I have a couple Archers that we have been leasing for years and just had a WTF moment I have never seen before and would like to share.
Archer II g500 glass panel, garmin 430/kx155 gtx345 all LED lights. Never had a lot of draw on the Ammeter. maybe 20 on start and stay around 7. The other night we rented it out to a CFI that took it to Mid Georgia and called to say the Ammeter is reading 35 constantly. He has 200 hours in the plane and is no dummy. I asked if anything else was off and he said no, it starts fine, everything is normal.
He landed at the absolute bumble F@%k airport I mean there is an FBO but it is not staffed! nobody around. ( look up KRVJ ) one old crop-duster on the line and that's it.
The alternator goes off line completely and its 11 PM at night. Next morning we dispatch with an overhauled alternator and a voltage regulator. We install them and the ammeter is reading 75 amps on start up. pretty sure its only a 60 amp alternator but it slowly goes down to 30 amps so we bring the plane home 2 hour flight no issues. The plane is rented out again and after an hour the alt goes off line again. I go to the tie down and start it, alt is online again. We remove the over voltage relay as the new regulator does not require it. Same thing happens again. I cleaned every connection on the entire system, ensured all cables were copper, but when checking the standing voltage everywhere it was 11 ish The plane started just fine. Turns out the Concord 35A battery had lost a cell as the standing voltage on a different one in the fleet was 12.8. swapped batteries and all is well in the world. Back to 7 amps running.
It is a feels like temp of 115 yesterday and today so the heat probably helped kill the battery. I am pretty sure if it was a gill battery it would of been very slow if not able to start. The new concords are great and have extra standing voltage, but if they lose a cell they still start the plane, this is the first premature loss of one to date. If you ever see your ammeter jump up for no reason if just may be the battery.
Good Luck!
Archer II g500 glass panel, garmin 430/kx155 gtx345 all LED lights. Never had a lot of draw on the Ammeter. maybe 20 on start and stay around 7. The other night we rented it out to a CFI that took it to Mid Georgia and called to say the Ammeter is reading 35 constantly. He has 200 hours in the plane and is no dummy. I asked if anything else was off and he said no, it starts fine, everything is normal.
He landed at the absolute bumble F@%k airport I mean there is an FBO but it is not staffed! nobody around. ( look up KRVJ ) one old crop-duster on the line and that's it.
The alternator goes off line completely and its 11 PM at night. Next morning we dispatch with an overhauled alternator and a voltage regulator. We install them and the ammeter is reading 75 amps on start up. pretty sure its only a 60 amp alternator but it slowly goes down to 30 amps so we bring the plane home 2 hour flight no issues. The plane is rented out again and after an hour the alt goes off line again. I go to the tie down and start it, alt is online again. We remove the over voltage relay as the new regulator does not require it. Same thing happens again. I cleaned every connection on the entire system, ensured all cables were copper, but when checking the standing voltage everywhere it was 11 ish The plane started just fine. Turns out the Concord 35A battery had lost a cell as the standing voltage on a different one in the fleet was 12.8. swapped batteries and all is well in the world. Back to 7 amps running.
It is a feels like temp of 115 yesterday and today so the heat probably helped kill the battery. I am pretty sure if it was a gill battery it would of been very slow if not able to start. The new concords are great and have extra standing voltage, but if they lose a cell they still start the plane, this is the first premature loss of one to date. If you ever see your ammeter jump up for no reason if just may be the battery.
Good Luck!
