Edo Aire DG coupled with Brittain Accuflite

[tsuttles]

ok guys quick question for all you experienced with the Brittain autopilot stuff. I recently had the accuflite and accutrak system added to my stock PC system. The edo aire DG with heading bug that is coupled with the system seems to be malfunctioning and I want to know if it is the Brittain side or the DG side. As a disclaimer the DG came straight from Brittain with the system and was tagged as overhauled and return to service.

 

Problems include:

 

1. Heading Bug will not travel 360 degrees, it has a spot of about 15 degrees straight up that it will not travel through

 2. It has massive progression of about 10-15 degrees over the course of 2mins

3. When you engage the accuflite system it initiates a turn but ignores the heading bug and turns right past it and just continues the turn

 

 

Thoughts? I have spoken with Brittain but wanted to hear from the flyers of the system because I am new to the system. 

 

Tim 

 

[N201MKTurbo]

The precession and heading bug problems are gyro problems. The problem with it going past the heading bug could be in the gyro, wiring or the amplifier.

If you just go it from Brittin, I would send it back and have them fix it.

[N601RX]

Any chance the mounting screws were to long binding the internals of the DG?

[N201MKTurbo]

Good call

[N601RX]

You didn't mention if item 3 was in both directions or not, But if the turn is in one direction only and it will not lift the low wing back up level, there is usually a leak on the low wing side. Is the Accutrac and wing leveler working correctly? You should be able to manually dial in a turn in each direction with the Accutrac and verify the servos are working.

[tsuttles]

I will check the screws tomorrow but they are the ones that were sent with the DG. Currently only the heading bug system is functional because the avionics guy was going to wire the accutrak system on Monday to my GPS and NAV2. The PC system works beautifully in both direction and in smooth air holds a wings level very nice. By what you guys are saying it seems to be on the DG side. So tomorrow when I drop the DG out if it were the screws then at minimum the heading bug should rotate 360 degrees. Am I thinking about that right?

[N201MKTurbo]

probably.

 

There are rotating rings with gear teeth that are coupled with a small gear on the knob shaft. When you push the knob in it slides the little gear so it doesn't couple to the gyro cage. If one of the mounting screws is touching that ring gear during part of its rotation it would inhibit the rotation. with the knob out it would stop the motion of the whole gyro, which will cause massive precession and possibly gyro damage.

[tsuttles]

Thanks guys I think I found the problem but will not see until I test fly tomorrow. I went over to the hanger this morning and pulled the DG out. I noticed when the DG was tilted forward it no longer worked but when I tilted it back and the gears were able to return to their caged position the DG functioned properly. So I carefully remounted the DG and everything on the ground was fixed. I will know more tomorrow after the test flight but I know how delicate those instruments are and something as simple as that could definitely be the issue. If the DG does not function to 100% tomorrow it will be pulled and sent to Jerry in Tulsa as they have already promised to make it right. Another example of their awesome customer service.