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ADI Impressions - Long

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JVanLaak(at)aol.com
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:35 pm Post subject: ADI Impressions - Long

Listers,

 

I have been flying a Tru Track ADI for about 10 hours now and thought I  

would share my early impressions with folks.  The flying has all been VFR  

although I am an experienced IFR pilot (Ex-AF) but not current.  I should  also note 

that I bought the ADI in part because I was not comfortable relying on  the 

Dynon that I had installed 2 years ago.  The reliability issues I had  with the 

Dynon were dealt with by the company but I just never really felt like  I was 

getting the right data from the instrument.  It just did not "feel"  right, 

and having had a failure of the main ADI in bad weather in a fighter  years ago 

I wanted to address that before trying to get IFR current again.

 

So right after Christmas I bought the ADI and waited expectantly for  it to 

show up.  I say bought because my credit card was charged right away  despite 

the fact that it took over 2 months for it to be delivered.  High  demand they 

said, but it will be coming " next week."

 

It finally did come in mid March and I excitedly took it out of the box and  

hooked it up to power.  The pitch system worked but made a rubbing  sound.  

The roll function was completely inop.  Then I noticed that  the case had a 

bulge on the left side.

 

Not a happy camper I sent an email to Tru Trak immediately telling them  they 

had a quality problem.  I got a note back from the service manager  asking me 

to send it right back and they would fix it.  About 5 days later  I got an 

email indicating that one of the cards had come out of its mount and  was jammed 

in the case, binding the pitch mechanism.  Their speculation was  that it was 

jarred out by shipment, but that seems unlikely to me.   Regardless, they 

repaired the unit and sent it back express so I got it into the  plane and 

working the next weekend.

 

It is definitely different from a regular attitude indicator.  As many  of 

you know, both the pitch and roll signals come from rate sensors not a normal  

gyro platform.  So a pitch input is indicated in the normal way but the  

amplitude of the movement soon reverts to a rate of climb indication.  It  is hard 

to describe but works pretty intuitively in practice.  Likewise the  roll 

indication initially comes from a roll sensor but then if you held  knife-edge 

flight it would revert to show wings level.  But in normal  coordinated turns the 

roll sensor hands off to a yaw sensor in a nearly seamless  way and it 

operates very much like a normal attitude indicator.

 

A few of the funny things I have noticed so far.  1.  The pitch  indication 

looks extreme on departure with an RV's rate of climb.  Even my  timid 160 hp 

with fixed pitch prop does 1000 fpm and that is a BIG pitch  indication on the 

scale.  It would be easy for them to tone that down some  and that will be a 

recommendation when I get more time on it.  The  down-indication is less of a 

problem.

 

Normal under the hood flying works just fine.  In fact level turns are  

extremely easy with the vertical velocity what you are actually flying.   And the 

instantaneous pitch sensor addresses most of the lag of the traditional  VS 

indicator.

 

The roll sensor maxes out at 30 degrees and a red arrow flashes to tell you  

to roll out if you exceed that angle.  You obviously cannot do steep turns  

that way which is something of a problem.  Likewise it is unclear what  happens 

in a truly serious unusual attitude.  I will experiment at some  point but 

have not done so yet.  Finally, if you fly level and slow down  until you 

approach the stall the pitch indicator stays level and then starts to  go down as the 

sink rate increases even though the nose is way up.  The  only indication on 

the screen is a flashing "AS" for airspeed.

 

Bottom line is I think I like it and am looking forward to some serious  hood 

work to check it out.  BUT I have decided to move the Dynon to the  right 

side of the panel as a full performance back up instrument as well as an  

all-in-one instrument for guest pilots.  But it addresses the extreme  attitude 

situation and will offer a nice back up to this EXPERIMENTAL  instrument.

 

It seems to be a good addition to the homebuilt suite.  BTW, I have no  

interest in investing in the AOA function they are adding.  I am not a big  AOA fan 

(despite hundreds of hours with them) and I really don't care for this  

implementation.

 

Jim Van Laak

RV-6 N79RL

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