Vacuum pump failure

[DXB]

2 minutes ago, Mooneymite said:

The partial panel I was referring to was "needle, ball, airspeed", not just adjusting the scan to a different piece of glass.

Last time I tried, I fared decently well with just the TC, ASI, and altimeter while under the foggles with my instructor, but that was a long time ago. Not that I have an Aspen Pro Max PFD as primary and a GI-275 now as backup, my instructor agreed it makes little sense to do that anymore - just staying familiar with using the GI275 and changing the batteries for both units at the appropriate intervals should have me covered.

I think recognizing and preparing for pitot static failures may have more real world importance. Practicing flying based on GPS info only may be the more relevant partial panel skill for our planes in the modern era.  

[201Mooniac]

48 minutes ago, Mooneymite said:

The partial panel I was referring to was "needle, ball, airspeed", not just adjusting the scan to a different piece of glass.

I understand that, I was just commenting that it is too easy these days.

[laytonl]

I thought “ partial panel” meant the autopilot was inoperative!

lee

[cferr59]

I feel like partial panel is like driving on ice.  If nothing too complicated is happening and you just make very gentle turns or go straight in smooth air, it isn't that hard.  If anything out of the ordinary happens including a lot of turbulence, complicated routing (should just declare an emergency to avoid this), it is not so easy to keep things under control.  I do practice partial panel approaches when I practice IFR currency, but I would not deliberately enter IMC partial panel unless I could not get to VMC without running out of fuel.  When I fly in IMC, I like having my G5, Dynon D3, and iPad with AHARS, plus my vacuum instruments working.

[RobertGary1]

On 10/13/2020 at 8:57 AM, Mooneymite said:

The partial panel I was referring to was "needle, ball, airspeed", not just adjusting the scan to a different piece of glass.

Like in an old flight school airplane? Most of us that upgraded our planes did it so that wasn’t necessary. I have 3 attitude indicators (2 electronic and 1 vacuum gyro). The two electronic are fed by 3 independent ahrs units and Garmin monitors all 3 and any unit will report a fault if one fails. 
 

I think it would be a waste of money to upgrade a panel such that needle ball was still your backup.

 

 

-Robert

[Danb]

On 10/11/2020 at 9:30 PM, takair said:

I think all of my pump failures occurred at around 500 hours too and just like yours it always seems to be the sheer coupling.  I can’t quite figure out why, accept rotations seems stiff.  I have rebuilt one for use as a ground based pump and it seems to work well enough.  I had assumed oil got in it and gummed things up, but I never found obvious contamination.  Starting to wonder if the coupler is the week link (no pun intended) or if it is more stressed due to vane wear, or is it truly 500 hour contamination.  Like yours, I always thought the vanes would have gone another 500 hours.  

I had a 1988 J, purchased new, during the first 200 hours I had three vacuum pump failures. Almost like clock work 65-70 hours on each. We ended up doing mods for heat and pressure which alleviated the problem.