Today's Message Index:
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1. 01:46 PM - Ray Allen trim indicator and night flying (Bill Strahan)
2. 06:22 PM - Re: Ray Allen trim indicator and night flying (n5pb@AOL.COM)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Ray Allen trim indicator and night flying |
I recently had a 2 hour night flight in my Lightning, and decided about an hour
and a half in that I was going to do something about those LEDs before my next
night flight.
My trim indicator and my intercom are both mounted directly in front of me, and
they are bright. BRIGHT!! So I have turned them around and now use them as
landing lights...okay, they're not that bright, but they are bright enough that
I kept holding my hand in front of them to let my eyes adjust and actually enjoy
the moonlit landscape below me.
The other distraction was the reflection of the EFIS on the canopy, but I'll deal
with that separately later. So on to the LEDs.
A bit of research showed me that the PS Engineering 1000 intercom had no provision
for a dimmable LED. No problem that a bit of black fingernail polish can't
fix. Not elegant, but done.
As to the Ray Allen indicator, I took a look at the docs here:
http://www.rayallencompany.com/RACmedia/instructionsPOSRP3.pdf
Evidently there is a wire that dims the indicator when it's connected to 12v+.
Sweet! Had the panel out at that point anyway, and immediately saw that the
white wire had been snipped flush with the back of the indicator. So I removed
the indicator, took the back off of it and got access to that wire and spliced
in a new one and reassembled. Sure enough +12v applied to that wire made the
indicator very dim. Great!
Now just pick a place, pick a switch, drill a hole, wire it up...I decided to sleep
on it.
Good thing. That night it occurred to me that I could just connect it to the load
side of my NAV light switch. NAV lights on, indicator is dim, and if I get
annoyed by it being bright, that means it's probably become night time while
I've been flying and is a reminder to turn on the NAV lights. Yay! (Can I mention
I would have been really pissed at myself if this had occurred to me AFTER
I installed a switch?)
So, if you're still in the build phase, and using the Ray Allen indicator I highly
recommend you wire in the white wire to your NAV light switch.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=408597#408597
Message 2
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| Subject: | Re: Ray Allen trim indicator and night flying |
Bill
Nice email, I'll have to go and check my Flap and elevator trim indicator l
ights and see how they are set up. I do know when I key my mike they go di
m....I haven't been doing alot of nite flying so it hasn't bothered my much
...
On the canopy reflection.. Perhaps you can build a panel visor somehow tha
t would extend the top portion of the panel shroud out about 6-8 inches.
Bear
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Strahan <bill@gdsx.com>
Sent: Sat, Sep 14, 2013 4:46 pm
Subject: Lightning-List: Ray Allen trim indicator and night flying
I recently had a 2 hour night flight in my Lightning, and decided about an
hour
and a half in that I was going to do something about those LEDs before my n
ext
night flight.
My trim indicator and my intercom are both mounted directly in front of me,
and
they are bright. BRIGHT!! So I have turned them around and now use them a
s
landing lights...okay, they're not that bright, but they are bright enough
that
I kept holding my hand in front of them to let my eyes adjust and actually
enjoy
the moonlit landscape below me.
The other distraction was the reflection of the EFIS on the canopy, but I'l
l
deal with that separately later. So on to the LEDs.
A bit of research showed me that the PS Engineering 1000 intercom had no
provision for a dimmable LED. No problem that a bit of black fingernail po
lish
can't fix. Not elegant, but done.
As to the Ray Allen indicator, I took a look at the docs here:
http://www.rayallencompany.com/RACmedia/instructionsPOSRP3.pdf
Evidently there is a wire that dims the indicator when it's connected to 12
v+.
Sweet! Had the panel out at that point anyway, and immediately saw that th
e
white wire had been snipped flush with the back of the indicator. So I rem
oved
the indicator, took the back off of it and got access to that wire and spli
ced
in a new one and reassembled. Sure enough +12v applied to that wire made t
he
indicator very dim. Great!
Now just pick a place, pick a switch, drill a hole, wire it up...I decided
to
sleep on it.
Good thing. That night it occurred to me that I could just connect it to t
he
load side of my NAV light switch. NAV lights on, indicator is dim, and if
I get
annoyed by it being bright, that means it's probably become night time whil
e
I've been flying and is a reminder to turn on the NAV lights. Yay! (Can I
mention I would have been really pissed at myself if this had occurred to m
e
AFTER I installed a switch?)
So, if you're still in the build phase, and using the Ray Allen indicator I
highly recommend you wire in the white wire to your NAV light switch.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=408597#408597
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