G5 battery made of gold.

[chriscalandro]

And you would rather do that than change a battery?

[N201MKTurbo]

27 minutes ago, chriscalandro said:

And you would rather do that than change a battery?

You weren't asking about vacuum systems, you were asking about instruments. My experience is gyros need to go to the shop every 15 years or so. none of the electronic instruments have even been around that long, so nobody knows how long they will last or how they will fail. I have read stories about people with Aspens Xing out in IMC. My iron gyro never did that.

[EricJ]

4 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

You weren't asking about vacuum systems, you were asking about instruments. My experience is gyros need to go to the shop every 15 years or so. none of the electronic instruments have even been around that long, so nobody knows how long they will last or how they will fail. I have read stories about people with Aspens Xing out in IMC. My iron gyro never did that.

Since my airplane first parked in my hangar four years ago it has had three gyro failures (one failure was after a rebuild after a prior failure) and one vacuum pump failure.   I don't know that I've even heard of a G5 failing before.   I'm far more comfortable without the vacuum system.   

[chriscalandro]

Round instruments are way more work than electrical ones. Especially ones that require a vac pump. 

[N201MKTurbo]

3 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Since my airplane first parked in my hangar four years ago it has had three gyro failures (one failure was after a rebuild after a prior failure) and one vacuum pump failure.   I don't know that I've even heard of a G5 failing before.   I'm far more comfortable without the vacuum system.   

I know! I flew your plane to Maxwell's with no gyros...

[N201MKTurbo]

I was talking to Bashier the other day. He said they can't even get good gyro parts any more. They order rebuilt gyro capsules and it usually takes 3 to get a good one. All the instrument guys are dying and the young bucks just don't get it.

[EricJ]

16 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I was talking to Bashier the other day. He said they can't even get good gyro parts any more. They order rebuilt gyro capsules and it usually takes 3 to get a good one. All the instrument guys are dying and the young bucks just don't get it.

Plus the need for it is diminishing given the rate at which vacuum instruments are getting replaced with electronic.   I think he sold the instrument shop and just does his mobile stuff now.   I mentioned to him that my AI that they rebuilt failed and he didn't seem surprised at all.    

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

Plus the need for it is diminishing given the rate at which vacuum instruments are getting replaced with electronic.   I think he sold the instrument shop and just does his mobile stuff now.   I mentioned to him that my AI that they rebuilt failed and he didn't seem surprised at all.    

Howard comes in if there is some work to do. 

[thinwing]

5 hours ago, EricJ said:

Since my airplane first parked in my hangar four years ago it has had three gyro failures (one failure was after a rebuild after a prior failure) and one vacuum pump failure.   I don't know that I've even heard of a G5 failing before.   I'm far more comfortable without the vacuum system.   

do you suppose all those gyro/vacumn pump failures are related?

[201Steve]

22 hours ago, PT20J said:

There is a thread on Beechtalk about G5 batteries running down when the airplane is just sitting in the hangar at the rate of 3% a day. My Garmin dealer hasn’t had any problems reported including in their associated flight school airplanes, so I wonder if there were just some bad G5s or maybe some bad batteries.

Skip

Mine was doing that. After Garmin and the dealer went through the denial gambit, having me try 3 new batteries, I finally ended up exchanging it. 

[carusoam]

16 hours ago, chriscalandro said:

Sounds like you have never changed a vac pump on a Mooney before. 

What makes you want to type a statement like this into MS?

You didn’t mean to say… “I’m better than you… because you never changed a vac pump before…”

To people that don’t know Chris… the post comes across as an attack on another MSers mechanical skills…

 

We all know a few people around MS that have done their own engine overhauls….  Some are even A&Ps…
 

Which probably includes changing the vac pump…

 

Was the unfriendly post attempted humor?  (This happens often around here…)

The sign of an attempt at humor is one of these…   
 

PP wondering only, not a psychologist…

Best regards,

-a-

 

 

[EricJ]

6 hours ago, thinwing said:

do you suppose all those gyro/vacumn pump failures are related?

Not by other than high time and age for the pump and first two gyro failures.    The failure of the rebuilt AI unit was internal, there are parts rattling around inside if you tilt it.   It had about 400 hours on it.

[philiplane]

FWIW, I have replaced far more glass panel AHRS units, air data computers, screens, Garmin magnetometers, engine computers, etc, than I have replaced vacuum driven instruments and vacuum pumps. Once people started replacing pumps at 1000 hours, vacuum failures became far less common.

[Ragsf15e]

One big plus for electric vs vac… they generally go blank or give a red X display instead of lying to you as you try to follow them down…

[chriscalandro]

12 hours ago, carusoam said:

What makes you want to type a statement like this into MS?

You didn’t mean to say… “I’m better than you… because you never changed a vac pump before…”

To people that don’t know Chris… the post comes across as an attack on another MSers mechanical skills…

 

We all know a few people around MS that have done their own engine overhauls….  Some are even A&Ps…
 

Which probably includes changing the vac pump…

 

Was the unfriendly post attempted humor?  (This happens often around here…)

The sign of an attempt at humor is one of these…   
 

PP wondering only, not a psychologist…

Best regards,

-a-

 

 

What made me want to write that is someone who says they would rather have round dials than change a G5 battery clearly has not felt the joy involved with replacing a vac pump on a Mooney. 
 

What made you want to write your comment?

Edited October 23, 2021 by chriscalandro

[Ragsf15e]

pulled the CBs on mine today in flight.  Both show ~5 hours.  I’d expect to get at least 2 hours or better.  They were both at 100% lighting intensity.

[EricJ]

I wish the GMU11 had a battery or benefitted from either of the G5 batteries.   If you really lose power you'll also lose the GMU11, which kills all of the heading guidance.   This is my main disappointment with the system.   The HSI is pretty much useless without it.    Other than that, though, having a usable AI for up to five hours after power loss is nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

 

[Ragsf15e]

4 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I wish the GMU11 had a battery or benefitted from either of the G5 batteries.   If you really lose power you'll also lose the GMU11, which kills all of the heading guidance.   This is my main disappointment with the system.   The HSI is pretty much useless without it.    Other than that, though, having a usable AI for up to five hours after power loss is nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

 

Yes I agree.  Lost it when I pulled both cbs.  It seems track is still available from the internal gps?  I was inflight when i pulled them and on gpss to my autopilot from the 430w through the g5s to the stec.  That continued to hold track with the cbs pulled.  When I reapplied power, the HSI heading did jump, but it was holding track the whole time.

[EricJ]

7 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

Yes I agree.  Lost it when I pulled both cbs.  It seems track is still available from the internal gps?  I was inflight when i pulled them and on gpss to my autopilot from the 430w through the g5s to the stec.  That continued to hold track with the cbs pulled.  When I reapplied power, the HSI heading did jump, but it was holding track the whole time.

I think that's right.   If you lose the avionics bus, or all power, you'll lose the GMU11 and the GPS, so all of the horizontal navigation goes away, including track.   You'll still have the compass and any track info you get off an EFB, which is still pretty good, but having the HSI on battery at that point is really only as potential backup for the AI, imho.  At least theae are the sorts of things I was observing when I installed my 2nd G5 as AI.   It's still an awesome system, just a bit more limited than it could be if the GMU11 had backup power from somewhere.

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by EricJ

[Ragsf15e]

3 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I think that's right.   If you lose the avionics bus, or all power, you'll lose the GMU11 and the GPS, so all of the horizontal navigation goes away, including track.   You'll still have the compass and any track info you get off an EFB, which is still pretty good, but having the HSI on battery at that point is really only as potential backup for the AI, imho.  At least theae are the sorts of things I was observing when I installed my 2nd G5 as AI.   It's still an awesome system, just a bit more limited than it could be if the GMU11 had backup power from somewhere.

 

I have the internal gps enabled on the AI.  It should revert to that if It loses the 430W.  I would hope I would still have track, but I should definitely try it instead of assuming.

[Igor_U]

4 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

I have the internal gps enabled on the AI.  It should revert to that if It loses the 430W.  I would hope I would still have track, but I should definitely try it instead of assuming.

I believe you are correct. My G5 continued working and displaying track and GS with shut down GPS source. 

[jetdriven]

the GI275 GMU11 is powered by the unit, so you still have heading when you lose ships power.

[EricJ]

I did confirm that mine still gets GPS lock with its internal receiver, but haven't tried an in-flight avionics bus shut-down yet.

 

[PT20J]

9 hours ago, EricJ said:

I did confirm that mine still gets GPS lock with its internal receiver, but haven't tried an in-flight avionics bus shut-down yet.

 

Is that with a glare shield antenna, or the internal antenna?

[Ragsf15e]

16 hours ago, EricJ said:

I think that's right.   If you lose the avionics bus, or all power, you'll lose the GMU11 and the GPS, so all of the horizontal navigation goes away, including track.   You'll still have the compass and any track info you get off an EFB, which is still pretty good, but having the HSI on battery at that point is really only as potential backup for the AI, imho.  At least theae are the sorts of things I was observing when I installed my 2nd G5 as AI.   It's still an awesome system, just a bit more limited than it could be if the GMU11 had backup power from somewhere.

 

I have a CB labeled GMU11 as well… I was guessing that’s the power for the GMU11.  Why wouldn’t the G5 keep receiving magnameter data if the gmu has power?

Ive got to go pull all those breakers.