Flashers seen at lake Elmo Airport

Saturday 04/25/10:

Sort of one of those "Man bites Dog" titles...

Well, the flashers were the strobes on the Apache. One of the strobes quit working. Knowing that the two are wired together from the same 12V supply via a breaker-switch, I figured the problem was the high voltage power supply (located in the wing) or the bulb itself and ordered one of each.

Just to make sure I wasn't going to extra work, I decided to measure the voltage to the power supply. It was a puzzling reading. Not zero, but not 12V, and wandering all over the place. To test the strobe, we supplied 12V right to the high voltage supply for the inop strobe, and it worked fine.

Hmmm... okay. It's NOT the power supply or bulb, but something in the wiring. I figured it was a bad splice, and replaced connectors I could find in the wing that looked ratty. I got 12V out, and though all was well. I plugged it back in, and... it didn't work! The same wonky voltage problem appeared again.

So, with some help with Jeff Hove and Patrick, we tried a few other things. We disconnected the right strobe, and plugged in the left strobe. It worked. We tried the opposite, and the opposite strobe worked. We tried both, and only the right strobe works. Clearly it can't power both strobes.

I suspect a bad breaker-switch. To get to the switch and jumper across it to verify the problem, a bunch of stuff has to be taken out, so I figure I'll have another switch on hand to replace it if it's bad.

I have one other hunch that I'm going to investigate. The instrument panel dimmer rheostat is right near where the strobe switch is. Is there any chance that when the radios were redone they accidentally hooked the strobe supply to the output? It would act very strange if not in the "full on" position, and wouldn't be something a person would notice right away. I'll check that out before I rip things apart.

There are no easy days in aircraft repair! :-)

_Paul

N3N Spring Dust Off

4/30/10: Jim Anderson and I went up and fired up the N3N-3 for the season. It's currently up at Osceola, WI (KOEO, where it enjoyed a nice temperature controlled winter in a fabulous hangar. The airplane fired within the first few seconds, and purred like a kitten. After the initial smoke cloud had passed and things warmed up, I taxied it around and did a run-up. It will be ready to fly here shortly. We'll likely reposition the aircraft down at Lake Elmo, MN (21D) within the next few weeks.

Welcome to the Elmo AFB blog

What is the Elmo AFB, and why should you care? Well now, that's an excellent question.

This is a blog about a strange group of individuals who share a common interest in airplanes. Not just looking at them, but restoring, flying, and fixing them. "Elmo" stands for Lake Elmo Airport, located in Lake Elmo, MN (21D), and the "AFB" stands for "Airplanes From Basement", which is where a few of the restored aircraft that are now flying actually came from!

In any event, I thought it might be fun to blog on the various happenings of this quirky group of airplane nuts that love airplanes. I hope you enjoy it!

Regards,

Paul J. Anderson
Marine on St. Croix, MN