Buggsy2
Well Known Member
This thread about a ballistic parachute for RVs got me thinking about the many ways we can add extra safety features to our Experimental aircraft. I'm starting this thread to get more ideas...maybe Paul Dye could expand this to a Kitplanes article?
- Vans A-model fixes. Anti-Splat Aero has several fixes to reduce the likelihood of the nose gear digging in, causing a tip over.
- Pros: Not hard to install or retrofit. Some testing has been done with some of the fixes.
- Cons: Several $100s for all fixes. Anecdotal field experience suggests they help but it's far from certain.
- Firewall heat resistance. This thread examined different methods of improving the firewall's resistance to heat. I choose the intumescent paint, figuring it would provide a bit of safety and wasn't hard to do or work with subsequently.
- Pros: most methods are relatively cheap and not difficult to do before the engine is mounted, and will provide a few extra minutes of time to land in case of engine fire. No moving parts to fail.
- Cons: fairly awkward to perform on a finished airplane.
- Replace aluminum heater control box with stainless steel one. Vans supplies an aluminum heater control box which mounts on the engine side of the firewall. This would presumably fail quickly in an engine fire. Aircraft Spruce sells an identical unit made from stainless steel.
- Pros: corrects an obvious weak point in fire protection for little money and no extra effort while building.
- Cons: None to speak of.
- Fire suppression system. Available from Safecraft, and a thread here, these systems offer a chance to put out the dreaded engine fire.
- Pros: available under $500, probably not very difficult to add to finished airplane.
- Cons: cost/benefit may not be as effective as other measures for what is statistically a rare event. Adds weight.
- Air bag seat belts. Amsafe sells these, they are like car air bags but mounted in the seatbelt strap.
- Pros: like in cars, protect the head and upper body in a collision and can save lives. Perhaps not difficult to retrofit to flying aircraft.
- Cons: expensive (about $1500). They are not available for E/AB aircraft. There is a bicycling airbag helmet that looks interesting but is probably not useful for GA.
- Aircraft detection. Our Mark I eyeballs are far from perfect seeing other aircraft. Flight Following can help on cross countries, but what about local flying? Devices seem to fall into two categories: detecting other planes' transponders directly (e.g. Zaon), or using ADS-B In and Out.
- Pros: Portable transponder detectors are available and a few hundred dollars. Most people say they started seeing aircraft they never would have before.
- Cons: the ADS-B In gadgets provide a very poor picture of traffic, you must have Out to get the complete picture. No gadget detects 100% of traffic.
- Make other aircraft notice you. Could include day-glo orange paint schemes, etc. but I'll stick with wig-wag lights.
- Pros: If you're already installing lights for night flight (taxi/landing), there are several add-on gadgets that wig-wag the lights, even warm up HID lights, etc. Wig-wagging the front lights is very effective for being noticed in the traffic pattern. Not expensive to add.
- Cons: Reduces lamp life, especially HIDs. May cause clicking noise on the headsets if your wiring isn't fully up to par. Doesn't help for faster aircraft approaching from behind.
- In-flight weather. For decades there was only looking outside, talking to Flight Service, and HIWAS, but now graphical weather is available during flight. There are two methods: XM satellite broadcasts and ADS-B In.
- Pros: far better idea of weather nearby and along your cross country route. Portable gadgets of either type are not expensive.
- Cons: XM requires a paid subscription. ADS-B may not be available, especially in mountainous West. Weather is several minutes old.
- Guided descent systems. Much more than the "Nearest Airport" button on GPSs, these new systems calculate the best airport to land at, taking into account terrain, wind, and runway orientation, and your plane's glide performance. Xavion makes the software and provides a $99 iPad app which shows a series of floating "hoops" to fly through to the runway threshold. Vertical Power incorporates the software in their VP-400 unit which actually flies your auto-pilot equipped airplane to the runway.
- Pros. If you already have an iPad, very cheap assistance for a common accident source: VMC flight into IMC by an unskilled pilot. The VP solution could provide a way for a non-pilot passenger to land in the event of pilot incapacitation. Fairly easy to add the iPad version to existing aircraft.
- Cons: VP solution very costly and difficult to retrofit, works only for certain autopilots (not Dynon at this writing).
- Stall warning. Our RVs and many other E/AB airplanes provide no warning of approaching stall other than the inherent feel of the airplane. Active stall warning devices are available, many in the form of visual angle-of-attack indicators and audible warnings.
- Pros: warn of stall before it happens, alerting the distracted or unobserving pilot during critical turns in the pattern. Systems available that don't require a glass panel.
- Cons: separate systems pricey. All require permanent installation and calibration.
- Fuel flow and totalizers. Fuel gages are required in all aircraft but are notorious for poor accuracy. An inline fuel flow meter + totalizer can supplement the fuel gage with a running, instantaneous measure of fuel consumed.
- Pros: provides an independent measure of fuel consumption and interesting data such as instantaneous fuel consumption and miles per gallon.
- Cons: more expense and another gizmo to fail or leak in a critical aircraft component, fuel lines. Won't directly detect a leaky fuel tank, though a sudden discrepancy between fuel gage and totalizer might alert the pilot something is wrong.
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