First night flight and issues

[Titanium Cranium]

I took my new-to-me Waiex on the first night flight last Saturday. The first issue I noticed was low voltage indicated on my instruments (dropped below 12 volts), which I suspect may be the voltage regulator. I already have that on order and will hopefully have that installed this weekend. The other big thing that I noticed was now inadequate the landing light is that the original builder installed. I don't know what kind it is aside from it being a regular bulb, not an LED. It barely even makes the taxiway visible when slow taxiing around the airport, so it was even less effective on landing. Another big factor that affects its usefulness (or lack thereof), is that my plane was built with a landing light only on the right wing. With the Sonex/Waiex's tail low-nose high pitch attitude for landing (I have a tri-gear), that has me looking to the left of the aircraft for runway and height reference, but only a slight bit of visible light on the right side of the aircraft because the landing light is pointed up and away from the runway. That made for a less than spectacular landing. I do a lot of night flying, so I'm already looking at additional landing light options to increase my visibility to other pilots in flight and provide me with much better runway visibility on final flare.

[wlarson861]

you may need to inventory your electrical use compared to alternator output. The AeroVee alternator only produces 20 amp and to get that needs be running at higher power settings. It will not produce enough amperage idling or at taxi speed to produce full charge. The electronic ignitions use up almost 10 amp alone. With all the high draw electrical accessories on that could account for the discharged state. Check the voltage on another flight preferably daytime without the lights and see if the volts come back up after cruising for a while.

[Titanium Cranium]

I just installed a new battery a few weeks ago when I bought the plane, but I've noticed the starting power on my last couple flights (day flights until that last night flight) was reduced a bit more each time. I've known about the lower power production at idle, but I've honestly forgotten to check what the voltage was at power during cruise because I've been getting used to the plane. During the last hour of the night flight, I noticed the voltage reading on my instrument dropped a tenth of a volt regularly until I landed. I was hoping that my instrument was reading incorrectly, but when I tested the battery the following morning, it read the exact same on my voltmeter as it did on my instrument, but it didn't even have enough power to start the plane. After flying for nearly two hours, I expect the charging system should have recovered from taxi and warm-up, especially while the only extras being powered were the strobes, nav lights, and the lights on the 3 MGL Stratomaster instruments. The landing light was only on for approach, so that shouldn't have been a major power draw.

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

What age is your engine? Does it have the newer 20 amp alternator?

I easily see 14.4V+ during cruise RPM of 3100-3200 RPM.

[Titanium Cranium]

I can't say for certain which alternator my engine has. The engine is serial number 250. The original builder purchased the engine in 2006 if I remember correctly, and it only has about 60 hours on the engine. I've never seen voltage readings at 3100 RPMs above 12.4V, and that was immediately after installing the new battery. By the time I landed during the night flight, I was reading 11.4V.

[vwglenn]

Note about MGL: My Enigma has an adjustment to it. Found that out after replacing the alternator and regulator in my Jab last year. I was showing 16v at idle from my instrument but it was only putting out 12v when measured. Had to adjust the MGL settings to get it to show correctly. I don't think that's your problem but just wanted to drop that in here as an FYI.

[mike.smith]

I have a tail dragger with the landing light in the right outboard wing. I initially had it aimed in front of the aircraft. I could only see the light on the runway if I was nose down with flaps, before the round out. After that I couldn't see jack **it. So I aimed the light to the right of the nose, to illuminate the edge of the runway. With a tail dragger I have to look out the side of the canopy to land even in the daylight, so it works just fine at night, too. Would have been a little better if I had installed it in the left wing. But installing any light in any location, that shines the light toward the runway centerline, would never work for a tail dragger sonex. I imagine it's much the same even for a nose dragger.

[Titanium Cranium]

Yesterday I went to the airport expecting to install the new voltage regulator to see if that solves my charging problem. I found a whole new set of problems. I expected to loosen two bolts, switch the plugs, and re-install quickly. Instead, I found that it is impossible to get a wrench on the nuts on the inside of the firewall because they're located well above the fuel tank, and even with the control stick removed, I still couldn't squeeze my scrawny butt far enough down toward the firewall to try to get it. After screwing with it for an hour and realizing how big of a job it would be to remove the fuel tank to access the nuts, I decided to just leave the old regulator where it is and mount the new one in a different location (I was going to have to change the mount method a bit anyway as the old one had two mount points and the new style has only one).

Just a word of caution to those who are in the process of building your planes, you may want to give serious though about putting parts that are likely to be serviced every now and then in a location where it's possible to service them easily. I noticed the starter solenoid has the same issue as the regulator, so I pray that doesn't fail on me. I don't know if these parts are mounted in the recommended location as I haven't looked through the plans yet, but they're in awfully difficult locations on my plane.

[Waiex 49]

I feel your pain. Been there, done that.
The fuselage tank just always seems to be getting in the way of things.
If you ever have to remove the tank you will be inventing new curse words.
I don't care what they think in Wisconsin, If I were building a new Sonex or Waiex I'd ditch the fuselage tank and design a set of wing tanks.
.

[sonex1374]

A best practice that far too many people overlook is to only mount accessories to the firewall using nutplates. Whatever logic is used to justify regular bolts and nuts will go out the window the first time you have to remove and replace a part!

Plan for sustainability right from the start and use nutplates.

Jeff