Compass Recommendations Cherokee 140

CC268

CC268

Final Approach
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CC268
Well like a real idiot I hit the compass while cleaning the windshield and it broke the brittle plastic. I’m just gonna fix the mount so I can fly in the meantime, but with the plastic being so brittle on this thing it might be time to order something else to replace it with.

Any recommendations? This one is nice as it is lighted up with my panel at night.

Just another day in the life of broken airplane parts
 

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SIRS makes a good compass. Once around the compass rose to swing it and I think the largest deviation is 2 degrees. Most were 1 degree or less. I basically ignore the compass correction card.
 
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Clark1961 said:
SIRS makes a good compass. Once around the compass rose to swing it and I think the largest deviation is 2 degrees. Most were 1 degree or less. I basically ignore the compass card.
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That does look nice
 
CC268 said:
That does look nice
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Lower cost compasses are available. OTOH I have no problem/concerns flying a compass heading like I did with the unit it replaced which was the original. That thing was always off 10 degrees.
 
Whatever you do, skip the vertical card compass. Expensive and failure prone, compared to the liquid equivalents. If you have a GPS, you're not going to be doing a lot of staring at a mag compass, even if you do loose your vacuum instruments.
 
Brad Z said:
Whatever you do, skip the vertical card compass. Expensive and failure prone, compared to the liquid equivalents. If you have a GPS, you're not going to be doing a lot of staring at a mag compass, even if you do loose your vacuum instruments.
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I was going to say to get a vertical card.

Not that much more and I'm not sure what y'all are doing to them but I've never had one fail and you'll also see them in all the higher end stuff. If you ever do have to use it, nice to have something easier to use.


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http://m.aircraftspruce.com/catalog...MImZWht7DK1gIVR2V-Ch1AkA5REAQYASABEgJU0PD_BwE
 
James331 said:
Yeah, my 185 had one when I got it, works great
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Consider yourself blessed. They can be sensitive to vibration in certain airplanes, causing the indicator to bounce around. Many 182 owners report problems with them, mine included. When I bought my 182 it had problems, which I replaced with another that did the same. I did a prop balance which didn't seem to fix it either. I had problems with them when I was a mx manager in my previous flying club. Perhaps I am really unlucky. Either way less moving parts (only one in a whiskey compass) is preferable to more (there's a bunch in a VCC). YMMV.
 
Compass- a relic still required by the FAA and generally ignored by pilots in lieu of much better GPS-based navigation tools.
 
Stewartb said:
Compass- a relic still required by the FAA and generally ignored by pilots in lieu of much better GPS-based navigation tools.
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Based on how important knowing where you're going is, I'm happy to have my little compass to glance at occasionally verifying all my tech goodies are in good working order.

And straight GPS is going to give you track, not heading, unless it has a heading input, again nice to have something to compare against
 
My PAI-700 vertical card compass failed with less than 100 hours on it. Precision Aviation, Inc. wanted nearly the cost of a new one to repair it, so I replaced it with an MGL electronic compass that uses a remotely mounted MEMS magnetometer sensor. There are no moving parts, and after a brief calibration flight where it "learns" the magnetic signature of ferrous influences in your airframe, it is accurate to ±1° on all compass points. No more swinging, no more correction card. Caveat: it's not TSO'd but approved for experimentals.

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My airplane’s nose heading is unimportant. My track tells me where I’m going. When the turds hit the fan I look at my DG, never my compass.
 
Stewartb said:
My airplane’s nose heading is unimportant. My track tells me where I’m going. When the turds hit the fan I look at my DG, never my compass.
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Don't fly IFR or busy airspace much?
 
Clark1961 said:
SIRS makes a good compass. Once around the compass rose to swing it and I think the largest deviation is 2 degrees. Most were 1 degree or less. I basically ignore the compass card.
Click to expand...

Also recommend the SIRS compass. Small, but easy to calibrate and read. Internal lighting is just right.
 
I also installed the SIRS. No problems at all.
 
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