Bearing Temp Gauge

Another add on we didn't count on needing when we started out.

The secondary shaft problem arose after we got our kit and folks were feeling that monitoring the temp on the bearing would give them a heads up there was a problem with the shaft. We ordered this unit direct from RotorWay and just after we did they came out with one that lights up a red light at a preset temp of your choosing to alert you of a problem. I reckon one day we'll pitch the one we got out and obtain one like that.  After I started flying the ship I'm found it very hard to monitor everything closely, hell, I hovered for at least 10 hours before I ever saw those instruments lol. Once I was off the ground it was the rotor tach, the engine rpm and the ground lol.

Some of the fellows have big bright LED read out units in their ships, they look pretty good to but I'm not sure how they would affect my eyes during night flying.

On July 16th 2004 we had a shaft break

and found this gauge to be totaly useless as far as we could tell.  Our shaft broke and just prior to it happening it showed a temp of 142 which was a normal operating temp for the ambiant tempreture we were running in that day.

To some it up,  having this gauge installed turned out to be a total waste of the time it took to install not to mention the money it cost. It also adds weight to the ship not to mention the time we spend on it during our instrument scan at least thats the results we had.

However,  having it installed does make you feel better right up until that shaft breaks lol.