Marker beacon not working

[Supereri]

My panel is getting worked on. I have another thread here on it. But today my A&P said the marker beacon was having issues. It's a PS Engineering PMA6000B with the optional marker beacon. He said the Middle and Outer beacons are working fine, but the inner maker isn't working. Any suggestions on things to try? I don't really want to have to get this fixed or buy a replacement.

Thanks

 

[murphey]

How many marker beacons are left in the system?

 

[dmspilot]

My panel is getting worked on. I have another thread here on it. But today my A&P said the marker beacon was having issues. It's a PS Engineering PMA6000B with the optional marker beacon. He said the Middle and Outer beacons are working fine, but the inner maker isn't working. Any suggestions on things to try? I don't really want to have to get this fixed or buy a replacement.

Thanks

lol inner marker? You gonna be doing Cat II/III approaches in your 182?

 

[Martin Pauly]

Any suggestions on things to try?

Yes: do nothing, move on. There is no realistic scenario where the lack of an inner marker beacon receiver has any bearing on the outcome of your flights.
Heck, in 25 years of IFR flying I have not once needed any marker beacon, let alone the inner marker.

- Martin

 

[Eric Brunelle]

No need for marker beacons. I had the PMA8000G installed a year ago, and mistakenly ordered the one with marker beacons. Still trying to find an approach that uses them around here (BOS). I found one up in NH, but notam said it was inop. The three colored lights make my panel look more complex, though!

 

[donjohnston]

Yep. I would not worry about it.

When I was building my panel about 10 years ago, I couldn’t find a remote audio panel that had a marker beacon receiver. PS Engineering told me the beacons were being phased out and that they were going to start making their panel mount audio panels without them at some point. So I went without. Never once flew an approach that required marker beacons.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

The inner scares your passengers, and annoying when concentrating that last little bit if you accidentally leave it on.

 

[Supereri]

Perfect. Thanks for all of the input everyone.

 

[NordicDave]

Flying into KCPR Casper Wy for the first time... this loud "AAAAAAA" sound that scared the crap out of me.

Turns out it was their marker beacon getting picked up by the PSE-450A.

Never heard one before.

 

[Flyxaos]

I saw a blue light flashing on my audio panel the other day, a couple miles from Arlington (AWO). I'm not IFR yet, so I had to go figure out what it was.

 

[mscheuer]

My panel is getting worked on. I have another thread here on it. But today my A&P said the marker beacon was having issues. It's a PS Engineering PMA6000B with the optional marker beacon. He said the Middle and Outer beacons are working fine, but the inner maker isn't working. Any suggestions on things to try? I don't really want to have to get this fixed or buy a replacement.

Thanks

There are few inner marker airfields today. Usually at Class B. I think you might want to check to see if the airfields you are flying into have inner markers. If the airfield indeed has an inner marker, you might want to take your aircraft to an avionics shop and have them test the marker with their ramp tester. There are two ways of changing the sensitivity of the marker, by tuning the marker antenna or tuning the marker beacon radio inside the audio panel. Both require a certified shop's calibrated ramp tester.

 

[kshaw]

Funny story: I went for a biennial flight review with a very young CFI. While landing at a remote airport, the middle marker activated and I saw the terror in his eyes. "What was that?" Apparently, he was unfamiliar with the marker beacon and thought that it was an emergency alert.