Blake Blake Blake
Filing Flight Plan
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2020
- Messages
- 8
- Display Name
Display name:
Gydez12345
Hello I own a 1962 Cessna 150-B. The airplane has been a blessing till recent... the aircraft was purchased by me in 2017, I’ve used it to get my PPL and to build time. When I purchased the airplane the newly overhauled Om-200 only had 16 hours on it. As I am writing this post the TT on the engine is ~270. So nearly three years I’ve owned this two annuals and three alternators later... yes you are reading that correct! THREE alternators I’ve put in this thing. It eats them like a child eats candy. I recalled a whine with the first Ford Alternator that was in the aircraft... but was off on a work trip when my brother called me and informed me that the alternator had failed on him and was bringing the plane to the shop. We had our local mechanic who I’ve know since I was a teen, look at the airplane and replace our fried Ford Alternator. This event happened around 100 hours on the engine. So we assumed it was just poor/old parts that the old owner put in the aircraft. Over the past 12 months we’ve changed and upgraded some thing on the airplane... ADSB out and LED Landing light. We changed out our old school GE Filament bulbs that kept blowing out on average every 5-10 hours of flight time and with very very light usage. We assumed the bulbs were just crap and kept eating the 20$ bulb cost considering we were quoted over 500$ for a LED one. So now we have a fancy LED bulb that lights up the sky it’s amazing and awesome ADSB-out... well 8 weeks back I was on a night flight after work... did my normal flying routine nothing raised any red flags... call tower and after I receive my taxi instructions I turn on my LED landing light to guide the way and head to my run up area... only the bulb stays lit for a few hundred yards. It’s night time so I am taxing with my Rotating beacon, nav lights and landing light... other things on in the aircraft are my red panel lights, ADSB, radios and DC Turn coordinator. As soon as I turned my strobes on to cross a different runway... someone threw me in the dark. Everything in the airplane was on but my LED landing light. I finished crossing the runway messed around with a few switches and was able to get the landing light to come back on after some time... but during the flight the landing light would randomly go out. I usually do not fly with my landing light on but because of what happened on the ground I thought that maybe I have a loose wire that I don’t want to risk not having a light while I approach the ground to land. So I decided to fly with it on. After this flight it was a normal occurrence for the landing light to have a mind of its own. Waiting for my mechanic to get back in town from vacation I continued flying here and there. Till last week on take off my heart sank when the smell of electrical burning entered the cockpit... I immediately turned around landed the plane and brought it to another shop on the field. Now the airplane has had a whining issue since I can remember. I’ve done all of my training in the airplane and don’t know anything else other than my plane. I’ve looked online and alternator whine is just something that Cessna 150s do... is the common response I found on others threads across the internet. So when I brought the airplane in I explained what I experienced.
-alternator whine ongoing for months
-landing light bad switch
-burning smell on T/O
-Voltage meter changing with higher or lower RPMs
he assured me they would look into everything and get back to me.
I got the news one week later that. Yes I did have a failed landing switch. And they were able to get the light to work when they jumped it from the taxi light. Ok easy fix! Then he continued to tell me the the alternator seems to be functioning properly as far as load and charging the battery. I told him more concerns that I had with the whine of the alternator and that I was also transmitting the whine to Tower who had told me many times that they could hear a whine in the background. They then decided to remove the alternator and run a few more tests on it. It came back that the alternator had a failed diode or diodes... and that burning smell well multiple connections had fried in the alternator along with the insulation plate had completely melted. Grateful that they had found the issue and offered a solution my wallet was not. I’ve now had the airplane back for two days... brand new alternator no overhauled parts for me anymore I’ve already had a second one go out on me. I flew for 1.6 hours yesterday zero issues the alternator was silent in my headset all I could hear was what sound like a light wind blowing in my ear. Landing light was working great off and on at the flick of a switch! To today... start up no issues I warmed the airplane up and started through my normal routine. Started taxing with my instructions.. all avionics on in the airplane, lights (Landing light, nav lights and rotating beacon) and as I was crossing the runway I turn on my strobes... landing light goes out again... I look at my load on my battery and there is no change... I start unloading and loading things on and the needle moved only slightly when I turn on the taxi light. The landing light comes on momentarily then Back out again I turn off the strobes and turn the landing light back on nothing at the first flick of off then on then a beam of light returns to only turn off again. So I take off with my taxi light. And inflight get my landing light to work again and didn’t have any issues with it for 3 of my 4 landings. The last landing I couldn’t get the light to come on. Shortly after I landed and taxied to my hangar I could hear the infamous whine again. Only 3 hours of flight time it stayed away. I didn’t want to believe my ears so I went on live ATC to listen to the transmission and sure enough on my departure no whine was transmitted and my last landing you can her the pitch increase with more throttle.
I apologize for the length of my novel here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated the more minds on this the better. I am returning to my mechanic tomorrow to sort things out and I would like to have some things to pick his brain with. Thank you!
Blake
-alternator whine ongoing for months
-landing light bad switch
-burning smell on T/O
-Voltage meter changing with higher or lower RPMs
he assured me they would look into everything and get back to me.
I got the news one week later that. Yes I did have a failed landing switch. And they were able to get the light to work when they jumped it from the taxi light. Ok easy fix! Then he continued to tell me the the alternator seems to be functioning properly as far as load and charging the battery. I told him more concerns that I had with the whine of the alternator and that I was also transmitting the whine to Tower who had told me many times that they could hear a whine in the background. They then decided to remove the alternator and run a few more tests on it. It came back that the alternator had a failed diode or diodes... and that burning smell well multiple connections had fried in the alternator along with the insulation plate had completely melted. Grateful that they had found the issue and offered a solution my wallet was not. I’ve now had the airplane back for two days... brand new alternator no overhauled parts for me anymore I’ve already had a second one go out on me. I flew for 1.6 hours yesterday zero issues the alternator was silent in my headset all I could hear was what sound like a light wind blowing in my ear. Landing light was working great off and on at the flick of a switch! To today... start up no issues I warmed the airplane up and started through my normal routine. Started taxing with my instructions.. all avionics on in the airplane, lights (Landing light, nav lights and rotating beacon) and as I was crossing the runway I turn on my strobes... landing light goes out again... I look at my load on my battery and there is no change... I start unloading and loading things on and the needle moved only slightly when I turn on the taxi light. The landing light comes on momentarily then Back out again I turn off the strobes and turn the landing light back on nothing at the first flick of off then on then a beam of light returns to only turn off again. So I take off with my taxi light. And inflight get my landing light to work again and didn’t have any issues with it for 3 of my 4 landings. The last landing I couldn’t get the light to come on. Shortly after I landed and taxied to my hangar I could hear the infamous whine again. Only 3 hours of flight time it stayed away. I didn’t want to believe my ears so I went on live ATC to listen to the transmission and sure enough on my departure no whine was transmitted and my last landing you can her the pitch increase with more throttle.
I apologize for the length of my novel here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated the more minds on this the better. I am returning to my mechanic tomorrow to sort things out and I would like to have some things to pick his brain with. Thank you!
Blake
