Common instruments on small aircraft

Neil Gould wrote:
Recently, Mxsmanic posted:

Neil Gould writes:

A lot of this depends on the individual. I doubt that Jay's family
would agree with you that their aircraft is impractical as
transportation. I don't understand the notion that it is a problem
that one is "still most likely to have to rent a car"; so what?

Because if you take a car somewhere, you don't have to rent a plane to
finish the trip.

Again, I say, "so what?" It's a non-issue, because if you fly
commercially, you *still* have to rent a car to get around.

But in cases where you *would* take a car, you wouldn't need one.


Weather limitations are greatly over-rated. As others have pointed
out, the inconvenience of waiting out weather can be less than an
hour, and most of the time less than a day.

When the meeting is at 10 AM, that's a show-stopper.

People who "must be there" at a particular time miss a lot of meetings,
regardless of their mode of transportation.

But you're much more likely to miss it if you're depending on GA.



The commercial flight can generally be relied upon; the GA flight
cannot. Commercial aviation has spent decades and billions of dollars
to ensure that airliners can fly in all but the worst weather.

That is not my experience at all. Within the last 5 months, my wife and I
have missed connecting flights due to airline issues 2 out of 2 times. I
have yet to miss my arrival times flying GA.

I haven't missed a connecting flight for about the last 20 times I've
flown commercially. On average, many more people make their connecting
flights than not.

As for GA, I've been trying to make a trip for two weeks now, but
haven't been able due to weather. If I had needed to, I could have made
the trip in a car and been back home the same day two weeks ago. I put
it off because I'm using it as an excuse to fly - which I believe is
what most GA pilots probably do.

Bart wrote:
As for GA, I've been trying to make a trip for two weeks now, but
haven't been able due to weather. If I had needed to, I could have made
the trip in a car and been back home the same day two weeks ago. I put
it off because I'm using it as an excuse to fly - which I believe is
what most GA pilots probably do.

To make my point even further, I just recieved an email from a member
of my flying club that battery in our plane is dead.

If this were a car it would be no big deal since I could go to an auto
parts store and replace the battery myself. But since we need a
licensed A&P mechanic to do the job, and there's not exactly one on
every corner, we'll have to wait in line to get the job done.

There's your 'ole reliable GA!

Flight rescheduled.... *again*.

On 29 Oct 2006 00:00:05 -0700, "Bart" wrote:

Bart wrote:
As for GA, I've been trying to make a trip for two weeks now, but
haven't been able due to weather. If I had needed to, I could have made
the trip in a car and been back home the same day two weeks ago. I put
it off because I'm using it as an excuse to fly - which I believe is
what most GA pilots probably do.

To make my point even further, I just recieved an email from a member
of my flying club that battery in our plane is dead.

If this were a car it would be no big deal since I could go to an auto
parts store and replace the battery myself. But since we need a
licensed A&P mechanic to do the job, and there's not exactly one on
every corner, we'll have to wait in line to get the job done.

The pilot or operator of a Part 91 aircraft can replace the aircraft
batteries...you don't need an A&P. Read 14CFR 43.3(g) and Appendix A (c).

Ron Wanttaja

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
The pilot or operator of a Part 91 aircraft can replace the aircraft
batteries...you don't need an A&P. Read 14CFR 43.3(g) and Appendix A (c).

Ok - but we still have to wait on the battery to be ordered which takes
at least a day.

On 29 Oct 2006 19:34:18 -0800, "Bart" wrote:

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
The pilot or operator of a Part 91 aircraft can replace the aircraft
batteries...you don't need an A&P. Read 14CFR 43.3(g) and Appendix A (c).

Ok - but we still have to wait on the battery to be ordered which takes
at least a day.

Did someone just leave the master switch on? Can't you just charge the
battery?

I've never had a battery just die. It usually exhibits its death
throes for months, giving plenty of time to shop Trade-A-Plane for the
best price.

RK Henry

RK Henry wrote:
On 29 Oct 2006 19:34:18 -0800, "Bart" wrote:

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
The pilot or operator of a Part 91 aircraft can replace the aircraft
batteries...you don't need an A&P. Read 14CFR 43.3(g) and Appendix A (c).

Ok - but we still have to wait on the battery to be ordered which takes
at least a day.

Did someone just leave the master switch on? Can't you just charge the
battery?

I've never had a battery just die. It usually exhibits its death
throes for months, giving plenty of time to shop Trade-A-Plane for the
best price.

We've been having issues with it for awhile. Nobody has been able to
figure out exactly what the problem is.

"RK Henry" wrote in message
...
I've never had a battery just die. It usually exhibits its death
throes for months, giving plenty of time to shop Trade-A-Plane for the
best price.

I've had it happen with a car battery before... Starting my car after work,
it turned over normally and I thought that it had started and released the
key... Turned out that I had done it too quick and the car hadn't started...
Tried to start it again and all I got was a slight clicking noise... Just
barely enough juice to make the lights on the radio dimly glow... Car
batteries are not any different than aircraft batteries... Same basic
technology, thus same failure modes... Yeah, it could happen on an aircraft
battery also... My experience though is that this sort of failure mode is
rather rare since I've only had this sort of thing happen once for any
vehicle battery that I ever owned...

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
The pilot or operator of a Part 91 aircraft can replace the aircraft
batteries...you don't need an A&P. Read 14CFR 43.3(g) and Appendix A (c).

We still have to wait on the battery to be ordered which takes at least
a day. And assuming the best case scenario of it getting put in
sometime tomorrow, I will then be forced two wait at least another two
days due to weather.

Bart wrote:
I will then be forced two wait at least another two days due to weather.

Oops. My brain got ahead of my typing. The above should read "I will
then be forced *to* wait..." grin

"Bart" wrote in message
oups.com...
We still have to wait on the battery to be ordered which takes at least
a day. And assuming the best case scenario of it getting put in
sometime tomorrow, I will then be forced two wait at least another two
days due to weather.

Depending upon what type of plane we're talking about and whether the plane
is close by and the flight can be made in daylight, one option might be to
jumpstart or hand prop the aircraft and fly it back to your home field... Or
grab a battery out of another plane and take it there for temporary use to
get back to your home airport... I've had a battery die (or drain because of
leaving something on) before and I just hand propped it and flew it back...