Grizz
Grizz
Experience can be a good teacher. Bad experiences, if survived, can be an even better teacher. The recent 'Blower Thread' struck a nerve, a reminder of a bad experience...which was survived.
1st mistake: the battery selector switch was set to 'Both' without anyone's knowledge.
2nd mistake: the blower was inadvertanly turned on for who-knows-how-long, running quietly enough that no one in the cockpit or cabin heard it running. So it was draining both batteries equally (see '1st mistake' listed previoiusly).
When it came time for our 2 AM Engine Start (a dual purpose activity, serving as a great alarm for the off-watch to wake up and to recharge the battery, 'singular' used intentionally), the tell-tale 'click-click-click-click' of the starter was not a happy sound. A worse sound, after calling for the switch to Battery #2, was "that's not going to do us any good" (see '1st mistake' listed previoiusly). Uh oh...
As foreshadowed, we survived, after a creative MacGyver jumpstart combining of the 2 batteries, just sufficient enough to get the Universal started. Whew!
Take Away and Fixes: future night runs use 1 battery only, with verbal confirmation between watches of either #1 or #2 in use. Make the use of the Blower obvious with an 'Idiot Light', using a red LED light pigtailed off the Blower Switch, mounted in the 'O' of a Blower label glued to the engine panel, to serve as a visual alert that the Blower is, in fact, running.
This was a cheap fix that is only 'Idiot Resistant' (nothing is idiot proof IMHO) that will help avoid a repeat of this 'dead batteries, won't start gut wrencher'.
Apologies for the huge picture, it's how it appeared after the 'drag and drop' with the 'Add Attachment' option.
1st mistake: the battery selector switch was set to 'Both' without anyone's knowledge.
2nd mistake: the blower was inadvertanly turned on for who-knows-how-long, running quietly enough that no one in the cockpit or cabin heard it running. So it was draining both batteries equally (see '1st mistake' listed previoiusly).
When it came time for our 2 AM Engine Start (a dual purpose activity, serving as a great alarm for the off-watch to wake up and to recharge the battery, 'singular' used intentionally), the tell-tale 'click-click-click-click' of the starter was not a happy sound. A worse sound, after calling for the switch to Battery #2, was "that's not going to do us any good" (see '1st mistake' listed previoiusly). Uh oh...
As foreshadowed, we survived, after a creative MacGyver jumpstart combining of the 2 batteries, just sufficient enough to get the Universal started. Whew!
Take Away and Fixes: future night runs use 1 battery only, with verbal confirmation between watches of either #1 or #2 in use. Make the use of the Blower obvious with an 'Idiot Light', using a red LED light pigtailed off the Blower Switch, mounted in the 'O' of a Blower label glued to the engine panel, to serve as a visual alert that the Blower is, in fact, running.
This was a cheap fix that is only 'Idiot Resistant' (nothing is idiot proof IMHO) that will help avoid a repeat of this 'dead batteries, won't start gut wrencher'.
Apologies for the huge picture, it's how it appeared after the 'drag and drop' with the 'Add Attachment' option.
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