New subject, who can identify these old relics

Bob Weber

Bob Weber

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jan 29, 2019
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Autopilot Whisperer
I assisted in removing this from a 421, any ideas?IMG_20191102_090454.jpg
 
Just a wild guess but it looks like it might be an autopilot servo.
 
I'm a bit shallow, I know!! Who has flown with this system?
 
Do you know what it is? Is it in fact an autopilot servo? I’ve flown with a 400 Series Cessna autopilot before but not very much and I don’t know very much about it.
 
Can we get a clearer photo of the data tag on the left canister-like thingamabob?

-Skip
 
I believe it was the pitch servo, the other one is on a shelf in my garage, the one my wife wants me to clean off!!

This was, I believe, the first Cessna 800 autopilot. Honeywell built a system referred to as the H-14, Cessna rebranded it as theirs.

I repaired several of these systems, and get a few calls still today about them.

One of the wildest things I learned to master was the break away "clutch", and how it was set.

Your looking right at it.

The replacement part, I was advised by an old King engineer, consisted of a short section of copper wire.
 
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Lachlan said:
Greg beat me to it- I was gonna say pulley and servo from an old analog AP.
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Tubes, these system had vacuum tubes, and a really important one regulating the power supply. It also relied on air pressure, long before the term analog was ever conceived I believe.
 
IMG_20191102_105126.jpg


This one has a King data plate, notice the honeywell P/N
 
One of the several challenges of this system was to rebuild, then balance a pair of dithering pneumatic valves, what a blast!

I must say, when I got it right, they flew very well.
 
6 lbs for that. How much do the newer ones weight?
 
jallen0 said:
6 lbs for that. How much do the newer ones weight?
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This is a Cessna 400B servo from the seventies. Minus the the mount. Not sure if the H-14 one was rated with or without the valve assembly that is not there.IMG_20191102_141546.jpg
 
How about the old RCA radar with the polarized lens dimming.. My wife gets a kick out of this piece.IMG_20191102_180714.jpg IMG_20191102_180739.jpg
 
IMG_20191102_181151.jpg Who got screwed up training with one of these..
 
saddletramp said:
I know all about the whistle stop radios.
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Here is a term I heard about, but thankfully never needed to rely on. I was told you were listening for silence between a dashed signal, and a steady one...
 
Jim Carpenter said:
Anyone got an idea how this unit worked? Inertial?
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Wow! I have never seen one of these.. This is the cool stuff that makes up the history of our craft, bizarre as it may seem.
"Science serving the pilot"!IMG_20191104_075946.jpg
 
Jim Carpenter said:
Anyone got an idea how this unit worked? Inertial?
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Looks like three miniature guys in there to me. Updates location daily with a noon fix by guy #3! Later models started using smoke in the magic electronics instead of miniature guys, cheaper, faster, less weight.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Later models started using smoke in the magic electronics instead of miniature guys, cheaper, faster, less weight.
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Adam Savage used to say on Mythbusters that when the blue smoke escapes an electronic device doesn’t work anymore. Makes me wonder what kind of technology they had to put that smoke in there in the first place.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Adam Savage used to say on Mythbusters that when the blue smoke escapes an electronic device doesn’t work anymore. Makes me wonder what kind of technology they had to put that smoke in there in the first place.
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This was posted in the joke thread, but Lucas electronics lost their smoke so much they produced replacement smoke as a service part.

images
 
Love the 3 miniature guys theory, maybe add a miniature John Harrison longitude clock, and off you go.
A bit of searching found this link for the Air Position Indicator:
https://aeroantique.com/products/ai...b-manual-t-o-5n-3-1-31?variant=12200532312153
Sounds like it was pre-cursor to modern inertial nav systems, using airspeed and heading information to calculate long/lat assuming no wind, then the navigator would apply a wind vector correction. All mechanical analog, too.
OK, a bit off the thread track, but anybody remember the Curta Calculator?
 
Never heard of the Curta until now, It reminds me of my Addometer

Curta type 1.jpg Addometer.jpg
 
any guesses?
IMG_20191104_202145.jpg
 
Bill Jennings said:
Hydraulic gear pump?
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Close:p I only work on marine hydraulics! Many years ago I brought a trim pump from one of my boats in to the accessory shop at Weststar not realizing it was identical to many single engine gear pumps, the guy thought I was trying to take business from him!

I used to "ride on the words" out in the canyons of CO. on an old ZX750R I built.

I sold it when I realized I was taking up to much of Gods time!!

You have to evaluate your sanity when you find your self sliding the front wheel on purpose.

What are you riding in that pic?
 
Back when autopilots were wired with tubing. Anybody flight adjust an autopilot with one of these?IMG_20191104_212813.jpg
 
Reid said:
Brittain turn coordinator.
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Give that man a cigar! I believe the valve assembly came out of the same aircraft. I never worked on this one, but I revived a couple systems years ago.
 
Bob Weber said:
What are you riding in that pic?
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That was the 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200S that I used to own. About 6 years in, it developed a bad case of old Ducati Syndrom[1], so I traded it on a 2016 BMW R1200GS water boxer. Love the water boxer, I need to update my .sig.

[1] Started breaking every few months, each time costing $400-600 a pop. Time to punt! Before the Duc I had a BMW R1150RT that I put 90kmi on in seven years, and it never broke down. So, back to BMW I go...
 
Bill Jennings said:
That was the 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200S that I used to own. About 6 years in, it developed a bad case of old Ducati Syndrom[1], so I traded it on a 2016 BMW R1200GS water boxer. Love the water boxer, I need to update my .sig.

[1] Started breaking every few months, each time costing $400-600 a pop. Time to punt! Before the Duc I had a BMW R1150RT that I put 90kmi on in seven years, and it never broke down. So, back to BMW I go...
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A buddy of mine had a used car lot and ended up with a Ducati 908 that looked like it was hand built, I only rode it a couple times, but that, I think was the beginning of the end!

I beat the hell out of an old softail Harley as my last road bike, we live in a small village now and look forward to toodeling around to the slip on little bikes.

Today I ride a CT 70, I built this one around the time I did the Ninja, It gets a refresh as well as the Wife's new ride. Her first question was "do I get to shift it?" IMG_20191105_085130.jpg IMG_20191105_085801.jpg
 
Can you imagine being tasked with designing this?IMG_20191105_100358.jpg IMG_20191105_100431.jpg
 
I've never seen a yoke mounted control like that, Is that a valve?

The turn coordinator has a cable from the centering knob, right to the valving,
if you look at the pic I put up you can see the lever.
I will get a better one of it when I get back to the office later this week.
 
Bob Weber said:
I've never seen a yoke mounted control like that, Is that a valve?

The turn coordinator has a cable from the centering knob, right to the valving,
if you look at the pic I put up you can see the lever.
I will get a better one of it when I get back to the office later this week.
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It is an air valve connected to a cutoff valve which in turn goes to the remote gyro.
 
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