Success With The AP

I went out this morning and made some changes to the roll axis settings in the AP set-up.  I changed the roll sensitivity value from 22 to 5.  I changed the roll gain value from 2.4 to 1.5.  Success!!  I took off and flew south and then east over Sandy and Draper.  After reaching an altitude of 5800’ I engaged the AP in TRAK+ALT.  It flew and maintained the course and there was no ROLL SLIP message,  Hurray!!  I flew for 0.6 hours and it worked perfectly.  I am very pleased with the performance.

Flight Tune Auto Pilot

Today I went flying to ‘flight tune’ the AP.  Since downloading and installing the Version 11 SkyView update from Vans along with the AP presets on the Vans download site I have been having an AP problem.  When I engage the AP I get a ROLL SLIP message.  Normally that means the servo does not have enough force to control the flaperons.  It only occurs when I am flying straight and level.  That is when the least amount of force is required.  When in a turn the roll servo functions correctly, but when the airplane rolls out of the turn and returns to straight and level flight the ROLL SLIP message returns.  It is only displayed momentarily then goes out, only to return for a few seconds over and over again.  I went through the AP ‘flight tune’ process and it turns, climbs or descends and holds  altitude but I continually get the ROLL SLIP message when AP is on and I have selected TRK+ALT or HSI+ALT.  I have checked on the Dynon Forum and I think I will return to the airport and adjust the roll axis settings.  I am going to reduce the roll sensitivity and see if that takes care of it.  Right now the sensitivity is set at 20+.  I will reduce it to 5 and see what happens.  If that does not correct the problem I will take some screen shots of the settings and of the ROLL SLIP message screen and send them to Dynon.  While flying today out over the west desert I took some photos as I neared the Salt Flats.

Reinstalled Control Module

Today I reinstalled the control module (AV5000) and reinstalled the upper fuselage skin.  I pulled the airplane out onto the apron.  I went into the menu on the SL-40 and adjusted the value of the sidetone to 100.  It was originally at 0.  The highest value to which it can be set is 255.  There was no change to the whine in the headset.  At 4:00 pm Arlene and I went up flying for almost an hour.  It was a good time.  We flew over Sandy and Draper, over the Sun Crest area and into Utah Valley.  We went out over Utah Lake then turned and came back to the Salt Lake Valley.  I turned on the auto-pilot to see how it functions with the newly installed AP presets from Vans.  I am going to need to spend some time in the air “re-tuning” the AP.  It is pretty twitchy in the turns and it wanders a bit on the altitude hold.  Otherwise we had a great time.  This is the first time Arlene has flown with me since the time she went up following the 5 hour flyoff.

Answer From Vans

I received an email from Ken Scott.  He says the serial number on the AV5000 indicates it is well outside of the range of problem units.  Ken says the whine is not a problem with the control module. 

That is not good news.  He also said one of the other techs said it could be the sidetone on the SL-40.  If the sidetone value is too low the mic will pick-up the engine sound in the cockpit and cause a whine.  I will go to the airport and try increasing the sidetone on the radio to see if that helps.

Radio Whine Problems Explored

For the past couple of months I have had a problem with a whine on the radio.  It became more apparent over the last few weeks as I have attempted to play music over the intercom.  I have contacted Vans in the past with little response.  Yesterday I sent the following to Vans Tech Support:

Date sent:           Wed, 12 Nov 2014 10:41:57 -0700

Subject:               Radio Whine

I have a whine on the pilot and co-pilot headsets.  I am using

Lightspeed Sierra ANR headsets for both.  The whine becomes worse with increased RPMs.

If I turn the volume down on the headsets so the whine is not

bothersome and I turn up the volume on the radio (Garmin SL-40) I can

hear radio communications.  However, at that point I cannot hear the

SkyView annunciations.  If I turn the volume up on the headsets to

hear the SkyView announcements the whine is back. 

I have checked the ground on the headsets, the ground on the radio and

the ground on the engine to the airframe.  All are good.  I have even

added a wire connecting the intercom case, the radio case and the

SkyView case as suggested on a Dynon forum.  Nothing so far has

worked.  Do you have any suggestions as to how to increase volume on

the SkyView or eliminate the whine altogether?

Thanks for your help,

Sam Jespersen

120347

N419AJ

Ken Scott responded with:

This may be the result of a known problem...but we'll need the serial number on your AV5000 "box" to know for sure...

Today I went to the hangar and started to take the airplane apart one more time.  I removed the upper fuselage skin.  I have discovered I can remove the skin without completely removing the canopy.  That is a good thing.  I removed the AV5000A and recorded the serial number.  I also took a photo of the label and sent it to Ken.  I am waiting for a reply.  I left the upper fuselage cover off for now and covered the area with plastic.  With the cold weather it is possible to have some interior condensation rain and I would hate for some moisture to get into the instrument area.