Turn & Bank indicator

My first thought was what it might be from, but I guess that could be one answer: ANYTHING!

My second thought was would it be possible – I guess I spend far too long on here to think about asking someone from the PFA! :rolleyes: I think I’ll phone our local PFA inspector next week (and yes, I am a member!).

Thankfully, I only spent about £15 on it, and some of that was postage. It didn’t have any tags on it, but I imagine it would need overhauling anyway (and one of the instruments on the Spit drawings is a turn-and-bank, so I guess I would need it).

Ok Daz, here goes it goes. :rolleyes:

I hope you did your research before buying it! Did it come with a ‘servicable’ tag attached (a green or yellow thingy). If it did, it should be servicable, barring any ‘incidents’.

If not, you can not be sure it’s working and it would need an overhaul, just to be on the save side of things. If it needs an overhaul, I hope you didn’t pay too much for it 🙁 When you send one of these things in for an overhaul, you don’t get the same instrument in return (usually), but another in servicable condition ( a kind of exchange service). The companies doing the overhauls have one price for a fully serviceble one, off the shelf. Then they ususally state a price for a ‘core’ that would be subtracted from the shelf price. At the moment I’m too lazy to go on the internet to check the ‘core’ price for a turn and bank (but you could), hopefully you didn’t pay more than that for it!

And before anyone starts to jump high and low, you would not, technically speaking, need a turn and bank with a servicable tag on it for a ‘homebuilt’, but it is kind of embarrasing having your shiny little aircraft standing in front of you, but some instruments not working 😮

Then it’s the next question. Why would you need a turn and bank indicator? As you may have realized, most homebuilds suffer obese. The best way to try to contol it, is to have as little of anything as possible, right down to the minimum required for legal reasons. As your ‘Spitfire’ would never be anything but a fair weather flying machine stick, to the absolute minimum VFR equipment. In my country, the panel would consist of: RPM indicator, oil pressure and temperature indicator, an airspeed indicator, an altimeter, a clock, a compass, a radio, and (depending on where you intend to fly, check your airspace) a transponder. A ‘nice to have’ would be a little ‘ball in a tupe’ (turn indicator), to check for ballanced flight, sold for 29 quid by Light Aero.

If you have any qestions, PM me. I will not bit your head off 😉 😀

Hi Daz

Why do you need to know? How does it help?
There is a fair bit of aircraft industry in Wichita.

Your best bet would be to ask your PFA inspector. Have you joined the PFA yet? All your questions regarding the building of your “Spitfire” would be answered far better by them, rather than a bunch of Historic Aircraft enthusiasts.

The PFA is full of homebuilders who, at some time, have had to worry about what are the correct instruments for their particular aircraft.

Good luck.

Janie.