Portable IMC emergency panel

On 2005-03-27, Ron Garret wrote:
backup plan. Obviously a portable GPS and Comm unit are first on the
priority list, but I'd also like to get a portable AI, since it's really
hard to keep the wings level with just a GPS.

I built a solid state turn coordinator with LED display that would run
for about 24 hours on a pair of alkaline batteries. I never got around
to moving it off the breadboard and into a nice package. There is a
company that sells something I suspect is very similar. It's about
the size of a deck of cards with row of LEDs on one edge, but of course
now I can't find the name of it.

Anyway, in concert with a portable GPS or even just a magnetic compass
a solid state turn coordinator could keep you going under some pretty
dire circumstances.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

In article ,
Ben Jackson wrote:

On 2005-03-27, Ron Garret wrote:
backup plan. Obviously a portable GPS and Comm unit are first on the
priority list, but I'd also like to get a portable AI, since it's really
hard to keep the wings level with just a GPS.

I built a solid state turn coordinator with LED display that would run
for about 24 hours on a pair of alkaline batteries. I never got around
to moving it off the breadboard and into a nice package. There is a
company that sells something I suspect is very similar. It's about
the size of a deck of cards with row of LEDs on one edge, but of course
now I can't find the name of it.

This perhaps?

http://www.pcflightsystems.com/egyro.html

It's $500. Is that a reasonable price?

rg

On 2005-03-27, Ron Garret wrote:

http://www.pcflightsystems.com/egyro.html

It's $500. Is that a reasonable price?

That's the one I'm thinking of. I can't tell you if the price is right,
only that I think it's a great idea but I still don't have one.

I toyed with the idea of making something like that (turn only, no pitch)
in kit form. The basic idea is really very simple with the solid state
gyros that are available now. About the only complexity is temperature
compensation. I just made the project too complicated by trying to
include a DG-like reference which requires far, far higher precision
than just a TC display.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

In article ,
Ben Jackson wrote:

On 2005-03-27, Ron Garret wrote:

http://www.pcflightsystems.com/egyro.html

It's $500. Is that a reasonable price?

That's the one I'm thinking of. I can't tell you if the price is right,
only that I think it's a great idea but I still don't have one.

I toyed with the idea of making something like that (turn only, no pitch)
in kit form. The basic idea is really very simple with the solid state
gyros that are available now. About the only complexity is temperature
compensation. I just made the project too complicated by trying to
include a DG-like reference which requires far, far higher precision
than just a TC display.

Yeah, any time you start integrating things get hairy. But if all you
care about is keeping the wings level then maybe all you need is one of
those cheap rate gyros they use in model helicopters and a couple of
LEDs. On the one hand, betting your life on a part made for RC models
seems like a foolish thing to do, but on the other hand, this is just a
backup in case the entire electrical system on a dual-redundant plane
craps out.

Might be worth getting a model gyro just to play around with. Hm, where
did I put that soldering iron?

rg