Mailing List lml@lancaironline.net Message #54401
From: Colyn Case at earthlink <colyncase@earthlink.net>
Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [LML] Re: Airspeed sensing switch: Pressurization (IV-P)
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:01:37 -0500
To: <lml@lancaironline.net>
Re: [LML] Re: Airspeed sensing switch: Pressurization
Of course I wasn't suggesting manually blocking the outflow valve.  I'm saying you should consider all failure modes in the analysis.
Based on the evidence presented so far, I think I'm convinced that you can't get the plane stopped and have pressure left in the cabin, even if the outflow valve were blocked.
Based on the evidence presented so far, I'm not convinced it's impossible to land and have a little differential, given all failure modes.
 
anyway, thanks for the info.   that's interesting about the mvp-50 pressure sensor.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 7:18 PM
Subject: [LML] Re: Airspeed sensing switch: Pressurization (IV-P)

Colyn,

 

Yes, to pressurize the cockpit, upper deck pressure must exceed ambient. I THINK (but have not verified) that the pressurization controller will close completely to achieve the commanded cabin altitude. If anyone knows about this, please advise. I know there are some small leaks in my cabin that provide some air exchange, but they are not very large. I say this because I had a piece of masking tape over a ¼” shoulder harness attachment hole that dumped into the baggage compartment (don’t ask!). The tape blew through the hole one day, and in addition to the whistle (Judy said SHRIEK), the cabin differential pressure dropped to less than 1 PSI…because of the leak. Power was at low cruise (60% or so) so I might have done better with more power, but I was surprised that a ¼” hole effectively kept the cabin from pressurizing…

 

I don’t know about the results of plugging the outflow valve, but it may be academic? At least theoretically, a pressure differential can be generated from any ambient (outside) pressure, but not sure how, or why one would try plugging the Dukes controler outlet to do this?  I actually covered and sealed the whole pressure “bucket” in the rear seat when I was looking for leaks, but my input was from the vacuum cleaner. As this effectively blocks the emergency dump valve as well, I’d not consider doing this with another pressure source, and particularly not with the engine, nor in-flight…

 

On the “failure condition” you ask about: I have a cabin pressure sensor hooked to my MVP-50 engine monitoring system. It shows cabin altitude in feet, and is alarmed to annunciate a cabin altitude below -500’ (overpressure on the ground—but only at sea level) and a cabin altitude above 10,000’. I’ve only seen it alarm during intentional tests, but any discrepancy between the cabin altitude displayed on the MVP-50 and what’s set on the Dukes controller would indicate a failure/problem, noting that this will occur when the differential gets to 5.5 and the aircraft continues to climb. BTW, I don’t have a separate cabin altitude gauge…the MVP works well for this, AND can be alarmed.

 

 
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