Hi Kevin & all,
The Trutrack A/P that I have does have an internal magnetometer as well as
taking a GPS track. Unfortunately the 2.25 ADI I have does not, it only has
GPS track. I installed the ADI as a back up to my glass, it gives me GPS
track, horizon and VSI. Many people think due to the nature of the display
that it is pitch, but it isn't. The ADI is far from perfect, but I found
that I could fly an approach with it under the hood, so I guess it was good
enough. If might be a different story in turbulence and pelting rain.
With that said, given that I wanted some type of completely separate device
to back my glass up it was the best choice available at the time. Although
it would have been cheaper I didn't really want a pair of glass panels with
separate ADHS systems because I wanted to rule out the possibility of the
same software bug occurring on both devices ( yes that is paranoia at is
best ), I guess I have just written too much software in my past life to be
that trusting. Also, to give good redundancy I would have needed dual pitot
static systems as well.
In summary, I really like the approach that Frans has taken, it simple, and
proven. Sure, like everything else there are a bunch of things that could
go wrong, but part of the exercise of engineering a system for our aircraft
is to assume that something will fail and have something in your panel that
will accommodate this failure.
BTW, Frans, I thought of doing something similar but decided designing a
three phase inverter was too hard, which is a very sad commentary on me
given my past life in Electronic Engineering. Kudos to you !
Cheers, Paul
|