Hey everybody,
When I turn the alternator on in my plane, my hour meter automatically comes on and starts counting the time…thus depreciating the plane even when I’m not truly flying it. Does anyone know of a meter that can be installed that will show actual flight hours? My 172 Cessna had two meters, one that showed total time and one with actual engine hours. Anyone know if these are available? Thanks!
-Steve
Steve, we just had a air hobbs installed on our 22. Del Monte has a STC for the install and it works great. The hobbs starts at 30 knots and shuts of at landing. Well worth the $750.00…Ed
In reply to:
When I turn the alternator on in my plane, my hour meter automatically comes on and starts counting the time…thus depreciating the plane even when I’m not truly flying it. Does anyone know of a meter that can be installed that will show actual flight hours? My 172 Cessna had two meters, one that showed total time and one with actual engine hours. Anyone know if these are available? Thanks!
Steve,
There are many threads discussing this on the member’s forum. Many people have added a 2nd hour meter connected to an airswitch.
However, I personally have not done this, because I don’t quite see the point. Since every SR2x has a Hobbs meter and only a few will have tach or airswitch time, any prospective buyer of your plane will probably compare your Hobbs time to the other SR2x’s they’re investigating, rather than looking too hard at your tach/air time. At least, that’s what I would do if I were buying a used SR2x.
Similarly, for part 91, most maintenance practices are “recommended” time, not mandated. So, if you prefer to overhaul your engine at 2000 hrs tach time, you would be legal in waiting until 2200 hrs Hobbs time (for example), assuming the engine was otherwise okay. Same with oil changes, etc.
However, I believe this is a pretty popular mod so there are plenty of people who apparently disagree with me on this one.
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Similarly, for part 91, most maintenance practices are “recommended” time, not mandated.
True Steve. However, ADs are mandatory. Some aircraft have ADs that force a 500 hr or 100 hr or 50 hr inspection. Using “time in service” as the method of tracking time will eventually pay for itself if you plan to keep the plane for a while given an expensive recurrent AD.
If I understand this correctly…
Are some owners having the existing hobbs meter re-wired so that it only indicates the flight hours of the plane?
So there is no metering of anything but flight hours?
In reply to:
Using “time in service” as the method of tracking time will eventually pay for itself
and are there any other ways to track that? I have been logging flight hours in a separate paper log at the end of each flight, for the flights I forget to write it down, I use the dump from the avidyne. Is that good enough, a paper log of flight time?
In reply to:
Are some owners having the existing hobbs meter re-wired so that it only indicates the flight hours of the plane?
So there is no metering of anything but flight hours?
John,
That may be the case (I don’t know), but I’d view it as Not Recommended – why give up a valuable metric? It costs very little extra (above the cost of airspeed-related switching) to buy and install another hour meter, which is what I did.
- Mike.
Like most, I have an unused small instrument hole in the panel.
Would it make sense to install a Tach to meter the engine time into that hole??
I have been using tach time for years to make maintenance decisions… Seems like it takes into consideration the RPM’s being generated…
Furthermore it was the only basis of hours when I sold my 182… Which seemed to be the norm and certainly a non-issue.
Thoughts?