A week ago today I was going through preflight and turned the BATT2 switch on to do those checks. Shortly after that I started to see and smell smoke (electrical). Long story I can relate if you’d like, but it was eventually found to be the PFD by going through the different breakers and pushing them in one at a time. I was interested in knowing if anyone else has had this on the ground or in the air and to make others aware of keeping this in mind for Emergency prodedures. The Emergency checklist calls for turning the alternators and batteries off. My concern would be doing this in IMC.
I beleive Bob Anderson had this problem a year ago. Do a search in the members section and you will find it.
You really owe it to yourself to join COPA to get access to the Member’s Section. That’s where the sorts of issues you ask about are routinely discussed.
The amount of information available to you on the Member’s side will astound you. It’s well worth the $50/year.
If you go to the COPA home page you can find information on joining.
Agreeing with others- the members section has a wealth of info on this and other issues.
Where does the $50 membership go? Who is benefits from this fee? Aside from the obvious remarks about me benefitting from the info, what happens with that money? Is it a 1 time fee or annual?
after that I started to see and smell smoke (electrical). Long story I can relate if you’d like…
i, for one, would like to hear the long story.
I guess the real problem in IMC if you are forced by fire to switch off ALL the electrics is the lack of attitude indicator…doesn’t this make a change to a battery powered s/by horizon a good idea?
Annual and it goes to paying for website upkeep and goes to sponsering training classes probably as well. Well worth the money…what’s $50 anymore anyway!
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Where does the $50 membership go? Who is benefits from this fee? Aside from the obvious remarks about me benefitting from the info, what happens with that money? Is it a 1 time fee or annual?
Help us out Mr. Cooper. Fill in your bio so we know who we are addressing.
That being said . . . Damn man . . . your willing to spring for half a mil for a plane and you are questioning 50 bucks?
That being said.
When you join, you will find that this webisite is one of the most comprehensive in aviation; it ain’t cheap.
That being said and as a community, COPA sponsors various pilot proficiency courses and safety decision making seminars; that aint cheap either.
Plus, we have a great propriatary weather site and lots of free stuff, and spreadsheets, and stuff, and charts, and stuff.
Plus, there is the privilage of interacting and meeting almost 2000 of the nicest members your ever going to want to meet. Most of them are real smart too. You can even ask medical questions and legal questions, and tax questions, related to aviation of course, and stuff.
C’mon guy. That’s less than a buck a day.
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Where does the $50 membership go?
Lots of places, but here are a few (this list assumes you want to know where the money is actually spent rather than what you are going to get for your 50 bucks):
#1 – Website hosting and management, including all the sub-sites you see as clickable tabs at the left of the COPA home page.
#2 – Periodic members’ newsletter production and publication
#3 – COPA’s organization, logistics, and sponsorship of the Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program (CPPP), an FAA-approved recurrent pilot training program specifically tailored to flying the SR2X.
#4 – COPA’s organization, logistics, and sponsorship of the COPA-CDM, a critical-decision-making workshop for pilots offered FREE around the country
#5 – The annual Migration
#6 – office administration: postage, phones, accountant, IN$URANCE, etc.
#7 – COPA booths at various aviation events: Sun n’ Fun, Oshkosh, AOPA open-house, AOPA annual convention, etc.
#8 – etc. Click HERE for a partial list of the benefits membership buys.
BTW, it is an annual membership fee, not a one-time buy-in fee.
If you want a FULL-AND-DETAILED accounting, I suggest that you contact one of the board members privately (see COPA main page for contact info) and POLITELY ask for a copy of the last year’s financial statement.
In reply to:
Where does the $50 membership go? Who is benefits from this fee? Aside from the obvious remarks about me benefitting from the info, what happens with that money? Is it a 1 time fee or annual?
"mcooper’, it really is a bit of a pain for those of us to try to summarize posts on the member side that frequently run many pages long. Also, we like to have at least some idea of who you are and where your from, you know, just regular courtesy. There have plenty of registrants on the public side of the website with ulterior motives and agendas and most of us know that, so when someone posts something like you did with no information in their profile, well, you know the conclusions many people will jump to. More than likely, they are unjustified in your case, but nobody knows!
Anyway, the member’s side of this forum has at least 20 times the number of postings as the public side. It is truly like drinking from a fire hose. Not only that, but there are tons of discussions on general aviation issues that any pilot deals with like accepted ATC procedures, approach procedures, insurance questions, other aircraft, etc.
Anyway, we would love to have you join. Nobody is going to beat you over the head or chastise you about it. I know that I get more aviation related information that I can actually USE on this site than all of the aviation periodicals that I suscribe to combined.
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Damn man . . . your willing to spring for half a mil for a plane and you are questioning 50 bucks?
That is an (uncharacteristic) understatement. If the dues were $250 per year or even more, it would still be a no-brainer for me to be a member. This site has saved me thousands of hard dollars. The money savings is exceeded by the value in averted frustrations, deeper knowledge and greater enjoyment of my plane.
Jim Knollenberg SR20 1281 N814
Hmm I sometimes wonder where all those WORTHLESS acronyms come from…I might have found the source…no DOUBT sir your were in the air force:)i.e.TIETITDTREFTCOPA, FCOPA LGCOPA…
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Hmm I sometimes wonder where all those WORTHLESS acronyms come from…I might have found the source…no DOUBT sir your were in the air force:)i.e.TIETITDTREFTCOPA, FCOPA LGCOPA…
What are you calling WORTHLESS sir?
A simple cut and paste of any acronym into the “search” function will reveal it’s origin.
And then, the second insult. . . Air Force. You mean those people who need an entire runway to land?
No Way.
Navy, my good sir, train the only competent pilots.
you really should have a dermatologist look at that arm!
I guess that another problem is that the poster has not replied to any of the questions raised in the responses to this rare, important situation, if it is real…
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I guess the real problem in IMC if you are forced by fire to switch off ALL the electrics is the lack of attitude indicator…doesn’t this make a change to a battery powered s/by horizon a good idea?
Like I said…if you have smoke from the avionics and you HAVE to turn them all off…for peace of mind…fit a life saver horizon…it won’t run down for an hour…that gives even the’checklist guys’ time to run through the drills and if you can’t find the source…time to land from an IMC situation.
I’m sorry. I check on here sporadically. Plus, most people that responded seemed to be more interested that I join COPA rather than actually discussing it. The long story is…
I turned on BATT2 and started seeing and smelling smoke. I immediately turned BATT2 off. I had not finished the initial checks to turn BATT1. I called Cirrus and we discussed the things that were on that BUS. So item 1 from this experience is to get to know your electrical/BUS systems better. It seems stupid to state, but it IS an all electric airplane. After flipping the BATT2 switch on at the request from the Cirrus rep, I didn’t see smoke again, but after about 10 seconds I started to smell the smell of something electrical burning. At that point we got authority for a non-Cirrus certified A&P to do some work on it since Durango didn’t have one. He pulled all the breakers related to BATT2 and with the BATT2 power on pushed 1 in at a time and waited a minute or two to see if he smelled anything. The last one he did was the PFD/HSI. When he did that one he smelled it. He turned things off again and he unscrewed the PFD and pulled it partially out. When he turned BATT2 on again we got lots of sparks and smoke. There was some concern that it may have been a problem further down the line causing this, but Cirrus said it was highly unlikely. So they overnighted a new PFD and we flew back home uneventfully.
As I mentioned in my original post, one of the things I immediately started reviewing/refreshing myself on was the procedures for something like this happening in the air and it was to basically turn all the electric power off. I guess that’s when the chute would come in handy, but I personally think that it seems to be a gap in their design since in essence this was a problem that given enough time you could solve. Turning all electrical off in IMC isn’t going to give you that time.
Hey, I’m a Dermatologist; I take off tattoos,( and treat rashes around them) I have a cirrus, but I’m not licensed or insured for internet questions. i am currently licensed and insured in New Mexico; licensed in California and Arizona, and inactive in New York, Missouri, and Illinois. So, I can take a look at any skin problem anywhere, but can only give an opinion about it in New Mexico…
yes. but if you have done your transition training you prep for PFD/MFD failure and consequences. You have a backup 3 pack, 2 garmin 430’s, and an autopilot with which you could shoot a non-precision GPS approach.