Douglas Bohnert Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Hey guys! I am a part time mechanic, full time pilot and I do flight training and some mx for the local flight school. We have two Flight Designs, a 2006 CTSW and a 2010 CTLS. The CTSW we just got a month ago and I just completed an annual on it last week with a wing spar inspection. It was having a problem with the ammeter indication during flight at high power settings the ammeter would indicate a discharge of up to 60 amps at high power settings and a discharge of around 10 amps at low power settings. I immediately thought it was an indication problems as voltage was always rock steady at 13.3 volts. So I checked the wiring going into the shunt and found a bad crimp. I fixed this and now the ammeter indicated around 0 all the time. Even when on battery power extending the flaps. So I believe I have touched the problem but not completely fixed the problem. I was wondering what kind of ammeter indications other CTSW fliers experience on the Dynon EMS 120 display. All opinions are welcome! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tad Olmsted Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 When you are on the ground with everything running, the amps will go up and down. You should see +4 to -6 (or so) in this situation. The volts should be around 12.5 -13.5. Good job on the troubleshooting, those connectors are terrible and are always the first place to look when there is any kind of electrical gremlin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 I'm getting brief "high current" alerts every 10 or 15 minutes. The alarm and red light go on for about 2 seconds and then go off. The current spikes way up to 20+ amps for just a second or two. The voltage remains constant. This has been happening for the past ~5 hours of flying time and never before that. Is this potentially dangerous ? No fuses have blown. Can I be assured that at worst I lose the avionics but not the engine ? What should I suggest to the local mechanic for troubleshooting ? Unfortunately he has no rotax engine experience. Should I have him try to resolve this or do I need a specialist ? I could ferry the plane to a remote airport that has a mechanic with experience on CTLS aircraft. My plane is a 3 1/2 year old CTLS. I would imagine that electrical problems like this are difficult to fix. Any comments or insights would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Hi Steven, Mine just started doing the same thing to day on a flight home. I believe it is nothing more than a lose connection, but I haven't had the chance to look yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Interesting ! I wonder if this issue is relatively common ? I had also guessed a loose connection, but I'm not a mechanic and have no idea where to look, except for the battery terminals. Those I can check myself. Is this potentially dangerous ? I'd guess with the engine running on two separate circuits, at least that should keep running. Are there a lot of connections that have to be checked ? Are they difficult to access ? Please let me know what you find. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennM Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 There was some inline fuse connected to the Dynon that blew and caused that problem with mine. The fuse was replaced and I haven't had a problem since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.