I have an old J-8 gyro attitude indicator and a static inverter to feed it
400 cps AC (yup, it was cycles per second before they bestowed the honor on
Prof. Hertz). I'd mount it in my panel but it takes a large hole (80 mm?)
and the weight would probably put my CG past the forward limit or, as a
minimum, break my carbon panel. It's also a totally black sphere except for
the yellow "targets" at the plus and minus 90 degree pitch attitude points,
and there's a yellow horizon line which moves independently of the sphere,
and a yellow airplane symbol. It's probably radio active with radium paint
and, therefore, probably illegal even to own (do I hear black helicopters?).

Somebody make me an offer. It works, but I don't know how much current it
draws... Also, it's so old that most people wouldn't even think that it
works and, therefore, wouldn't think to protest its presence in the panel.
This is a full-fledged mil-spec attitude indicator, not a wimpy turn
indicator...


"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...
On 2/17/2012 8:07 PM, Sean Fidler wrote:
Tom,

Why do any gliders have gyro's at all?

40 years ago, almost nobody did, because they were expensive ($1000 for an
AH when gliders cost $20,000), drew an amp, and were big and heavy, and
most people didn't have a real use for it.

Now, they they are cheap ($500 when gliders cost $100,000), use very
little current, and are small and light, so even though people don't have
any greater use for it than 40 years ago, they like the look of it and
think it might help some day. Some power pilots seem to feel naked without
them, having had one for hundreds or thousands of hours in their
airplanes.

I used to have a gyro T&B in my panel, because I got it dirt cheap, and it
looked prettier than the empty hole in the panel. I thought, maybe some
day I'll get stupid or have some really bad luck, and maybe it would help
me descend through a wave cloud that closed in. I never worried about
being sucked into a cloud, though.

And some people use them to cloud fly, illegally and legally.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email
me)