Critical pull breaker location?

[BruceW]

Im planning out the low console breaker panel on a -14.
Will be using pullable breakers.
Wondering about grouping the most critical need breakers (for pulling in emergency) with a location for best visibility and access.

Ones I can think of are . . .
- Alt field (if not on panel)
- A/P & servos
-
-

What else?

 

[kiwipete]

Bruce

Trim is the most important. Needs to be obvious.

Regards Peter

 

[PilotjohnS]

trim

I placed the trim breaker right in front of the pilot reachable from the right hand. because if I have a runaway trim, I dont want to have to change hands to pull the breaker.

 

[PaulvS]

I placed those near the master and start/mag switch and used a toggle for the AP. Toggle is easier to flick quickly with either hand rather than fumble with pulling a breaker in an urgent situation.

 

[Richard Connell]

All good suggestions for breaker placement.
Having experienced runaway A/P and a failed trim system on my 7 many years ago I’d like to point out that a good way to think about both of those issues is to primarily focus on flying the airplane.
All A/Ps can be easily overridden manually while disconnecting power by whatever means. Switch or breaker. Had a breaker in my 7, a disconnect power switch in the 10.
Trim is a little more complex but I’d suggest the likelyhood of a “runaway” is vanishingly small and “most” RVs are easily flyable well out of trim. Obviously the 10 requires more strength to fly well out of trim.
So place the switches wherever you think is most convenient but the mindset shouldn’t be that a failure of either system is an imminent crisis that needs power pulled. Fly the plane first.

 

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Agreed on trim and autopilot servos. However, I'd make them toggle switch circuit breakers and put them someplace obvious, like to the far left of the panel, as long as head impact in a collision is not a factor. That could put those switches, key and master all in the same area.

As for alternator field... not sure about that. A split master will do almost as good, and if there's an electrical problem, you might find it more important to shut everything off. Alternator field can be done at your leisure.

That's my opinion... but it changes weekly...

Ed

 

[BobTurner]

My AP and trim breakers (pullable) are directly in front of the stick, surrounded by a blue box, easy to find fast.

 

[DerekS]

With the other circuit breakers

An alternate thought - try to picture an unfamiliar pilot if you ever plan to sell or share your plane

As a boy I was in the back of a plane that had a pilot that was new to the type and the trim CB popped (due to tightness in the linkage). It was located next to the yoke but obscured for this pilot. It was never located before the "landing"

The resulting nose heavy trimmed landing resulted in a porpoise, folded gear and two rebuilt engines. Lots of other things went wrong obviously, but the first link in the chain was that the pilot was not able to locate the disconnect under pressure.

To that end, I prefer to keep everything together that belongs together, and give the important things prominent places within that group.

In my case that ended up being the two bottom left most breakers in the CB panel for AP and trim (Trim got the bottom left), since I figure if I'm looking for a specific CB in an unfamiliar plane, that where I would start. Give them a prominent location, but keep them where they are quickly findable for someone looking for a CB.

A short hand travel distance may save half second on pull time for someone who knows where it is, being in the 1st place someone starts to looks could save 20 seconds.

Derek

 

[Z-EDD]

Im planning out the low console breaker panel on a -14.
Will be using pullable breakers.
Wondering about grouping the most critical need breakers (for pulling in emergency) with a location for best visibility and access.

Ones I can think of are . . .
- Alt field (if not on panel)
- A/P & servos
-
-

What else?

Put in normal/ expected location and mark the important ones. How the pros do it.
https://www.steinair.com/product/circuit-breaker-caps/

 

[BruceW]

Thanks ALL for the replies.

So important ones are A/P and trim servos.
Clustered in an easily reachable location. And well labeled.
Got it.

 

[supik]

I did the same; labeled the critical CB (pitch trim) and in front of the pilot is a 'quick action' push to disengage all trim and flaps servo motors (that's a G3X feature).

The action in case of a trim servo runaway would be:
1. Press the push the button in front of me (TRIM FLAP SERVOS: OFF) -this kills all trim servo motors at once
2. then identify and pull the respective breaker on the right side of the panel (e.g. PITCH TRIM)
3. Depress Push button (TRIM FLAP SERVOS) to re-activate the non affected servos

 

[wcalvert]

Whatever you do, keep it simple. Acknowledging the problem of searching for a specific breaker in a sea of buttons is great. Most of our system failures are non events and adding distractions (like too many breakers) can exacerbate the problem. Could you find a critical switch/cb in the dark, by feel?

My choice was (1) Alt Field cb and (2) A/P disconnect switch for trim and servos... and the A/P switch is probably non required.

The Alt Field is near the Battery switches and the A/P cb is near the A/P panel, keeping them grouped by function.

 

[David Carter]

See attached for the location of the AP & Trim breakers in my -7A. Near enough to the rest of the breakers to be in a logical location but also separated enough to be easy to find in a pinch.

 

[romaja]

Can you reach breakers on the lower console with you seat belt and shoulder harness on? something to consider when placing critical breakers.

 

[keitht]

An alternate thought - try to picture an unfamiliar pilot if you ever plan to sell or share your plane

As a boy I was in the back of a plane that had a pilot that was new to the type and the trim CB popped (due to tightness in the linkage). It was located next to the yoke but obscured for this pilot. It was never located before the "landing"

The resulting nose heavy trimmed landing resulted in a porpoise, folded gear and two rebuilt engines. Lots of other things went wrong obviously, but the first link in the chain was that the pilot was not able to locate the disconnect under pressure.

Whatever you do, keep it simple. Acknowledging the problem of searching for a specific breaker in a sea of buttons is great. Most of our system failures are non events and adding distractions (like too many breakers) can exacerbate the problem. Could you find a critical switch/cb in the dark, by feel?

My choice was (1) Alt Field cb and (2) A/P disconnect switch for trim and servos... and the A/P switch is probably non required.

The Alt Field is near the Battery switches and the A/P cb is near the A/P panel, keeping them grouped by function.

+1 on keeping it simple - as complicated as it needs to be but no more than that.
I focussed on the flow - most important from left to right.
Loss of trim is more likely based on component failure rates than trim runaway so the system is designed to minimize loss of function. I can live with full out of trim stick loads in worst case situation so no additional switches

KeithTurner

 

[rv6n6r]

KISS

My approach was to have only selected items on brakers (pullable) - the critical ones and some for convenience. They're in the single row where my switches also are. Everything else is protected by spade fuses in fuse blocks- inexpensive and more reliable than breakers. Those are on a hinged drop-down panel beneath the main panel so I can get to them in flight if needed (never had to in 1700 hrs).