S-TEC 30 not ready error

[DesertNomad]

I have a master, avionics master, and autopilot master. Normally I do not turn on the autopilot master until I need it. Today after flying under the hood with the autopilot I turned off its master as I was not going to be using it again. My CFII asked me to turn it back on and it did not come to a ready state.

The Trim Down light was illuminated and nothing else. It did this once before a year ago and after shutting everything down, it worked fine again. The common factor was that it was very cold < 10°F.

Any idea what this error light means? There is nothing in the S-TEC 30 book about it. I am flying tomorrow and will see if it comes back to a ready state.

I also may have turned it off without first disengaging it. I think I disengaged it, but am not 100% sure.

 

[hotprops]

gyro did not start. stick your hand under the panel and bang the back of the gyro as you are switching it on .good for a few hundred hours or so . till i moved to fl , not so cold so never had to do it. i added a line to my checklist "master on listen for gyro start" ****-tec could never fix it. as it always worked on there bench. never offered a replacement.

 

[DesertNomad]

It did it again today - very high humidity - 100%. I had to move the plane to the other side of the airport due to potential flooding. It was 38F and the autopilot did not come to a ready state. I can't reach the gyro from under the panel as it is way up there.

 

[hotprops]

i do know it is the result of one dirty or failed commutator winding , in the gyro motor . it stops on that one,, one out of pick your number. .
i know of one guy that put a batt charger on the a/craft, with everything else off and let the gyro run for 24 hrs and it fixed it . i was happy with just shaking it once and awhile . btw it has not failed in 400 hr s per the now owner .

 

[Cruiser]

I have a System 30 for sale...... 28v unit

 

[Neshi]

October 2022 This tip just saved me a trip to the avionics shop.