The flip side of FADEC?

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photoSteveZ
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The flip side of FADEC?

Post by photoSteveZ »

All winter, I would pull the 62 out of its heated hangar (thermostat set to 55° F.) and the glow plugs on both engines would turn on when I flipped on the engine masters.

Yesterday morning my wife and I went out to the plane on the ramp at BCE (Bryce Canyon, 7700’ elev.) to find frost on all the horizontal services; temps had dipped into the low 20s overnight. But after waiting for the sun to do its work on the frost, when I went to start the engines only the right engine used the glow: the left engine did not energize its glow plug at all. It was still cold out, and the oil took considerably longer than usual to come up to operating temperature.

Now, both engines started right up, same as always, but it occurred to me that I don’t know of any way to manually turn on a glow plug if needed. Hmmm...

Bryce Point in the distance, taken from well outside Bryce Canyon NP:
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CFIDave
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Re: The flip side of FADEC?

Post by CFIDave »

As you noted, the glow plugs don't alway come on.

But here's what may have happened with a cold engine: Before first engine to start, because of all the other annunciations (e.g., low voltage, low oil pressure, etc.), there's only one empty line/space available at the bottom of the annunciation window of the PFD to display a GLOW message. If you happened to have any additional annunciations such as a door open, low coolant level, etc., there's not room to display the GLOW annunciation.

I first noticed this when I had a LO COOL LVL annunciation; it kept the left engine from ever showing a GLOW indication when starting it first. By the time you start the 2nd engine, this never happens because your voltage is no longer low (because the alternator of the first engine is running), and the running first engine no longer has low oil pressure -- leaving plenty of room for the 2nd engine's glow plug annunciation to show up.

Bottom line: Your left engine may have turned on its glow plug, but you couldn't see its annunciation. :)
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UTMark
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Re: The flip side of FADEC?

Post by UTMark »

I’ve absolutely noticed this happening: too many enunciations and no VISIBLE glow indicator. I now look at the engine page and watch the voltage drop as a secondary indication of the glow plugs coming on. They draw a significant current and so the voltage drop before start is very noticeable… regardless of if you can see the enunciation or not.


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janders
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Re: The flip side of FADEC?

Post by janders »

Steve,

I've had the exact same issue as CFIDave. I was getting a LO COOL LVL before my coolant warmed up. This would eat up a row of cas messages and the L GLOW ON indication would show on the bottom of the "messages" tab on the G1000 but not on the rhs of the pfd. I would just open this and scroll down and would see it there. I can also head the "buzz" from the current the glow is drawing in my headset.

p.s. Thank you SouthTecAviation for getting rid of my LO COOL LVL cas message and now I can see my L GLOW ON message.

To directly answer your question. I do not know of a way to manually turn on the glow plugs.
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