setting? I ran mine on Low for a good twenty minutes and the relay handled it well.

OK, fuse is fixed. Relay is installed. Works like a champ. Using an old cell phone charger to supply the control signal. Whacked the old connector off, stripped the wires, and attached the relay connector. This relay box is a very elegant design. It is rated for 1440 watts, which is just a titch less than the 1500 watt ceramic heater on high heat, but the relay includes an On/Off breaker switch. If you do inadvertently pull too much, should be able to just manually reset the circuit. And here it is deployed in the hangar. It will be nice to hop in to a warm cabin and not have the gyros screech from the cold when I flip the master on.

I have been looking and looking to find somewhere to buy the optional temperature sensor probe and finally found it this afternoon: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-shipping-Accessories-temperature-sensor-for-Smart-Socket-Switch-SC3-GSMT/272468695702?_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982&_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38530%26meid%3Da679215657b845f6a624a795f7de32dc%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D222047670491

In the picture, on the right hand side, there is a green-ish 2 wire connector. This is the signal voltage and it can accept either AC or DC. So my plan is to take an old cell phone charger, cut the connector off, strip the wires, and input to the relay. Then I can plug the block into the Andoer. Sorry for being so slow to get this done, but I still have guests coming and going for the holidays. Here is how I plan to wire it: 1. Wall outlet to the Andoer. 2. Andoer Socket 1 - to the engine heater. 3. Andoer Socket 2 - modified cell phone charger to the relay. 4. Wall outlet to the Relay. 5. Ceramic block heater plugged in to the relay.

Wow, I am jealous. Mine has a wimpy 10mm fuse, and it's soldered on to the board, not clipped. That is pretty much the exact load I had on it when the fuse blew. I had just added the ceramic block heater this year. It worked for the duration of my test when I set things up, but the first time I used it for real (turning the ceramic heater on 30 minutes before I got to the airport) I arrived to find the fuse blown. I considered trying to modify the fuse to make it a bit more robust, but I'm going to add one of these to the setup instead: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WV7GMA2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the pic. I circled where the fuse goes (it's already been removed.) I figured out which fuse to put in, but didn't get over to pick it up before the holiday. I also need some desoldering braid to clean up the holes before I solder the new one in. Thanks for the help.

I agree with the others, EDM 900 is absolutely awesome. Prices are here: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/edm900.php?clickkey=29444 JPI offers a rebate until January 20th. I bought mine two years ago and got the same rebate. But... don't wait until January 19th to order... there is a substantial amount of information you have to provide JPI to order the system, and most of it will have to come from your mechanic. They are also sticklers about the rebate... the orders have to be completed by COB the 20th or no rebate. I understand your instructors knee-jerk reaction about having a backup, but unless he is leaving you a few blank checks from his checkbook, you may want to consider overriding him. The factory gauges are aging and getting very expensive to repair. However, if you decide to keep the existing gauges, you can go with the cheaper 800/830 route. JPI had to spend a lot of money to get these devices certified as primary, and that shows up in the purchase price of the 900. And as I mentioned above, it saves you a bunch of money in future maintenence bills, and recognition of that value shows up in the price as well. If you are going to keep them, get an 8xx and don't pay your mechanic for removing that equipment. And speaking of install time, unless your mechanic has installed 20 of these things in a vintage Mooney, reserve a significant buffer (25-30%) to his install estimate. It's very invasive, and install times can be 20 to 40 hours. It is time consuming. You won't believe the process just to calibrate the fuel tank sensors. All that said, this was the single most valuable upgrade I've made to the airplane.

Has anyone been able to replace the internal fuse on ones of these things yet? On my unit the fuse is soldered in, and after pushing my luck by using a second outlet to configure a heater in the cabin, it is now quite blown. Guess I should have redone the math.

I'm still in shock from reading this statement. Unless they had a team of a six mechanics working eight straight hours with the precision of an Indy pit crew, these are what is known as a "paper annual".

The winds do make a tremendous difference. I departed Monroe County early last week on a morning with no wind. AWOS reported mile and a half visibility, but it was very deceptive... standing on the ramp it didn't look like a problem staying visual at all. However, as soon as I rotated I lost the horizon and didn't get it back until 4500 feet. Right before me a guy departed VFR, and 5-10 minutes later I heard him request a clearance from Knoxville. They sent him over to Flight watch. If you're going down there make sure you're current and capable.

My Concorde is three years old last month, never used a Batteryminder, and it is still cranking strong.

This happened to a buddy and I when we went up to Oshkosh. We were flying in to West Bend (ETB) from the southeast in his Deb in IMC. Male controller gave us the RNAV 31 and cleared us direct to the HUMBI, which is the FAF. We struggled with the 430 for a bit, realized what was going on, and got settled on a course. A while later, female controller comes on and says "I show you 5 miles left of course to COVNI" which is an IAF. We told her we weren't cleared to COVNI, we were cleared to HUMBI. At that point I think she changed us to a vectors-to-final clearance because she kept us on our current course. Nobody got excited, and the smooth way she handled it told me "Yeah, this has happened more than once." I believe she gave us a right turn when we got closer in to keep us outside the gate and lined up for final. I don't know if it's a training issue on the assigning controllers part, or if we were supposed to come back with "Unable" and get a clearance we could accept. Thinking about it now, that's exactly what we should have done, but flying in the soup that Sunday morning neither one of us was sharp enough to think of that.

Pulling the prop through is a great way to scrape protective oil off internal engine components. It should, over time, generate a lot of extra revenue for your mechanics. I'm assuming your checkout instructor was just stupid.

Matt, can you talk a bit more about the sequence of events from high-iron-in-the-sample to new-camshaft? Did metal start showing up in the filter? How long did it take between the high sample and the visible evidence? Steve

This is kind of like "When Harry Met Sally", only with aircraft parts.