Water in the bottom of the hull.

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Steve
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by Steve »

CBeak wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 3:31 am This has me wondering about the DA40. I’m in a hangar....in the desert....but I get a warning for right fuel tank low on takeoff, and my autopilot trim recently failed while I was descending and about 1 minute before I was to cross the line below class B airspace.
Well, both the pitch trim servo connector and the connector for all cabling to the right wing (which includes the low fuel sensor) are quite close to each other mounted on the fuselage floor under the copilot's seat...

... but I doubt water is the cause unless someone had a spill in the cockpit.
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cptndavid
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by cptndavid »

I moved the connectors.
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Steve
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by Steve »

cptndavid wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:57 pm I moved the connectors.
David:

Where'd you move them to? Not a lot of slack there. In the 40 the wing connector is mounted to a bracket, and the trim connector is cable tied to the cockpit floor.

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cptndavid
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by cptndavid »

I clipped the cable ties for the A/P trim to get slack and glued a new tie wrap holder to the trim servo mount about 2 inches off of the floor.
i than user a tie wrap to hold the connector in the new tie wrap mount bracket. I did not reroute the fuel sender connector yet.
I did reseal the wing roots and any other areas that I thought may allow water to intrude into the hull. Flex Seal works great for this job. I have not had water in the hull since.
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Steve
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by Steve »

cptndavid wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 2:40 pm I clipped the cable ties for the A/P trim to get slack and glued a new tie wrap holder to the trim servo mount about 2 inches off of the floor.
i than user a tie wrap to hold the connector in the new tie wrap mount bracket. I did not reroute the fuel sender connector yet.
I did reseal the wing roots and any other areas that I thought may allow water to intrude into the hull. Flex Seal works great for this job. I have not had water in the hull since.
That is an interesting approach. Next time you are in there, maybe you could take a couple of pictures. Heavy rain is not a problem here in S. TX, but you never can tell when a passenger will have an oops and spill their water bottle into the seat.

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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by Steve »

Actually, I found a closeout photo I took a few years ago of the area in question:

DSCN3996.jpg

You can see that the wing electrical connector is elevated off the floor, but the trim servo connector is right on it. Neither are waterproof connectors.
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by arksat »

Back in May, a friend of mine had an emergency landing in DA42 due to a cabin smoke.
It turned out there was a trapped water in the fuselage and one of the connectors was submerged and caused a short.
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Re: Water in the bottom of the hull.

Post by cptndavid »

You have to check the drains regularly.
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