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Elect. Artificial Horizon Repair


buddy

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I have a 2005 Ovation with the G1000 and my stand-by Electric Artificial Horizon is slow to erect. I have not removed it yet so I don’t know the manufacturer and am looking for a recommendation on a repair shop. Any ideas on who manufactured it and a good repair shop.

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Just now, buddy said:

I have a 2005 Ovation with the G1000 and my stand-by Electric Artificial Horizon is slow to erect. I have not removed it yet so I don’t know the manufacturer and am looking for a recommendation on a repair shop. Any ideas on who manufactured it and a good repair shop.

Need more data. Castleberry, for example, doesnt share their repair data so it must go to them.

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My standby attitude indicator takes a long time to get it up too. It's mounted where the turn coordinator would be and has an inclinometer. Once in flight, it works fine. I'd rather go with a Garmin G5 (certified) as my backup if it failed since the G5 gives you a full EFIS (you might want to check that for our certified aircraft). If my vacuum pump were to fail, I may still go with a G5 to replace my primary attitude indicator. 

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5 hours ago, buddy said:

I have a 2005 Ovation with the G1000 and my stand-by Electric Artificial Horizon is slow to erect. I have not removed it yet so I don’t know the manufacturer and am looking for a recommendation on a repair shop. Any ideas on who manufactured it and a good repair shop.

Unless anyone has replaced it since installation 13 years ago, you have the MCI 4300-313.  Just internal lighting - no internal battery in that instrument, since Ovations have dual batteries.  An overhaul exchange from an MCI dealer will run you ~$1200.  A repair at a shop would take much longer, and cost not much less, so you're better-off going the exchange route.

Edit:  Another option would be to pull all three of the standby instruments, sell them, and put those funds toward an L-3 ESI-500 backup instrument.  I've had mine in for nearly 2 years, and couldn't be happier.  Money well-spent, in my humble opinion.

2nd Edit:  Corrected the model above...I left a "3" off the designation.  So, "313", not "13"

Let me know if this helps.

Steve

Edited by StevenL757
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28 minutes ago, StevenL757 said:

 Another option would be to pull all three of the standby instruments, sell them, and put those funds toward an L-3 ESI-500 backup instrument.  I've had mine in for nearly 2 years, and couldn't be happier.  Money well-spent, in my humble opinion.

Let me know if this helps.

Steve

Can the g1000 utilize the esi500 as a backup with the way it was certified?  The upgrade would be pretty steep at $5k plus and I’m not sure the visibility of the tapes would be ideal from that distance/angle. I know my aspen is very difficult to read from the copilot seat. 

Keep in mind the 4300 has no battery to maintain and a 7500 hr mtbf (although I’ve seen a few reman ones for sale already). 

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Steve would you agree that the electric A.I. that I have takes a lot longer to erect than a vacuum run A.I.? The time it takes to erect is about 3-4 minuets and once erect it works fine it’s been this way since I bought the Ovation 3 yrs. ago.

Buddy

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27 minutes ago, buddy said:

Steve would you agree that the electric A.I. that I have takes a lot longer to erect than a vacuum run A.I.? The time it takes to erect is about 3-4 minuets and once erect it works fine it’s been this way since I bought the Ovation 3 yrs. ago.

Buddy

3-4 mins is normal for mine. You should ask@LANCECASPER he’s had one or two over the years. 

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16 minutes ago, buddy said:

Steve would you agree that the electric A.I. that I have takes a lot longer to erect than a vacuum run A.I.? The time it takes to erect is about 3-4 minuets and once erect it works fine it’s been this way since I bought the Ovation 3 yrs. ago.

Buddy

Buddy,

Three minutes is a normal cage time for that model gyro.  You should pull the knob on the lower-left of the instrument marked "Pull to Cage" as part of your Pre-Taxi checklist and observe the instrument holds pitch and roll.  As you mentioned, it performs well in-flight, so I don't see any abnormal behavior here.  Keep an eye on it, and if it deviates from this, then you should raise it.  Sound good?

Steve

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30 minutes ago, MIm20c said:

3-4 mins is normal for mine. I don’t think Steve ever had the lifesaver. You should as @LANCECASPER he’s had one or two over the years.

Correct, I've never had one in my present airplane, but have test-flown several Ovations with them installed...the ~3 minutes is a correct time for it to come up.

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I have a Castleberry standby AI in my Ovation. Had to send it to Castleberry for repair. (It was an internal power issue) I believe the cost was about 1200.00 USD. After getting it back It was still very slow to erect without caging it first. Now  caging it is part of my after-start checklist. Also, my Ovation only has 970 hrs. tt.

When you cage the AI, don’t pull it hard like we did in our training days. A slow steady pull will do.

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7 hours ago, BillC said:

I have a Castleberry standby AI in my Ovation. Had to send it to Castleberry for repair. (It was an internal power issue) I believe the cost was about 1200.00 USD. After getting it back It was still very slow to erect without caging it first. Now  caging it is part of my after-start checklist. Also, my Ovation only has 970 hrs. tt.

When you cage the AI, don’t pull it hard like we did in our training days. A slow steady pull will do.

I also have the Casselberry attitude indicator. But I heard that routinely caging these things is really hard on the bearings so I stopped doing it. It erects  in about 5 minutes. I’ve heard these electric gyros have a smaller motor and they do not have the pendulum weight  so therefore their righting  moment is not as strong as a vacuum Gyro.Just the way electric Gyros are  but they are fine.

Coincidentally mine also went bad.  It was showing a 20 degree bank but no gyro flag. I sent it in and they said that the connection to the power supply board was bad. Like burned or arced.   He theorized that having it attached to the main bus and having voltage fluctuations at start up caused this. So he told me to wire it to the avionics bus and I’ve had no problems since. 

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13 hours ago, thinwing said:

Hi Buddy..I pull to cage as soon as master power goes on...it is spring loaded so don't let it snap back on it's own..just pull straight out and let it return on it's own.

Pulling the gage knob out while turning on the master is correct, it’s much easier on the internals of the gyro than gaging when the gyro is up to speed.

Clarence

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