Hi John –
You make a good point. If losing you PFD
means also losing your engine instruments then the plane is grounded until the
failure is fixed. That would certainly be a major headache if it happens away
from home. But an in-flight display failure wouldn’t be an emergency as
long as you have backup flight instruments. So we’re really talking about
safety vs. the ability to limp home on a partial panel. GRT does solve the
problem nicely because you still need their EIS-4000 with two-line LCD display
to supply data to the HX. The GRT folks told me you can mount the EIS remotely
if you don’t want it to take up panel space.
I’m sure the group would be very
interested to hear how you made it home with a failed Blue Mountain.
Can you elaborate?
Happy flying,
From: John Schroeder
[mailto:jgschroeder2@windstream.net]
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 2:32 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: Re: [LML] Re: Instrument
Panel comments/advice requested
I disagree a lot with your recommendation. I had a Blue Mountain
and it went TU on a long cross country! I wished very much to have had a
separate engine/fuel monitoring system to get the bird home in VFR and with the
backup flight instrumentation. Wrapping an autopilot, engine monitoring flight
instruments and maps all into one box is a recipe for trouble. We even have a
separate CHT/EGT monitor in our ES. We went with the HX, and it uses their
separate 6000 engine/fuel system, displayed either on the HX screen or the
separate monitor that comes with the system. Also, and I fly hard IFR from time
to time, one needs a backup for flight instruments.
My humble opinion. I would be happy to elaborate as to how I got the
bird home with a dead Blue
Mountain flight/engine
system - if anyone wants to hear it. It depended on the way we designed the
panel to spread out the risks. We fixed one of the problems with separate GRT
engine and flight instrumentation systems.
John Schroeder LNCE with 400 logged hours in it.
On Fri, 11 May 2012 10:16:11 -0400, Adam Molny
<Adam@validationpartners.com> wrote:
< Engine instruments will be displayed on an E.I. MVP-50> Why the
separate system? The Skyview can perform all your engine monitoring functions.
It can also do fuel calculations based on your flight plan (i.e fuel remaining
at destination).