New Product – Flush Fit Fuel Sender Pocket

by admin on March 27, 2012

Hi All!  This is a new post and it’s been a long time coming.  I’ve been busy working away over the last year on our new Velocity SERG Kit Airplane.  If that weren’t enough, my wife and I had twins about a month back: Dexter and Lily.  They are indeed a handful but totally worth it! :)

Anyway, I wanted to do a quick product announcement.  I wasn’t happy with how the fuel sending units in the Velocity stuck to the side of the fuselage into the tank.  I thought it would be nearly impossible to get them covered up.  Never mind that, they just didn’t look right “sticking” to the side of the fuselage.

What I did was come up with a sending unit “pocket” that allows you to essentially recess the sending unit into the fuselage.

Velocity Fuel Sender Pocket

I think this makes the sending unit installation a lot cleaner and it will be easier to hide when it comes time to finish out the interior.

I made a mold for this particular part and would love to make it available to the composite community.  In particular, I know this pocket will work for the Velocity builders as it will fit a sending unit with a diameter of 2 5/8 inches.  I believe this is pretty standard, but I’m not sure.

I’m gauging interest in this at the moment.  I’m not sure what the demand is, so I’m a little unsure about pricing, but if you’re interested in one, please send email to me.Installation holeSender pocket mold

 

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Dynon SkyView – Why it’s important to get your compass calibrated accurately!

by admin on August 12, 2011

Yes, Sparky, Precision Does Matter!

When I first installed the Dynon SkyView system in SkyGadget’s demonstrator airplane, affectionately known as “Whister” I really wasn’t overly concerned about getting the compass configuration right.  It’s not that I’m lazy but it’s really about the Glastar being notoriously filled with magnetized metal.  I further rationalized my indifference by convincing myself that as a mostly day/VFR pilot I didn’t really need a “laser precise” compass reading.  Yes, I’m a product of the GPS generation, I admit it!  So with the install done, it’s time to take to the air.

Glastar

It was a while before I noticed it.  While on a long cross country flight and with winds at the surface essentially calm I was shocked to see winds aloft (maybe 3000′ MSL) being calculated at 30 knots!  What the *****?  Surly this was caused by some software engineering oversight, a misplaced decimal, the wrong trig function or an over worked engineer on a marathon coding session!  It turned out that the magnetometer, which is located inside the ADAHRS, was subject to significant magnetic interference due to location of the ADAHRS in my airframe.

But How Much Difference Could it Really Make?

To answer this question, let’s break out our trusty E6B calculator.  Blow off the dust and spin the wheel around a few times to get it warmed up.  Let’s first look at calculation where your heading matches your ground track and your ground speed matches your true airspeed.

Given:

Your heading is 90 degrees, your ground track is 90 degrees, your ground speed is 100 knots and your TAS is 100 knots

You get:

A wind direction of 90 degrees with a magnitude of 0 knots.

No surprises there.  So let’s take a case where your compass, or in this case your SkyView system, is 10 degrees off calibration.

Given:

Your heading is *100 degrees, your track is 90 degrees, your ground speed is 100 knots and your TAS is 100 knots

*100 degrees: important to note that the meteorological conditions have not changed, but rather I’ve introduced a 10 degree calibration error.

You get:

A wind direction of 185 degrees and a wind speed of 17 knots.  WHAT?

This was really surprising to me but it makes total sense if you hop in the “Way-Back” machine and remember a little bit of trig from high school.  Effectively with a bad calibration you render a very nice feature of the SkyView system almost completely useless!

For next time, I’ll talk a little bit about techniques you can use to help eliminate compass calibration issues but for now know this: it’s worth the extra effort to get the SkyView ADAHRS in a location that is magnetic free and calibrated with care.

Tail winds,

Peter

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Sky Gadgets goes behind the Curtain at the Dynon Factory in Woodinville Washington

October 27, 2010

I have to admit, even before visiting the Dynon factory, I was already a big fan of the company.  My understanding before my visit was that Dynon is organized around the principle of delivering a ton of value at a reasonable price.  This understanding was reinforced after spending an hour or so roaming around the [...]

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Spider Tracks: A Wife’s Perspective

September 19, 2010

If you love a pilot, you know how it feels when they are in the air. Usually you don’t give it a second thought, but every now and again something will trigger that all too familiar feeling, ‘I wonder if everything is ok.’ Now you don’t have to wait until he lands to get the [...]

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First Flight of the Spider Tracks System

September 18, 2010

Hi All! I know this blog is still a little rough around the edges but I wanted to get this out fast!  SkyGadgets.com just received a demo unit of Spider Tracks new aviation tracking system.  Without repeating verbatim the product literature, you can see that here and here, here’s a brief overview: Spider Tracks System [...]

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