Direction Gyro is Back
It is sitting quietly beside me in its padded box right now. Turns out the instrument was defective. There was no installation error in the plane. As aviation mechanics don’t work on weekends, Monday is the soonest chance for re-installation. Then, I’ll do a check flight where I get to be a test pilot and verify it works when reinstalled in the working airplane.
I don’t feel much in common with Scott Crossfield or Chuck Yeager though. This will be a perfectly normal VFR (visual) flight. I’ll just also be checking that the directional gyro:
- spins up correctly
- turns when it is supposed to
- turns the correct amount
- doesn’t turn when it isn’t supposed to
- and both its heading and the heading bug can be adjusted correctly.
I’ll check it against the magnetic compass. After all, the directional gyro was once called a gyroscopic compass.
Then, I get to fly with my instructor a time or two, and reschedule my checkride.