Posted Friday, November 13, 2009 @ 12:26 PM  

My original compass had become clouded and unreadable so some fixing was required.

I simply removed all the little screws around the compass bezel (except the correction screws)
and carefully pryed the black pastic face off.

I comes off with the lens as one piece.

I found my compass had lost all its fluid and was completely dry and the clouding of the lens was simply the liquid residue.

So I took some dish soap and cleaned the lens.

I believe the lens is plastic and I should not have used the plastic scouring pad on it as I believe I may have made the
lens a little less clear than when I was just rubbing the soap on it with my finger.

After I cleaned the lens I refilled the compass with rubbing alcohol and closed it up.

Seems perfectly clear with the liquid in it so after seeing if it leaks after a few days I'll reinstall in the RF4D.

Although now that I have that open space in the panel I am thinking I might want to put a CHT/EGT guage there.

Perhaps I could use the Oil Pressure and Oil Temp holes and get a combined Oil Pres/Oil Temp in one and CHT/EGT in the other
so I can keep the compass in the center of the panel.

I was also wondering if the FAR's require the compass correction card in experimentals?
If so, then its something I need to add.

The FAR's require them for certified aircraft so to avoid a fine its better to have
a wrong one (Photo copy from another aircraft) than none at all.

I'll have to look for a reference on swinging your compass to create that correction card as I have never done it before.

[Edit by jb92563 on Friday, November 13, 2009 @ 12:32 PM]

Posted Monday, November 30, 2009 @ 05:26 PM  

I let it sit for a few days to see if it leaked and it is holding fine so far.

Also I plan on adding a 2.25" MGL E3 Engine monitor
in place of the Oil Presure & Temp gauges.

I will monitor 2 CHT's (Left and Right rear cylinders) 2 EGT's, Oil Presure, Oil Temp and RPM (directly from the Bendix Mag) as well.

This instrument is very versatile as you can set Hi/Lo alarms, both visual and audible, configure for a variety of sensor types and set the sensor ranges so you see the important end of the range in higher resolution.

I even other purposed one of the inputs in an Ultralight to read Fuel Level instead of Oil temperature because you can set the resistance ranges of some of the sensor inputs and scale it to your own resistive sensor.

Plus the input power range is wide from 8-30 volts and has minimal power draw (13ma) without the backlight on , even a transistor radio size 9v battery would work for 8 hours . http://www.mglavionics.com/E3.pdf

Bob B. (For big trip) I'd also recommend the Artificial Horizon in 2.25" size. I have the 3.5" MGL Artificial Horizon in my Grob 109 motorglider and it works well as long as your not continously turning, but after you straighten out you hit the attitude reset and it re-establishes accurate attitude in about 3 seconds.

[Edit by jb92563 on Monday, November 30, 2009 @ 05:29 PM]