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#51
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Jose wrote:
[big snip] Thanks for the full explanation. I had forgotten how the instrument was engineered (the 30 degree cant) and don't think I ever realized how important the damping was. How do you propose to check it on preflight (and to what tolerance?) I make gentle turns during taxi to see how it responds, but I obviously can't give it a roll hit very easily. Watching the TC as you make taxi turns is a pretty good preflight check. It confirms that the gyro has power, is spinning, bearings haven't siezed, etc. It's hard to imagine any failure which would cause it to react properly to yaw inputs (i.e. taxi turns) but not to roll. |
#52
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Jose and Roy,
The problem with a TC that is getting a little worn is not that it does not respond to roll, but that it responds too much to roll. The internal dashpot is supposed to damp out its response to small, instantaneous roll hits, so all we see on the needle is either turn, or a continuous roll. But if the dashpot is worn (the seal wears out and the fluid leaks out just like the McPherson struts on your car), the needle goes 'nuts' on every little roll bump, and pegs the needle to whichever side the roll was towards, regardless of your direction of turn. The result is that in turbulence all you see is a series of full-scale left and right deflections, none of which represent your rate of turn. It's pretty much impossible to control the aircraft partial panel this way, and if you try you are very likely to get into an extreme unusual attitude. The test: during taxi, put the aircraft in a taxi turn at standard rate on the TC. Suddenly straighten the turn out; the needle should take 2-4 seconds to get back to 1/2 standard rate of turn. If it comes back faster than that, it is underdamped. If slower than that, the gyro is probably not turning at full speed, usually due to the bearings wearing out (tho this is usually hailed by an annoying whine when you first apply electrical power, something like a Boeing jet starting up...) Gene |
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