What is this instrument?

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
This was posted on the PB. It is baffling. It is eluding Google. Braintrust?

It's in a 1954 Tri Pacer.htigat100 (1).jpg
 
This is the OLD style control unit for the Flux Capacitor.

flux_capacitor.jpg



In the 80's, they re-did the control unit and added lots and lots of nice digits and colors. The old control head looks pretty lame compared to the more modern one:

fluzo.jpg
 
The same company manufactures some kind of digital VOR display. Or did anyway.
 
I wonder if it's a timer?

4 digits.
S = 59 h: 59 m
F = 59 m: 59 s
Operate = start/stop

Apparently, from other thread, the only connection on the back is power.

Should be simple enough to turn on power and see what happens.
 
Matthew said:
I wonder if it's a timer?

4 digits.
S = 59 h: 59 m
F = 59 m: 59 s
Operate = start/stop

Apparently, from other thread, the only connection on the back is power.

Should be simple enough to turn on power and see what happens.
Click to expand...

That makes sense.
 
Can't tell without the display being lighted.
 
Is the model number GAT/100, or is it measuring GATs divided by 100? What's a GAT? Some kind of tachometer, or optical propeller tach?
 
Bill Jennings said:
Is the model number GAT/100, or is it measuring GATs divided by 100? What's a GAT? Some kind of tachometer, or optical propeller tach?
Click to expand...

I thought it was the units that 6PC used to determine how much 100LL to drink.

"General aviation timer" seems as good a guess as any.
 
Not sure it fits all the data points, but I found this potential lead in an online copy of Flying magazine (1977):

HTI_1977.jpg


Maybe it was intended to provide a digital frequency indication when used with one of these analog, hard to tune dinosaurs (Narco 31 ADF):

Analog_ADF.jpg
 
Last edited:
ktup-flyer said:
Operates the machine gun. S=Semi-Auto. F=Full Auto. Display tells you how many rounds you have left, and the operate button is your trigger.
Click to expand...

I think you got it! GAT = Gatling gun, model 100 = 100 rounds per minute.
 
I'm betting it is a fuel transfer control. Does this Tri Pacer have an auxillary tank?
 
That was Al Gores plane and the GAT/100 stand for Global Air Temperature/100. He flew it around to gather data for his movie. Of course, the S was for sun and the F for frozen depending on what hysteria he was trying to promote. The Dim clearly referred to the operator.
 
It was invented by Jimmy Cagney, hence the name "Gat" for pistol. It's a timer for practicing sneers while saying "You dirty rat!" when the switch is on S. When the switch is F, is for practicing frowns while saying "You got me Copper!".

Cheers
 
S = self serve, F = full serve. "Operate" then starts displaying how many gallons are being added.
 
 
It only functions properly when switched into the CRM-114 discriminator with the appropriate code (try OPE).
 
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