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Old April 23rd 04, 03:23 PM
Dave Butler
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Tom Jackson wrote:
The other day, I was flying and noticed that my ammeter guage was reading 0
(it had been reading fine for a long portion of the flight.) Also, I had


This is the funky Piper "load meter", right? It reads zero at the left of the
scale, not in the center? So "reading fine" means it had been somewhere in the
center of the range, or at least not all the way to the left?

been running a lap-top from the cigar lighter plug for the first time ever.
I turned-off virtually all electric devices and continued to my destination.
I also shut-off the alternator switch. Later in the flight, I tried
recycling the alternator switch, and the guage would read full deflection,
so I then would shut the alternator switch off again.


Full deflection to the right? i.e. maximum current is being delivered from the
alternator? Seems like what I would expect to happen after the alternator has
been turned off for a while. Why did you shut it off again?


Later in the day, I fired-up the plane - could tell that the battery was
weak because it could hardly pull the prop through. The ammeter guage,
however seemed to look ok - appeared to be charging the battery. I figured
that somehow it had recycled itself, so I took off and headed home without
incident (I watched the ammeter guage very closely throughout the flight,
and it appeared normal throughout.)

The plane is a 1974 Piper Warrior - 151.

Any thoughts? Was it merely a failsafe due to too much current being drawn
from the lap-top? Should I have it looked at?

Thanks