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We found that some of the USA states had been turned off - not sure why. Somebody else though that “buying all of USA” meant “all of USA”. So, yes, it is working now. But… that concept of “packing for a flight” has never made sense to our operations. We are always planning and juggling flights...

I have a new problem with ForeFlight and I am wondering if anybody else has seen this. I have used ForeFlight in Citations Cj2, CJ3, and CJ4 as a backup to paper (years ago) and to electronic charts built into ProLine. Only one day ago (Sunday 22-April-2024 from KHOU to KCMA), I had a new...

That seventh diode may be in place but I never saw a massive battery short. There is also a principal in most aircraft systems that cars rarely do. That is a "battery disconnect relay" and an "alternator disconnect relay". That's why those system have a switch for each. Shutting off one or the...

Here is (near) the end of the long alternator story. We had a repair shop look at the near-new-but-failed alternator. They immediately found shorted windings on the stator. They saw loose and poorly completed windings. This repeated (3 times) failure of an alternator is due to poor construction...

If a diode in a three-phase-bridge shorts, it immediately gets an unlimited current thru the opposite diode. The result is that both diodes are burned open. That current is from the alternator in parallel with the battery so it burns open REALLY fast. The cause of the problem I am seeing is one...

We have been over the aircraft wiring now twice. We do not see any intermittent source of high current/short. The resistance thru slip rings to rotor is correct and constant. If an short kills diodes when 6 are working, we would see last 2 fail even faster but last two are working now for a...

No prop work has been done in the last year; since before this issue started. This isn’t the clutch. Diodes inside are damaged.

I have been doing a lot of testing for the last two weeks. The alternator seems to be putting out about the right voltage and current for the system. But I just tested the diodes inside and 4 of 6 are open. Only one pair of diodes are ever conducting. The result is high ripple current and a...

Thanks for the inputs. There is a engine/electrical monitor system installed that shows voltage and currents. When the Alt light is solid on, the indicated buss voltage is still about 28.5V, battery current is +2 A, and alternator current is 22 A. This seems a contradiction but the monitor...

I have a 2000 Piper Saratoga that is now on its third alternator failure in three months. The folks making the alternator (Hartzel) cannot give us a solution. The local FBO keeps replacing the alternator. The failures usually starts with a buzz or whine heard in the headsets, then progresses to...

Well... Here is what seems the end of the story. The was an old SL for the 525C from a few years ago. I didn't pay attention to it as it described a problem we were not having. That was a "timeout message while processing XM downloaded data". It seems the XM data block has grown over the years...

Has anyone experience problems getting terminal forecasts (TAF) with the ProLine-21 XM weather receiver? I saw this occasionally last year and more this year. On four flight legs in the last week, I got no TAF from the XM receiver. They all said "no data available". I make a point of trying as...

Well... We can read the reports. The cockpit voice recorder included the unexpected sound of hail on the windscreen. Subsequently a pilot said "weather radar not operating".

That's a summary description. An FAAsafety.gov event about 2 years ago spent 2 hours describing all that went wrong with that Air France flight. It started because the pilots left weather radar in "TEST". They flew into a thunderstorm. Then, slow and at high AOA, they flew into a serious...

There was a case of an Air-France Airbus some years ago flying from Brazil to France. Somewhere over the ocean, it encountered an (unexpected!) thunderstorm. A combination of weather and flying decisions lead to a full stall of the wing and a full stall of the tail. At the point, the plane was...

I wonder how many of you have started reading the published LionAir report. The portion where they review all of the events sequentially is scary. It gives the impression of a seriously mismanaged cockpit. CRM does not seem to be trained there. These guys were calling for checklists and getting...

I just got back from the Bristol race. About once a year we look at Elizabethton (0A9) but decide it is too short. I also just talked to a pilot friend who happened to call Dale Jr Enterprises last month looking for a job. They were rude and said they had all the pilots they need.

I still think we are missing some of the logic when it comes to designing reliable systems. Does anybody remember why we have twin engine airplanes? Or even 4 engine planes? Does anybody remember why we spend SO MUCH time in training with one-of-two engines failed? Everybody acknowledges that...

Well, it was a few days ago, but Boeing finally came out with what I have been saying for a while. Both crashed 737 MAX crews failed to follow procedures. If I don't follow memory items in a 61.58 check, they will fail my hiney. And these guys get checked every 6 months.

I still see these pilots dealing with two things: (1) unusual attitude and (2) stabilizer trim runaway. Both of these are in the checklist and most of it is "memory items". AP disconnect, power back, speed-brakes, tri8m cutout switches, grab and hold trim wheel. From what is published, these...