Glowing Hot Wire and Intermittent Panel Power Loss

[apenney]

I became owner of my Bravo about 6 months ago.  A great plane and other than a few hiccups needing to be addressed, no major issues.  During the last several weeks however, I've noticed a few weird things.  My Terra radar altimeter has been intermittently making a warning signal when in straight and level cruise flight.  I didn't think anything of it.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I was climbing and my two Garmins (540/430) and the entire panel it seemed, went blank for a split second but then returned online after reboot - I had to reenter my flight plan.  I coincidentalIy was pulling my heat vent open at that time.   I didnt' know what to think at that point and it was so brief it was almost a non-event...but we know that is burying my head in the sand.  Finished that 1 1/2 hour flight uneventfully.

I frankly forgot about that moment (bad to let that happen) and then on my way back to the UP last Sunday, during my descent there was a longer power loss to the panel that started by taking the GPS offline and seeing the dead reckoning only pop up on the Garmins.  I noticed the autopilot had disengaged as well and I only had the two Aspens working I'm assuming off of battery power.  My transponder was still working but I think it indicated no 1030 or something along those lines.  I was busy trying to figure out what was going on.  Breakers all fine.  While I was checking the breakers I'm not sure why but I tapped the entire breaker panel with my hand lightly and everything came online again.  I re-engaged the AP and landed.  On the ground I tapped the panel multiple times and I could reproduce the problem each time either taking power off or back on.  

Yesterday I got the plane back to my home airport and my avionics shop took this video.  Now they're digging around to figure out what the source of the problem is.  They were concerned that no breaker popped after seeing this.  The alarm in the video is the Terra.

 

 

[Bob Weber]

45 minutes ago, apenney said:

I became owner of my Bravo about 6 months ago.  A great plane and other than a few hiccups needing to be addressed, no major issues.  During the last several weeks however, I've noticed a few weird things.  My Terra radar altimeter has been intermittently making a warning signal when in straight and level cruise flight.  I didn't think anything of it.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I was climbing and my two Garmins (540/430) and the entire panel it seemed, went blank for a split second but then returned online after reboot - I had to reenter my flight plan.  I coincidentalIy was pulling my heat vent open at that time.   I didnt' know what to think at that point and it was so brief it was almost a non-event...but we know that is burying my head in the sand.  Finished that 1 1/2 hour flight uneventfully.

I frankly forgot about that moment (bad to let that happen) and then on my way back to the UP last Sunday, during my descent there was a longer power loss to the panel that started by taking the GPS offline and seeing the dead reckoning only pop up on the Garmins.  I noticed the autopilot had disengaged as well and I only had the two Aspens working I'm assuming off of battery power.  My transponder was still working but I think it indicated no 1030 or something along those lines.  I was busy trying to figure out what was going on.  Breakers all fine.  While I was checking the breakers I'm not sure why but I tapped the entire breaker panel with my hand lightly and everything came online again.  I re-engaged the AP and landed.  On the ground I tapped the panel multiple times and I could reproduce the problem each time either taking power off or back on.  

Yesterday I got the plane back to my home airport and my avionics shop took this video.  Now they're digging around to figure out what the source of the problem is.  They were concerned that no breaker popped after seeing this.  The alarm in the video is the Terra.

 

 

I helped a guy in Australia a year or so ago with the same issue 616 822 1999. We will need more information.

[Bob Weber]

[PeteMc]

Well that's no good...   Under rated wire? 

 

[apenney]

Just got a message from them and they found that there was a loose screw that was arcing.  It was loose because there was no lock washer apparently. 

 

[apenney]

1 hour ago, Bob Weber said:

I helped a guy in Australia a year or so ago with the same issue 616 822 1999. We will need more information.

Thanks for for reaching out though.

[carusoam]

Holy cow... glowing is not good... 

Great video though!

And follow-up with what happened...

Thanks for sharing it.

Best regards,

-a-