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Removal of annunciator panel


Niko182

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I was lurking around beechtalk a couple days back and noticed that the bonanza's don't have Annunciation panels, and in my opinion, I think that results in a much cleaner looking panel.
The issue is that for me realistically the annunciator panel doesn't do much. The GPS i have is out of date and never used, so the lower half of the annunciator is pointless. The upper half consists of the gear lights, that btw are never readable because I fly with nav and strobe lights on day and night, so that dims the Gear down light to where it's unreadable during the day and super dim during the night. The rest of the lights are Alternator, Speedbrakes, and fuel quantities, 2 of the three which will be displayed on the JPI900 that's getting installed next month. I just personally love the 3 green lights on the beechcraft, and was wondering if I can install a system like that on the panel when the panel gets upgraded.

Example of what I mean:

 

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Check the MEL for the official answer...

I don’t recall it being that critical.

As time moves on, they become more archaic...

If you miss pushing the test button, the low fuel level lights are not armed to warn.... after a few years, you may forget this detail....

With a JPI and Cies and a totalizer, you are already in the know, the low fuel light coming on is a second opinion on what you are doing right... EI has a monitor that is capable of displaying a whole bunch status lights...

It would be nice to adjust the gear light to be bright enough in daylight with the nav lights on... (need to look into this)

With everything going LED, lights are normally left on all the time... including recog lights...

 

Niko,

i can’t see what you posted, got a different link for that? Was it a pic or a video?

I’m using an iPad today...

Best regards,

-a-

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I guess... in the event one of our wheels becomes independent of the others...

Knowing which one didn’t come down and get locked would be nice to know.

Having a txi display leaves plenty of room for three green...  :)

Expect to have to run three wires and sensors for that... because the way Mooney has one sensor, it is expected that nothing breaks.

We have seen that proven to not be the case. Somebody had pics of a long body’s torque tube that got over-torqued...

Best regards,

-a-

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I'm replacing the OEM annunciators with Eaton annunciators.  Quite expensive, especially when you are doing 8.  But sure looks good.  Custom graphics, and various switch options.  I have one for 'ice light' to switch on the ice light as well as annunciate.  Others have a non-latching switch (push to test?).

 

Don

 

 

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1 hour ago, Aerodon said:

I'm replacing the OEM annunciators with Eaton annunciators.  Quite expensive, especially when you are doing 8.  But sure looks good.  Custom graphics, and various switch options.  I have one for 'ice light' to switch on the ice light as well as annunciate.  Others have a non-latching switch (push to test?).

 

Don

 

 

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What does each one of those cost?
Nik

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Bos have three gear lights because there are three motors and three separate gear mechanisms. On our planes, there is one motor and a single mechanism to move them all, thus only one gear light. Google "four bar mechanism" for how this works, its really quite elegant (heavy on design, light on construction and maintenance). But feel free to hook up as many lights as you want!

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The landing gear unsafe light has 4 bulbs, how is that for redundancy.  The deice light is a switch to turn the ice light on (to view ice on the boots on the wing) and the lower two bulbs light up when the deicing cycle is in progress.

Cost me $70 for each 'capsule' (display) and the body is about $350.  I bought a boxful of new surplus 'TAWS' annunciators, so have a stock to supply to my panel customers.

A much less expensive option is to use the dialight LED panel lights (above the ELT switch).  JPI have a neat one that does amber or red, but I have not found a source yet.

 

Don

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, carusoam said:

I guess... in the event one of our wheels becomes independent of the others...

Knowing which one didn’t come down and get locked would be nice to know.

Having a txi display leaves plenty of room for three green...  :)

Expect to have to run three wires and sensors for that... because the way Mooney has one sensor, it is expected that nothing breaks.

We have seen that proven to not be the case. Somebody had pics of a long body’s torque tube that got over-torqued...

Best regards,

-a-

I had one that became independent.  I was alerted by an alert pilot on the ground.  The single light was not much help in identifying this type of failure.  The landing would have been... surprising.

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Somebody recently documented an over torqued landing gear control rod... the bearing got snapped off the end for one of the gear... on a long body.

That was a close one...  

Unfortunately, I don’t recall the details... but, it is probably an easy search.

One thing for sure... more info is better than less... up to an individual’s limitations...? :)

Best regards,

-a-

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17 hours ago, Hank said:

Bos have three gear lights because there are three motors and three separate gear mechanisms. On our planes, there is one motor and a single mechanism to move them all, thus only one gear light. Google "four bar mechanism" for how this works, its really quite elegant (heavy on design, light on construction and maintenance). But feel free to hook up as many lights as you want!

Bonanzas from day one had only one gearbox, one motor to actuate the landing gear and doors.  Yep four bar mechanism sounds like a good description.  Had a motor go out one time and had to crank the gear down.  Usually almost as dependable as Mooney's Johnson bar.

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2 hours ago, David Lloyd said:

Bonanzas from day one had only one gearbox, one motor to actuate the landing gear and doors.  Yep four bar mechanism sounds like a good description.  Had a motor go out one time and had to crank the gear down.  Usually almost as dependable as Mooney's Johnson bar.

That's always made me wonder why Bos have three lights for the gear, other than maybe they thought that's what people expected.

I used to fly an Arrow which had three lights, but did have three separate hydraulic actuators for the gear so they'd come down independently.   You really did wait for all three lights to come on, and they'd sometimes come on at different times.

I've always kinda wanted to start a list of retractable-gear GA airplanes and how the gear works.   A lot more than I originally expected use electro-mechanical systems where the gear are all coupled together, and lot fewer than I thought are hydraulic and independent.

An example Arrow gear failure:
 

 

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21 hours ago, Aerodon said:

I'm replacing the OEM annunciators with Eaton annunciators.  Quite expensive, especially when you are doing 8.  But sure looks good.  Custom graphics, and various switch options.  I have one for 'ice light' to switch on the ice light as well as annunciate.  Others have a non-latching switch (push to test?).

 

Don

 

 

IMG_6828.jpeg

IMG_6829.jpeg

Port and starboard are boat terms. I have never seen them in an aircraft before...

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17 hours ago, carusoam said:

Don,

You posted that ASI pic to make us feel good about our machines!  

Their Redline... right where the Mooney cruises, LOP... :)

Best regards,

-a-

-a- Maybe  your Mooney.    Those are the really close to the ASI arcs for a pre-68 C. 

 

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14 hours ago, jetdriven said:

Port and starboard are boat terms. I have never seen them in an aircraft before...

What do you use? Nearside and offside? :D

Just looked at the checklist from my original PPL training days in a DV20 Katana - the walkaround section has post/starboard for wings and fuselage.

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1 hour ago, Awful_Charlie said:

What do you use? Nearside and offside? :D

Just looked at the checklist from my original PPL training days in a DV20 Katana - the walkaround section has post/starboard for wings and fuselage.

 Maybe it was a homemade checklist. The DV 20 POH (which I also learned how to fly in)and says left wing and main gear. Or right wing and main gear.  

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On 1/14/2019 at 10:39 PM, carusoam said:

Don,

You posted that ASI pic to make us feel good about our machines!  

Their Redline... right where the Mooney cruises, LOP... :)

Best regards,

-a-

Ah, yes, but this C172 has a free cyclonic booster to achieve 181kts in level flight.

IMG_8193.jpeg

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