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A random, scary failure mode


RobertE

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I say “scary” because this was a reminder to me of all the tiny little imperfections that inevitably afflict our 30, 40 and 50 year old aircraft and, every now and then,  can actually have a serious consequence.

Today after a short flight my right mag was dead.  The problem?  The insulation on the p-lead had a tiny nick in it (never noticed by anyone before) and the braided ground wire to that mag just so happened to have come in contact with that 1/32 of an inch section of the p-lead.  Result?  A grounded mag.  Glad we’ve got two discrete mags.  Makes me wonder if the Mooney’s with Bendix “dual mags” have that single point of failure or is, perhaps the wiring to each of the halves separate.

 

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2 hours ago, RobertE said:

Not an intermittent problem.  Pleasantly, the first evidence of a problem was when I was 50 yards from a shop that could quickly diagnose the problem.

huh, I guess I would have thought something like that would be.

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2 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

huh, I guess I would have thought something like that would be.

You know, you make a really good point.  The truth is I wouldn’t know if it was intermittent.  So maybe that right mag went off and on for a long, long time.  Today it just happened to short out when on the ground during my run up.

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I’ve got an EI engine analyzer but have never been able to download it to a windows 10 laptop.  There is a translation program that should allow this old software to work but I’m too tech-deficient, it seems.

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9 hours ago, RobertE said:

I’ve got an EI engine analyzer but have never been able to download it to a windows 10 laptop.  There is a translation program that should allow this old software to work but I’m too tech-deficient, it seems.

After almost having to cancel a flight due to the nav update being corrupt (and the laptop at home) I finally gave in and bought the Bad Elf Wombat. It’s pretty slick. You can do the nav updates and send your engine monitor data to Savvy using your phone.

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