tennesseect

I sent my Garmin 696 to repairs@palmdr.com in Minnesota and Chris, the technician, seems to have fixed the problem by resoldering and replacing the small internal startup battery. Yay!

I'm not sure but I might fly my CT out to Page one more time from Nashville. If I come I'll bring 1 guest (my wife Martha if she's up to it).

CTBOB, I also need to replace the unreliable Garmin 696 in my 2007 CTsw. It is equipped with a Dynon EFIS and EMS and a Garmin GDL39 for ADS-B IN. Is yours similarly equipped? I sure hope I don't have to replace ALL my avionics!

Hi Joel! Give me a call at 615-495-1445 and we'll set up a time when I can show you my 2007 CTsw. Ted Carlson

I could use a pair too.

Does anyone know of a material to make a new dipstick from that would make it easier to tell where the "wet line" is?

Just spectacular! Thanks Ed.

ROger, I am having somewhat similar flap control problems. How does one re-program the flap control board? What do I need to have to do this?

Sorry, Jim, I went and bought one off eBay. Probably should have gotten yours!

Well I believe I've fixed the problem - by replacing the voltage regulator. I cleaned all the contacts with a wire brush and some electronics spray cleaner as some of you advised and applied dieletric grease to the contacts with a toothbrush. I ran the Rotax on the ground for 20 minutes and flew around the pattern for another 20 minutes. The EMS now indicates a steady 13 volts and the amperage stays in the green arc. Thanks to all for your advice! Going forward I will pay closer attention to voltage and current readings and especially to warning lightsand buzzers.

Is dielectric grease something readily vailable at say an auto parts store?

Thanks, garrettgee2001 - I'll try that!

Monday I lost all electrical instruments about 80 nm from home at 5500 feet. I was returning to Nashville from Illinois in my 2007 CTsw after having a defective EGT sensor replaced. Partway home the ALTERNATOR warning light and buzzer started going off. Because of previous bogus warnings I'd been getting from my Dynon EMS, I convinced myself to once again just push 'Acknowledge' and press on. I've also had intermittent Alternator warnings when throttling back for landing, but they would subsequently go away. I couldn't believe the battery voltage and charging current was actually slowly falling through the yellow band into the red. But shortly after checking in with Campbell approach to continue flight-following the Dynon screens began fading to black. Every few minutes the voltage returned enough to hear Campbell approach asking 'How do you read?'. My radio wouldn't transmit so I decided to switch my squawk code to 7600. Naturally I was racking my brain as to what I should do next. I didn't panic since I had analog back-up instruments for airspeed, altitude and compass heading. The weather was VFR and my Rotax was purring contentedly. I had my iPad with Foreflight with me, but the battery life of my iPad was down to only 20-some percent. The 30 knot tailwind I had in the morning was now a headwind so I had turned off the iPad to save the remaining juice for my approach to my home base at Nashville's John Tune. Since last year's tornado I've not only been without a hangar, but the traffic at Tune has seemingly doubled. I guess those jet-jockeys prefer landing straight-in at a non-towered airport to all the rigmarole and higher prices at BNA. A tower has just been built but it's not yet operational. Tune is no longer a safe place for light-sport airplanes to land with neither a radio nor traffic info. I wondered if my flaps were going to work, so i switched the knob back and forth a few times - to no avail. I had never attempted a landing with flaps at -6. A scratchy voice again came oveer my headset instructing me to squawk VFR. After complying, I began hearing a loud screeching in my hedset. The noise was even louder when I took off my headset - so I put it back on. After a moment I noticed the flaps had moved to 15 and my airspeed was well above the 80-kt limit. The flap control again wouldn't work so I throttled back, resigning myself to a slow flight home. I turned Foreflight back on within about 20 nm to observe traffic using my portable ADS-B receiver. I manuevered so as to avoid both straight-in jet traffic and other traffic using the pattern, entering the downwind on a 45 and slipping in behind a C172. No sweat! After landing I never heard a peep about some jerk who landed without making a single position announcement. I took the battery out of my CT and charged it at home with my trickle charger. By the next morning it indicated fully charged. After reinstalling the battery I did a ground check. The Rotax fired right up and all looked well for a few minutes. But then the battery voltage and amperage began another slow decline into the yellow band - even at 2600 RPM I tried pushing and pulling the alternator master switch a couple of times and didn't see any change in the instrument readings. I surmise the problem lies in one of five places: the circuit breaker, the wiring, the rectifier, the regulator, or the alternator itself. Can anyone tell me how to proceed with troubleshooting? Help!

Does anyone know where I can buy a good used Garmin 696? I'm leery of buying one from eBay. I want to replace the Garmin MAP496 in my 2007 CTsw with a panel-mounted Garmin 696 - both for its larger screen and to elininate the need for an iPad to display traffic and weather. All the newer units use touchscreens and I don't care for using them in bumpy air,