Wiiliam and Terry
I'm convinced.... I'll shove it up top.
Terry your account is a good argument for fitting an autopilot, not that
forest fires are much of a problem here in the North of England. We just
have to contend with mist, fog, and torrential rain :-(
Paul
paul@theatkinsons.demon.co.uk
On Wednesday, November 6, 2002, at 05:39 pm, Terry Seaver wrote:
> Paul,
>
> I tried temporarily mounting the antenna on top of the instrument panel
> as
> well, with the same poor results, i.e. low signal strength. It wasn't
> obvious what in the panel (below the antenna) was causing the problem.
> The GPS did work for most circumstances with the antenna in the top of
> the
> panel, but with marginal signal strength, as it turned out. Then one
> day in
> a flight over the mountains, in smoke from forest fires, it lost
> acquisition, just when I really felt the need for a GPS. The smoke from
> fires hundreds of miles away had blown to the top of the California
> Central
> Valley and collected there, making the smoke very heavy right at the
> Northern edge of the valley. I lost sight of both ground and sky for
> 5-10
> minutes. I was flying on the Navaid auto-pilot at the time, slaved to
> the
> GPS. It was just after entering the heavy smoke that the GPS crapped
> out,
> forcing me to switch the auto-pilot to wing leveler mode. I first tried
> climbing over it, hesitant to descend towards the now unseen mountains.
> At
> 11,500 feet I still couldn't see the sky. Fortunately, I had a hand
> held
> GPS backup that I was able to use to determine when I was clear of the
> mountains and able to descend low enough to regain sight of the
> ground. I
> probably could have made it without a GPS, estimating my position by
> compass
> and time, but it was comforting the have the GPS tell me when I was over
> Redding, on the floor of the valley.
>
> regards,
> Terry Seaver
>
> Paul Atkinson wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday, November 5, 2002, at 05:02 pm, Terry Seaver wrote:
>>
>>> Paul,
>>>
>>> I initially mounted the Skymap antenna in the top, inside, of the
>>> instrument panel. After losing signal on several flights, I found that
>>> the GPS did not like the antenna above the instruments/radios in the
>>> panel. I moved it to the overhead area between the doors (inside the
>>> plane) and have had no trouble since.
>>>
>>> Terry Seaver
>>> A135 / N135TD
>>>
>
>
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