L3 Standby Artificial Horizon
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L3 Standby Artificial Horizon
I've been looking at having one of these installed to go along side the rest of the glass just incase it all goes black one night in bad weather.!
Have done some reading up on it and looks like a good piece of kit, has anyone had any experience in the use of these units. They are v. expensive but seem to be worth it.? Work out about $15k just for the unit.
Main feature is it's own battery will keep it going for about 3-4hrs, so in the event of a gen failure or something it will be your best buddy.....
Have done some reading up on it and looks like a good piece of kit, has anyone had any experience in the use of these units. They are v. expensive but seem to be worth it.? Work out about $15k just for the unit.
Main feature is it's own battery will keep it going for about 3-4hrs, so in the event of a gen failure or something it will be your best buddy.....
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An AHRS doesn't know which way is up or down. Aspen and Garmin deal with this by introducing airdata or the GPS flight trajectory. The L3 might do the same, or perhaps they have another solution, but this needs to be checked because it may not be in the small print. I know the KFD840 has had (and I think still has) major cert problems because of this. The Sandel SG-102 won't do an air start and cannot be certified as a primary horizon for that reason.
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a/c is a single engine turboprop, i had a gen failure in it last summer and it made me think that if the battery went dead then you would really need something to get you down especially if you had no immediate diversion.
I have other sby gear but it's either electric or vac driven meaning if you lost the main battery these wouldn't work either.
I have other sby gear but it's either electric or vac driven meaning if you lost the main battery these wouldn't work either.
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I used to work for L3, please buy one as it will help the share price.... once i had enough shares to buy a house, now i can bearly buy a pizza.
Done a little night flying, enough to know that i'd want backups! (two torches minimum)
Done a little night flying, enough to know that i'd want backups! (two torches minimum)
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I don't know enough to be able to offer an opinion on this product, but I think a second alternator driving an electric horizon is going to cost much less and work just as well. $15k (plus installation and paperwork I assume) is a lot of money.
A single engine plane with two alternators, two buses, two batteries even (like the cessna 400) can achieve superb redundancy by powering e.g. a horizon from both buses via two diodes, so either bus will power the item.
If the engine stops, you are going down anyway, but you have battery power.
L3 are not a major player and may get bought (and shut down) by Garmin.
A single engine plane with two alternators, two buses, two batteries even (like the cessna 400) can achieve superb redundancy by powering e.g. a horizon from both buses via two diodes, so either bus will power the item.
If the engine stops, you are going down anyway, but you have battery power.
L3 are not a major player and may get bought (and shut down) by Garmin.
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I have other sby gear but it's either electric or vac driven meaning if you lost the main battery these wouldn't work either.
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Slightly off topic but might be of some interest to some:
We're going to replace our AI/DI with something like an Aspen Pro 1000 PFD. The advantage of this is that it give an "electric" horizon but also retains the vacuum horizon as backup - so now two sources of gyro. It also replaces the DI with effectively an EHSI.
We're going to replace our AI/DI with something like an Aspen Pro 1000 PFD. The advantage of this is that it give an "electric" horizon but also retains the vacuum horizon as backup - so now two sources of gyro. It also replaces the DI with effectively an EHSI.
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L3 are not a major player and may get bought (and shut down) by Garmin.
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OK, but Honeywell are a big company too yet they have washed their hands of GA avionics some years ago, which makes their current products (all ~ two of them 
) a very high risk purchase.
) a very high risk purchase.
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sorry to hear that you guy's were made redundant. I heard that L3 made a lot of the military stuff too?.
I0540. saying that the traditional sby stuff would work just as well is fine but how much easier is it to look at one instrument which will also be lit should it be at night. This instrument will give airspeed, vs, and ah info....should this fail then have another ah that drives the weather radar though it's hard to keep your head on that side of the panel!
But it's expensive like you say......i'll post a pick on here when the install is finished.!
I0540. saying that the traditional sby stuff would work just as well is fine but how much easier is it to look at one instrument which will also be lit should it be at night. This instrument will give airspeed, vs, and ah info....should this fail then have another ah that drives the weather radar though it's hard to keep your head on that side of the panel!
But it's expensive like you say......i'll post a pick on here when the install is finished.!
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yes a/c is n reg. There are two types of a/h that l3 do one is about $60k and one is around the $15k mark.
Got the quote from the factory where we bought the aircraft if you want more info then pm me.
Got the quote from the factory where we bought the aircraft if you want more info then pm me.
