niente qui

I use mogas to refill my compasses--
With mystery oil added, of course.

Boy, this thread is really starting to suck.....

MTV

Vac chambers are cheap (<100 with pump and chamber). They become indispensible for cleaning parts (sonicate with alcohol, put in chamber, voila- dry and squeaky clean), adhesives and rubber degassing, home roasted coffee degassing, composite layups, and, obviously, whiskey compass filling.

If you have the interest and a somewhat more substantial investment in eqhipment and knowledge, you can perform sputtering and vapor deposition for countless projects.

But for filling things completely, it isn't a big deal. Look on Amazon or eBay. No grease required. No glass bell jar required.

In any case, you will find more pedestrian uses for them if you have one. Run your iPhone through the wash? No problem. A few hours or overnight in the chamber and it will be brought back to life. I've done this literally over a dozen times with various persons' phones. Small layup to fix something with fiberglass? A silicone mat and the vac pump will make a professional finish. Hail damage? Several clever approaches make quick use of a vac pump. Liquid nitrogen tank lose its vacuum? You can suck it back down to near original vacuum with a cheap new check seal faster than going to the welding shop for more emergency LN2.

YMMV.

I bet MTV's ears have popped by now. (Sorry Mike couldn't resist).

Gary

Yep, waaaaaay too much information. Now I understand why I don’t own one.......never had any even slight inclination to do any of that shit.

When do you people find time to fly, for Christ’s sake?

MTV

Who uses a compass anymore when everyone has an iphone?

When I was building time in my Cub, I’d get set up on my heading using Foreflight, then keep the compass on the indicated heading between points. Kept me from burning up the phone battery quick and more intutitive than following the purple line.

I had two planes with a remote compass...transmitter in the outboard wing and vertical card display. Seemed to work well but maybe they're no longer favored. In reality Alaska and Canada are favored with enough terrain and surface features to make VFR pilotage easy once learned.

The compass correction card in my Taylorcraft has long since lost its numbers but the compass is current with adjustments.

Gary

PA1195 wrote:I had two planes with a remote compass...transmitter in the outboard wing and vertical card display. Seemed to work well but maybe they're no longer favored. In reality Alaska and Canada are favored with enough terrain and surface features to make VFR pilotage easy once learned.

The compass correction card in my Taylorcraft has long since lost its numbers but the compass is current with adjustments.

Gary

So, Gary, you don't recall the Slope the Y/K Delta and/or the Yukon Flats in 3 mile vis????

MTV

mtv wrote:

PA1195 wrote:I had two planes with a remote compass...transmitter in the outboard wing and vertical card display. Seemed to work well but maybe they're no longer favored. In reality Alaska and Canada are favored with enough terrain and surface features to make VFR pilotage easy once learned.
Gary

So, Gary, you don't recall the Slope the Y/K Delta and/or the Yukon Flats in 3 mile vis????

MTV

Well Mike there are exceptions to comfortable VFR but I felt and still feel 500 and 3 is good VFR in level terrain providing snow showers or fog don't intervene. In terrain I like a higher ceiling. What I (we?) learned in pre-GPS or in compass error prone areas like the Slope was pilotage...time, distance, and terrain ref to a chart. Waterways and lakes have provide positional awareness once the practice is learned and maintained.

Many of the areas I flew were obviously for the first time so that added yet another layer of concern and the need for flight following with chart in hand. Locals knew the terrain; I often did not. Still the planes I did that in had a compass (maybe calibrated maybe not), maybe DG, and a couple even had a remote compass. Any navaids were limited to NDB positioning from one or more stations. Remember that goat rope?

Never flew for F&G over 21 years successfully with an onboard aid like Loran (that rarely worked anyway on mainland Alaska when operational due to poor lines of position between Master and Slave stations) or even GPS. Never got too lost as I knew my and my passenger's ass depended on my ability to fly via pilotage. The fuel onboard was all there was to be had and time spent dithering about while lost was unacceptable.

Now in 1979 when I flew a C-185 back from the factory to Fairbanks over lots of flat first time seen land I came to appreciate the use of a compass and VOR's. As soon as terrain permitted I was comfortable again. So I guess it depends on where and how we learn to fly that emphasizes what onboard gadgets are important.

Edit: I also owned and carried an E6-B Prayer Wheel. Never used the wind disc gizmo but did use the rotating slide rule side quite a bit to plan and monitor flight if there was time.

Gary

I worked a compass over once--
bought the kit with new gasket(s?) & fluid.
It had fluid, but it was murky-
the fluid turned out to be OK, the problem was a dirty-on-the-inside glass lens.
Reassembly was easy-
no trouble getting it full of fluid (no air), and no gasket leaks.
It was pretty apparent what to do, I was surprised that someone asked about instructions.

hotrod180 wrote:I was surprised that someone asked about instructions.

I like to do a little research before diving into a project.

A1Skinner wrote:

DeltaRomeo wrote:Buy a vertical card compass and you will never get leaked on again.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/vertcard_compass3.php

Yes, it's more expensive but whiskey compasses will leak from more places than the gaskets. And nobody likes wearing the compass fluid on a long cross country. Just think of it as the opportunity to upgrade to a better device.

I have had terrible luck with VC compasses. Nothing internally to take any shock or vibration. The S.I.R.S. looks like the way to go, and will be going in my 206. If I had a good whiskey compass I'd just rebuild it and use it. I've not had much trouble with them leaking all over me.

I've had PAI-700 VC compasses in the last three aircraft I've owned, and had excellent performance from all of them. However, the very first one I had would sometimes "stick" on a heading, not moving or bouncing around. (This also made it very difficult to accurately "swing" the compass.) I thought it was 'worn out' from all the bouncing and vibration, so I spoke to the folks at Precision (who make the PAI-700) about it. They immediately asked about the mount I was using. Turns out it was the wrong one for my airplane, and that it was completely worn out because of improper installation. In effect, my VCC was "hard mounted" to the windshield mount, like you would mount a SIRS or "whiskey" compass. This is NOT correct for the PAI-700, which needs to have a "cushioned" mount (special density foam in compression) that allows the compass to move a little bit, but dampens out the vibrations from the airframe and engine. The reason my compass would 'stick' occasionally is that it was unable to move freely (jiggle), which prevented the geared mechanism from working as designed. Turns out the Precision PAI-700 (and probably the other VCCs which work on the same principles) are REALLY tough internally, and highly resistant to vibration and shocks. Enough so that if you don't have the right mount that allows controlled movement, they will NOT work correctly!

Since that first airplane, I've encountered several other owners who had a VCC that "just didn't work right". In each case, when I looked at their mount, it was NOT the recommended mount for their airplane, and when the mount was replaced with the recommended one, they found the VCC was amazingly good. If you've got a VCC and don't like the way it behaves, you may want to talk to them about the mount for your particular airplane. (By the way, they send you to Aircraft Spruce to purchase the mount... They apparently stock them all.)

JP256 wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:

DeltaRomeo wrote:Buy a vertical card compass and you will never get leaked on again.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/vertcard_compass3.php

Yes, it's more expensive but whiskey compasses will leak from more places than the gaskets. And nobody likes wearing the compass fluid on a long cross country. Just think of it as the opportunity to upgrade to a better device.

I have had terrible luck with VC compasses. Nothing internally to take any shock or vibration. The S.I.R.S. looks like the way to go, and will be going in my 206. If I had a good whiskey compass I'd just rebuild it and use it. I've not had much trouble with them leaking all over me.

I've had PAI-700 VC compasses in the last three aircraft I've owned, and had excellent performance from all of them. However, the very first one I had would sometimes "stick" on a heading, not moving or bouncing around. (This also made it very difficult to accurately "swing" the compass.) I thought it was 'worn out' from all the bouncing and vibration, so I spoke to the folks at Precision (who make the PAI-700) about it. They immediately asked about the mount I was using. Turns out it was the wrong one for my airplane, and that it was completely worn out because of improper installation. In effect, my VCC was "hard mounted" to the windshield mount, like you would mount a SIRS or "whiskey" compass. This is NOT correct for the PAI-700, which needs to have a "cushioned" mount (special density foam in compression) that allows the compass to move a little bit, but dampens out the vibrations from the airframe and engine. The reason my compass would 'stick' occasionally is that it was unable to move freely (jiggle), which prevented the geared mechanism from working as designed. Turns out the Precision PAI-700 (and probably the other VCCs which work on the same principles) are REALLY tough internally, and highly resistant to vibration and shocks. Enough so that if you don't have the right mount that allows controlled movement, they will NOT work correctly!

Since that first airplane, I've encountered several other owners who had a VCC that "just didn't work right". In each case, when I looked at their mount, it was NOT the recommended mount for their airplane, and when the mount was replaced with the recommended one, they found the VCC was amazingly good. If you've got a VCC and don't like the way it behaves, you may want to talk to them about the mount for your particular airplane. (By the way, they send you to Aircraft Spruce to purchase the mount... They apparently stock them all.)

Interesting. I've talked with a couple different avionics shops that wont even sell VCCs because of ho unreliable they are. Seems I'm not the only one that has problems that stem from more then just a mounting issue. If they work good for you then great, but personally I'll stay away.

I'm also a SIRS compass fan, and I made that decision when I'd have to reswing my OEM Airpath about every other month, based on--wait for it--Mike's recommendations on this site! That was several years ago, and I haven't had to reswing my compass since first swinging it right after my IA installed it. It's amazingly accurate, and unlike the Airpaths I've flown with over the years, its card doesn't bounce around much in turbulence--different sort of fluid in it. The only time it becomes inaccurate is when I turn on the pitot heat or AOA probe heat, which offsets it about 10 degrees--too much magnetic influence with the high power drain, apparently, so I created 2 compass correction cards.

A couple of interesting if totally unimportant facts: Airbus installs SIRS compasses in all of their airliners; and a new SIRS costs only $30 more than a new Airpath and about $90 less than a VCC.

Cary

https://aircraftspruce.com/pages/to/han ... nsator.php

These have worked for around 170 years, if so inclined. They're also broadly referred to as binnacles.

lesuther wrote:https://aircraftspruce.com/pages/to/hand_compass/compensator.php

These have worked for around 170 years, if so inclined. They're also broadly referred to as binnacles.

I didn’t think it was possible to have balanced balls?

akgreg wrote:

lesuther wrote:https://aircraftspruce.com/pages/to/hand_compass/compensator.php

These have worked for around 170 years, if so inclined. They're also broadly referred to as binnacles.

I didn’t think it was possible to have balanced balls?

Luckily for you, there is Basic Med.