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Mooney crash, pilot walks away


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9 minutes ago, cnoe said:

 


That's a good point Bob but don't forget to determine whether or not the sensor can be replaced.

They'll replace the sensor and calibrate the Sensorcon unit for $60 as I understand. The EOL warning pops up after 2 years but the unit continues to work, albeit with less accuracy.

My primary reason for choosing this unit was the fact that it's made in the US and that they actively support the product.



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Chuck, I have no vested interest in this unit, I do have good experience with Zoro, the industrial supply company who sells a lot of safety equipment. Often their prices beat everyone else. 

@ under $20 per year you get a rugged, sensitive CO meter. The worthless cards costs almost that if you replace them regularly.

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Fascinating set of posts.  My initial post was a plea for all MS forum members to replace their (expired, and otherwise essentially useless) square "CO detectors" cards with the circle that is supposed to change color in the presence of CO, with any one of a number of real detectors. This in order to protect themselves, and their passengers from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Later I posted the recounting of the CO poisoning that two of my friends suffered while on a training flight.  I personally have a Guardian low level detector permanently mounted in the console under the throttle/prop/mixture controls, with an annunciator light in the panel. Yep, expensive, and the battery needs periodic replacement (I do this at every annual), but having experienced low level CO effects in boats and aircraft, I think it is important to spend the money to detect the presence of CO as early as possible.

What I didn't post was the fact that I carry two smoke hoods with filters for CO in the front seat back pockets of my airplane. Each unit is packaged in a case of about 6"x6"x2", which is a bit bulky, but they do fit.  I bought these for two reasons: For for in-flight fires, with the accompanying smoke including CO, and in the event that the Guardian annunciator, and console unit, indicate the presence of CO.  In this latter case, it might take too long to descend from cruise altitude to avoid unconsciousness. I have previously mentioned that I own a Risk Management consultancy, (and that I have been designated as an Expert Witness in aviation related litigation on numerous occasions), and this makes me somewhat more sensitive to risk situations, but I believe that all pilots should consider the CO risk, which of course includes thorough checking of exhaust systems and heater systems, as well as means of detecting CO in the cockpit. 

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it picks up the traffic in front of you


Works better than Active Traffic!

Put me on the group buy list. Ask your full time firemen friends if they can take it to work and calibrate it with the test gas there.


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On February 11, 2017 at 0:04 AM, DanM20C said:

Hey everyone,

  I am the luckiest man alive.

Dan

Ain't that the truth ! I'm happy you are here to share Dan. Right after SnF 2016 I put a panel mount co detector in mine. The local MSC was having issues with a Bravo and it seems most have exhaust smoke around the rear air vent, pilots side, behind the panel. Mine had it and I didn't want to risk anything.

Tony

Dalton, Ga.

1993 TLS Bravo

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On February 15, 2017 at 3:48 PM, kevinw said:

I'm strongly considering the panel mounted CO Guardian. Does anyone know how much labor is involved? I have a noisy TC that I no longer need so I could pull that and replace it with the CO detector. 

Easy, positive and negative. Basically no power draw. I just piggy backed onto something with a lower amp breaker. I imagine it does have an audio output ?? I can hear mine, sometimes will alarm on the ground in taxi but it would be nice to have it hooked to the intercom. That may be as easy as tapping onto the headset or audio pin put connections.

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Did a little experiment. 4 CO detectors side by side while I was heating up my hangar with a propane heater. Only the Sensorcon unit picked anything up. The other 3, including one with a temperature gauge didn't move. None of them triggered an alarm but I expected the ones with a zero PPM number display to begin counting up.

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Brief note: On my 425 nm trip north yesterday, with the heater off my new Sensorcon showed 2-3 on the taxi out then displayed 0-1 while in cruise. It never got cool enough to open the heater without annoying my wife and/or killing the dog. More later.


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2 hours ago, cnoe said:

Brief note: On my 425 nm trip north yesterday, with the heater off my new Sensorcon showed 2-3 on the taxi out then displayed 0-1 while in cruise. It never got cool enough to open the heater without annoying my wife and/or killing the dog. More later.


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Thanks for the pirep! Between your experience and Marauder's test I'm confident the sensorcon is an acceptable unit.  I have been playing phone tag with sensorcon for the past two days.  I've been much busier than expected, hopefully I get in touch with them on Monday.

Cheers,

Dan

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4bf704ecd29186f9056bb3299beff7bd.jpg

Got mine a couple of days ago. Velcro'd above the intercom and below the glare shield. Taking it out for a test flight today. I never use the heater here in Florida so it does not get much use but I'll check it out today.


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Flew as a safety pilot yesterday in a Mooney and the unit registered an 11 ppm reading as the high. In flight I was seeing 4 to 8 PPM. Normal?


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Tested mine today. Taxing with the door open read between 12 -18. In flight it was steady at 3 both with heat on and off.


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6 hours ago, Marauder said:

Flew as a safety pilot yesterday in a Mooney and the unit registered an 11 ppm reading as the high. In flight I was seeing 4 to 8 PPM. Normal?


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Mine registers a little higher on the ground, teens ppm, and zero once in the air. (PowerFlow exhaust.)

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Just got back in from our trip. I saw 3-4 at times during taxi but still ranged only 0-1 during flight. Headwinds were AWFUL peaking at 44 knots near Dallas, and that was at the best altitude according to winds aloft reports.

Here's where the Sensorcon is mounted in my J. It fits better sideways, otherwise it would interfere with my cup holder or obscure the ventilation labels. c84aa6c0b65ca25fd9cb441fc9ec9226.jpg


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You guys are good. Super pro-active MSers. Keep posting results!

data collection and sharing is the best way to get a feeling of what we are all up against.

finding a crack is kind of an expensive piece of bad news.  It is the best bit of news when you find it on the ground before the flight...

Best regards,

-a-

Edited by carusoam
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I have been in contact with the folks at Sensorcon working out a generous discount for pilots.  I believe it will all come together tomorrow!  They will be offering 20℅ off of any of their products by way of a discount code. I should get the code tomorrow, I'll post on a new thread here on MS when I get it.

Cheers,

Dan

 

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Way to go Dan!

Some people have the skills to turn a tough situation into a more positive situation.  This one might be dozens of positive situations depending on the number of CO meters that get installed in Mooney cockpits...

Best regards,

-a-

Edited by carusoam
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I flew today for the first time with it. I was also seeing 4-5 in climb/cruise/descent, with or without cabin heat on.  End of the flight descending to TPA I had closed the vent by my left knee and it was up to 40 and beeping at me. I opened the vent back up and it came down. 

After I put the plane away and was looking at things I noticed the boot on top of the center hump around the rods for the flaps/ailerons had slipped up and there was about a 1" gap where I think exhaust must have been coming up through. I know that's up in the wheel well but I can imagine that some exhaust could get up through there. Going to fix that boot and see if it makes a difference. 

Good news is that the sensor works and I could hear it beeping at me in flight. 

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