Strike Finder

[AdamZ]

A buddy has a plane with a strike finder looks somewhat new. He says that when he flies the strike finder shows strikes all around him even on a clear day. Is he setting the strike finder to sensitive or to close a range, or does it sound as if there is a problem with the equipment?

 

[Lance F]

Sounds like an installation problem to me. Maybe getting this from the strobes or other stray RF(radio frequency) coming from somewhere in the plane.

 

[gismo]

A buddy has a plane with a strike finder looks somewhat new. He says that when he flies the strike finder shows strikes all around him even on a clear day. Is he setting the strike finder to sensitive or to close a range, or does it sound as if there is a problem with the equipment?

Sounds like an equipment problem or possibly a static discharge and/or grounding issue. Usually when something like a strobe interferes it shows up on the display as a group of cells on the same relative bearing. AFaIK there are no user settable sensitivity adjustments.

 

[gibbons]

It's almost certainly an installation problem. I'd bet that either the Strikefinder wiring is bundled with other wiring (like the strobes) or it's not grounded properly. A good avionics shop should be able to figure out the problem in short order.

 

[Ken Ibold]

If it once worked properly but has now started malfunctioning, he should turn off everything and work each electronic item individually. I had a similar problem with my stormscope. Turned out that when I switched my audio panel from com 1 to com 2 it would throw noise the stormscope interpreted as a cell.