GV-1 Sensor - Eric Larsen's Excellent Advice

[Phaedrus]

Don't ignore Eric's excellent advice to wrap the sensor with heat shrink. I failed to listen to him, actually I came across it AFTER I had mounted mine, and decided not to worry about it.

Well today, at 3.5 gallons on my new R50, the sensor came apart. Fortunately I noticed it between flights and it had been working fine on the previous flight. :arggg:

Even more fortunately, I caught it before is actually broke the board or wires. Only the case separated on 1 side.

Came home, took off the sensor, glued it with some CA type (but not CA - it's called Eurobond) industrial adhesive, and wrapped it with heat shrink.

Re-installed it and I'm seeing 97% on the sensor, so I think I'm good to go again. I was lucky, you might not be.

A word to the wise from the ignorant!! Wrap it FIRST, then you can forget about it. Funny thing is I was going to wrap after this weekend. Oh well.

[DavidH]

Good for you to remind people to use heat shrink on the sensor case. That trick has been fairly common knowledge since the GV1 came out in the mid 90's. But it always good to remind pilots every now and then of tips that will help them out.

David

[Phaedrus]

Especially since there are so many people who are "new" to the GV-1. I saw the tip, chose to ignore it and almost paid the price.

Lesson learned.

Bill

[sumonzu]

I strongly suggest to use the Optical Sensors: I have them on two OS 91 C-Special with the GV1 and they work really great!

Look at this site:
http://www.helidriver.com/OpticalSensor.html

Marcello

[LS1Chris]

Since I saw this post, I'm gonna secure my GV-1 sensor.

I have about 5-7 gallons through it and haven't flown since I went into college 4 years ago. Now I'm done and certified with an A&P license.

Been working on my heli cleaning and checking it for a few days.

Can I wrap the GV-1 sensor with black tape or a zip tie?

If not what size heat shrink tubing should I use?

[WayneBrown]

Mine has thread wrapped around it and CA dripped into the thread.
It doesn't have to be too complicated, it just has to work to hold the two halves together. Black tape will soften and goo up due to fuel or exhaust residue, but a small zip tie will work.

[z11355]

probably 1/2" heatshrink will work. 3/8" will probably be a bit small but either way, most
heatshrink is 2:1 ratio.

could use a small tie wrap I suppose.