Mooney in Oz Posted July 10, 2018 Report Posted July 10, 2018 Thanks for the link Rich. The EFD1000 has been around for 10 plus years. Surely this type of issue would have come to notice years ago, if it is the unit. Quote
Marauder Posted July 10, 2018 Report Posted July 10, 2018 14 minutes ago, Mooney in Oz said: Thanks for the link Rich. The EFD1000 has been around for 10 plus years. Surely this type of issue would have come to notice years ago, if it is the unit. What I think is interesting is the wet compass also swung 40 degrees. What the heck kind of lighting did that Air Tractor have? And more importantly was it incandescent or LED. I suspect the former. I know some of the crop dusters that fly at night have additional lights mounted but to see that much interference it must have been a good size load. 1 Quote
Mooney in Oz Posted July 10, 2018 Report Posted July 10, 2018 10 minutes ago, Marauder said: What the heck kind of lighting did that Air Tractor have? I imagine some serious lighting for night ops. We don’t know if this was a recent install or a past install with a sudden occurrence caused by an underlying issue. Possibly the latter. At this stage the FAA don’t seem to be knee jerking about this. We just have to wait for the instigation result. 1 Quote
Cruiser Posted July 10, 2018 Report Posted July 10, 2018 I believe that it was the new experimental magnetic proximity barrier or MPB. Used by a rare few specialty crop dusters. (to date only one know to be active). The MPB sets up a strong localized magnetic field around the aircraft to bounce off solid objects in its path. Kinda safety feature for night operations. Quote
flumag Posted July 12, 2018 Report Posted July 12, 2018 here the official statement from Aspen... July 11, 2018 Dear Valued Customers and Partners, I am writing to you to in response to a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued on July 9, 2018 by the FAA regarding an airworthiness concern for aircraft equipped with the Aspen EFD1000 primary flight display. An Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) event on an aerial application aircraft (Air Tractor - AT-802A) occurred when the aircraft was operating under night VFR conditions. Unlike the majority of aircraft in the general aviation fleet, this particular installation had a high intensity light that draws high electrical currents. Turning this on impacted both the whiskey compass of the aircraft and the Aspen Directional Gyro (DG), and attitude displayed on the Aspen EFD1000. The Aspen system is designed, like other EFIS systems, with a magnetometer that must be installed in an area of the airplane that is not susceptible to magnetic interference. Aspen provides flexibility and instructions to the authorized dealer on where to install the magnetometer during the system installation. If modifications are made to your aircraft after your Aspen system has been installed, that could potentially affect the heading system, it is recommended your shop recalibrate your Aspen system in accordance with the installation manual procedures. We are cooperating fully with the FAA, and it is not an airworthiness concern. I have been flying confidently and without issues behind Aspen equipment for over 8 years, as well as my sales, flight test team and Aspen Board of Directors member, retired AOPA President Phil Boyer. Again, if your Aspen installation was signed off in your aircraft logbook and tested according to the installation manual, there's no need for concern. We will keep you informed of any new developments. Sincerely, John S. Uczekaj President and CEO Quote
carusoam Posted July 12, 2018 Report Posted July 12, 2018 Ever see a crop duster pulling banners by day... digital light show hanging below the wings at night with scrolling signs... A couple of 64” HDTVs under each wing would make an interesting sign board over the Jersey shore... PP creative thinking on the hdtv part... Best regards, -a- Quote
N201MKTurbo Posted July 12, 2018 Author Report Posted July 12, 2018 I used to maintain the lights on a small fleet of AirTractor 800s. There were two big lights in the nose, A forward facing light on each wing and a turn light on each wing that points to the side. Each light was about 8 inches in diameter and drew about 40 amps. It was possible to turn them all on. The wing lights were retractable and were retracted and extended on every pass. The retractable lights were all WWII surplus Grimes landing lights. I spent a lot of time rebuilding the retract motors for those lights and fixing the charging system on the PT6s Quote
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