All posts by Todd's Time

AircraftTroubleshooting

Helpful Hints for data loading the EASy Avionics in the Falcon 900DX

A few recommendations before you start:

Know which breakers to pull for your aircraft:  one example from a F2000EXEASy operator, disable all of the “Outboard” LRU’s:

 

One operator pulls ALL third party breakers….. BASC, DEEC, BSCU< A’La this pcture on a F 2000.

Have plenty of DVD-R disks at hand.  One source emphasizes DVD-r.…Not DVD+R….Not DVD RW.

 

Have a SPARE LanTap 10Base-2 converter.  It gets hot and fizzels out occasionally.  Available on the open market from:

 

Order a LONG 10Base-2 coax.  Its just RG-58 old school.  One source is Pasternack (20 foot here).  This gets you out of the cockpit while you are working.

 

In warm climates, have a blue Freezer Brick in the freezer  ready.  If the LanTap is suspect, rubberband it to the frozen brick.

Remove the maintenance 10Base2 coax connector on the maintenance panel, clean it our with IPA of Electrocontact cleaner.  The action of continuosly removing and reinstalling the connector shaves metal particals and drops the into the connector….FTP failures.

Process

If a bulk load fails …….  Take pictures of the FAILED LRU list.  Then attempt a target load at that unit only.  Retry this several times….yell, scream, cry.   turn the airplane off, retreat, then reattack after the LRU’s are cooled down a bit. wurst case,  consider a OPS software reload of the target unit.

Several times a year the NDB comes with a EGPWS data base.  Full load of this data is 90% unsuccessful.  all ways target load this data.

Remember the drive door has to be closed and locked through out  the load process.

 

 

 

Troubleshooting:

Is the 10Base-2 adapter hot? FTP problems?   Recommendations above.

Carefully reread and study the SW NAME and LOAD ORDER.

If you have OLD OPS software,  or NO OPS Software, yo can issue Honeywell a no cost P.O. to get current data.

Watch for nuisance errors after data load.  Use the Pilot soft key to get rid of the ones that are not latched, Enter the CMC and empty the others, including the one at the bottom:

Super – secret unapproved alleviation to many loading problems. Clean the lan cable connector and put it onto the Mx plug. Then buy a 7X terminating resistor to put on the bnc plug and stop messing with the lan. $40 bucks well spent……

 

 

 

 

 

AircraftTroubleshooting

When does a modern transponder respond to “ALL CALL”?

From the in-estimable Chad Micheal:

Follow up to this weekends phone call…..

The L3 NXT transponders are DO-181E compliant. Which means they do not accept “All Call” transmission on the ground. The aircraft has to be weight off wheels for”All Call” to work.
If atc at an airport wants to see the aircraft on ground or if a tech wants to check ground transmission with an IFR6000, they must ping the hex code for the aircraft to receive a reply.
In order to do a ground check using the IFR6000 box, you must configure the hex code in the settings block.

 

 

So take that!

FARA

7TS0 runway marking discussion

  • Summary of discussions up to this point:
TL, DR:
I am proposing to use $2000 to $3000 of FARA funds to add displaced threshold  / usable width markings to the runway, change the color of 4 runway lights, and change the text on our AFD entry.
The Background:
We have had several ideas floating around about the marking the runway displaced thresholds, and concerns about the sides of the runway being uneven/unusable for high speed operation.
Issue number 1:  The runway thresholds must be marked as displaced to qualify for Public Airport classification.  If we remain private , we should still comply with markings as a good faith effort to promote safety. We have discussed schemes to mark the thresholds, but up to now we have not settled on one.
FAA letter reviewing grass runway marking (Grass Runway Markings_1984_ct84-11)…..  A little over the top. – Todd
…..
My preference is to remain private,and place the markings anyway- Todd
…..
Issue number 2.  The runway width is currently declared as 70 feet usable, although it is not marked.  An aircraft was damaged (nosed up?) when it departed the usable area at high speed a year or 2 ago.  Additionally, Advisory Circular ( RunwayMarkings_HardSurface_AC150_5340_1k_consolidated )   clearly states runway lights can be no farther than 10 feet outside the usable runway area.  We are more like 25 feet.  Again, we are not bound by the AC, but good practice would visually indicate the non-standard situation.
 The next aspect of this same issue is the access culvert that Haydens  have laid down to cross the bar ditch. This is technically outside of the “Runway” proper, but it will damage an aircraft if struck at high speed.  Again, I think the best route is to make clear what we are offering as “Runway”.
……
I have also suggested that Haydens fair in the entire ditch with gravel, say 20 feet north and 20 feet south of the culvert to allow even an errant aircraft to smoothly roll past the culvert at any ground track, at any speed. Ditto the lawn mowers.  Just mow right over it.  – Todd
…….
Mark’s suggestion was to move the lights inward to the actual runway width:

Since our discussion, I have become firmer in my thought that moving runway lights inward is the best option.  Never mind a ditch digger will do the hard work, vice hand digging 3” deep squares to place concrete markers; but I believe there is no better way to mark the landable surface than to set out lights.  Lights have a height to them that concrete will not and they will mark the runway day or night.  If one needs to worry about hitting lights, then one must worry about flying into ANY airport with a lighted runway.  Hitting a runway light is a non-event.  It’s a pain to replace, but a non-event as far as airplane damage.  However, not seeing a flush concrete marker and hitting a concrete abutment is an event.  I hate to keep coming back to liability, but as we go public, we will all be liable if an accident occurs due to what will be seen as our negligence in not properly marking obstructions.  Never mind the airport facility directory, even a bad lawyer will make our lives miserable trying to defend what we did, or did not do.  

This is just my two cents. Let’s get the conversation going! – Mark Hagen

….
My objection to moving the lights inboard will increase the likelihood of a airplane striking a light.
X09 documents non-standard lights like this:
Runway edge lights: non-standard
NSTD LIRL; 2800 FT OF RY LGTD AT NIGHT BTN DSPLCD THLDS.

– Todd

….
The airport “Heritage Creek”, identifier 58T,  just north of us has won the threshold marking contest. Airnav page (Here) (). Google map link (here) (Picture on approach attached).  (Video of the approach here) – Todd
Heritage Creek have  concrete squares forming L shape (2 feet by 7 Feet) painted white. This is identical to Haydens’ father’s airport (identifier X09). Google map link (here) Airnav page (Here).
Again we are not directly bound by regulations, because we can find no FAR, AIM, or DOT regulation  that shows how to “mark” a grass runway.
My proposal for this spring 2020 FARA meeting:
Install 4 concrete L shapes. 2 at each threshold. (3 feet legs by 9 feet long , just because bigger is better). They can be  positioned at the second runway light (Meeks/Rosell, and Hulme/Eppard).  This is well inside of the required displaced threshold. They can be in the runway area, only 60  (or 50 feet) feet apart, thereby visually indicating the usable width. This will allow us to make the adjacent runway light white on one side, and red on the other, for increased nighttime displaced threshold goodness. These blocks will be carefully leveled on cushion sand or the like.  The goal is to make them flush so that an aircraft can roll over them at any speed or direction without a problem.
Also, we have discussed reducing the stated runway width in the AFD to 50 feet. Also we can state that the runway lights are a “nonstandard” 25 feet outside of the usable runway.

Reflective paint optional

INSL-X TP222009A-01 Acrylic Latex Traffic Paint, 1 Gallon, Black 

Reflective Glass Beads (1 LB Bag) …Driveways, Airports, 
cost of concrete 28 squares 36x36x3. 1400.00
or
2 foot paver  8.48 ea X 10 per mark = $339.2 for a total of 40 pavers
Miniskid $215 day plus $50.00 36 inches
Excavator $285/day blade on front 5 feet
Bobcat $299 tire $315 track /day 5 feet wide
Paint, 4 gallons  $22.00 ea
beads 2 16 oz bags $19.00 ea

Thanks