REFLECTOR: drag brake and general reliability of AC equipment

David Ullman ullman at robustdecisions.com
Fri May 4 10:52:54 CDT 2012


I am part way through my 40 hours.  I am mainly practicing landings - trying
to get my speed down.  At altitude I can drive around the sky at 75 kts with
good control and the speed brake up, but seem to be fast on final.  Trying
to get to 80kt over the numbers.  I have used the speed brake on all my
landings to date.

On Wed I went out to fly and speed brake would not deploy.  I was still on
the ground.  After chasing the problem I found that it is not my wiring, but
the motor itself not working.  To get it out of the plane is major surgery.
So, here is the question.  Do I even need the speed brake?  I know some
people use it and some don't.  I need to consistently get in and stopped on
3000ft so I can move to another airport.  Can I do this without the speed
brake? (I am learning on 5000ft, so not an issue just now).   Any words of
wisdom are appreciated.

Also, I am having another, intermittent problem.  The day the speed brake
failed, the engine would not start.  When I turned the key, I could hear the
starter solenoid click, but no starter.  This has happened once before, but
all the other times, no problem.  Both times I put a trickle charger on the
battery (I don't usually leave it on and have a good battery.) and traced
the problem to the solenoid.  Both times, as soon as I traced the loss of
current to the solenoid by checking voltages, the starter miraculously
worked.  In other words, by tracing the problem, it went away.  This doesn't
give me a feeling of confidence.  The starter is new, the solenoid is new,
the battery may have been a little down (I still need to check if there is
any draw with the master is off. I don't see how there can be).  Any
thoughts?  I am leaning toward replacing the solenoid.

While on reliability, I had a problem with my Dynon ADAHRS.  It was
wandering all over.  It is mounted under the rear pilot-side seat.  I don't
have the seat in yet and I made sure there was no ferrous material anywhere
near it.  So it was the unit, not my installation of it.   They replaced it
and all is fine.  I also just bought two autopilot servos from them.  One of
them bound up when rotated.  They replaced that also.

All of this lack of reliability has not given me much encouragement. 

David Ullman
N-444DX Velocity 
EAA 292 President
david at davidullman.com
541-754-3609
1655 NW Hillcrest Dr
Corvallis OR 97330



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