OkieFlyer
En-Route
First of all, I've been through two Gill batteries in 2 years. I've heard from many that they are junk, and don't last long, plus I admit I haven't practiced really good charging habits at times when the airplane hasn't flown much, so I chocked it up to crappy battery and bad habits. However, over the last several flights, I've noticed that my ammeter runs just barely, I mean barely in the positive. Now I'm wondering if ye old generator isn't charging the battery properly in flight, and may have been the problem with the previous batteries going bad quickly. Since I have a generator, I'm always careful not to crank on all my electrical stuff at low RPM, so as not to drain the battery. Normally, I have one Narco 12D radio, one Narco audio panel, one Garmin 696 GPS, and the intercom running, that's about it. I would think the ammeter would be solidly in the positive with all the lights and pitot heat off. I did turn the GPS off in flight the other day, and the ammeter didn't come up any. 1962 C-182E. Brand new Concorde battery installed last week.
So, I have some questions:
1. How much positive charge should I see on the ammeter?
2. What are some good checks to perform to diagnose whether the charging system is healthy?
A 3rd question not directly pertaining to the onboard charging system: What type of external battery chargers or trickle chargers have you had good luck with? Concorde only approves of one, high dollar, charger. Surely that's not the only charger that will do the job. What say you?
So, I have some questions:
1. How much positive charge should I see on the ammeter?
2. What are some good checks to perform to diagnose whether the charging system is healthy?
A 3rd question not directly pertaining to the onboard charging system: What type of external battery chargers or trickle chargers have you had good luck with? Concorde only approves of one, high dollar, charger. Surely that's not the only charger that will do the job. What say you?
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