Highlighting Circuit Breakers and Switches.

[Pinecone]

Looking for thoughts on which breakers and switches to highlight.  That is, the colored collars for the breakers and colored covers with the switches.

Picture of CD panel below.   I had done this:

AP and Trim with red collars

Alt 1/2 field breakers with orange collars.

Starter with Yellow.

What other ones and what colors (also have green, blue, greyish, and one or two others).

Same for the switches.  I was thinking red for Battery and Alternator switches.  White for Landing light and strobes.

 

[jetdriven]

You want to collar the circuit breakers you may need to pull in a hurry, like In case the airplane tries to kill you such as the auto pilot circuit breaker, and electric trim, but for the GFC500 it doesn’t matter because it’s only for the manual control of the electric trim. The auto pilot still controls that, the AP circuit breaker will do that. And then you want to be able to reset the field to get the alternators to start charging again. Other than that, you just want to do like in the Boeing they circled the breakers  in white that could be load shed in case of electrical failure. The airbus has no white circled breakers because if you have complete electrical failure, you’re going to crash anyway. You might as well enjoy the view instead of pulling breakers.

[flyboy0681]

You got the trim and A/P correct. 

[dkkim73]

Anyone know exactly where the AP breaker is in the Acclaim? I *think* it's the rocker switch because there is nothing on the panel. 

Those choices look good. I am glad @Pineconeposted because I was going to soon...

[Marc_B]

I bought several colors of collars, but only wound up using one.  My shop placed my autopilot CB in the bottom left corner of the breakers to make it easily to locate and pull in the case of runaway trim.  This was the only collar I used; I used red as well.  In the dark you probably would have a harder time identifying colors without a lamp or flashlight.  And the scenarios I came up with that I'd need to pull breakers would be more specific identified breakers, or in the case of runaway trim at night I wanted it to be easily identified by location and feel.

If you needed to do an emergency gear extension you'd need to make sure you pulled the gear circuit breaker (green/gear?).  If you fly formation you might need ADS-B and Xpndr breakers pulled.

But I could easily see having to tell the passenger "Pull the red breaker".  "Which one?" "The only one with the collar!"  For the GFC500, the breaker to pull is the AP...trim won't cut it.

[PT20J]

My speed brake button is on the yoke and easy to brush against if reaching around the yoke with my left hand for the left knob on the G3X. After accidentally deploying the brakes in icing once and immediately retracting and finding that one did not retract fully, I put a red ring on the speed brake breaker and pull it whenever I turn on pitot heat.

[Marc_B]

40 minutes ago, PT20J said:

put a red ring on the speed brake breaker

Sounds like for this one you definitely need a BLUE collar! 

[Mooney in Oz]

Don’t forget, in the event of a runway trim when you disconnect the AP by pressing the disconnect button, hold it in the pressed position and don’t let go until after you’ve pulled the AP circuit breaker.

[ArtVandelay]

I bought several colors of collars, but only wound up using one.  My shop placed my autopilot CB in the bottom left corner of the breakers to make it easily to locate and pull in the case of runaway trim.

My shop did this as well, AP bottom left, Alt Field top left, I don’t bother with the collars.
With modern avionics and LED lights the current draw is pretty low, I would just focus on landing the plane unless I’m more than a hour away from a suitable airport.

[flyboy0681]

7 hours ago, Mooney in Oz said:

Don’t forget, in the event of a runway trim when you disconnect the AP by pressing the disconnect button, hold it in the pressed position and don’t let go until after you’ve pulled the AP circuit breaker.

Having lived through a runaway trim situation (I wrote about it here numerous times), I can emphatically say that it happens so slow that you may not know it's occurring until things get dire. It's not like on a 737 where you can see and hear the trim wheel rapidly turning.

[PT20J]

6 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

With modern avionics and LED lights the current draw is pretty low, I would just focus on landing the plane unless I’m more than a hour away from a suitable airport.

A lot of us with LED landing and taxi lights (that’s four bulbs on my plane) leave them on continuously. They still draw the most current of anything on the airplane so my procedure is to turn the lights off and leave everything else alone  if I have an alternator failure. Pitot heat is also a big current draw and a consideration if you fly in icing conditions.

[Pinecone]

Gear and Speed Brakes sound like ones to collar also.

Thanks