Engine Start Warning Horn
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012Greetings,
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!
I have an airplane that doesn’t have a small window for the pilot to open and shout “CLEAR” out of when starting the engine. When it is cold out you want that door shut and with its gull wing design you cant leave it raised with the engine running.
Initially, I thought that it would be neat to have a small powered PA speaker mounted in the engine compartment through which you could broadcast your “CLEAR” at the appropriate time. It would be somehow linked into the audio panel and your headset microphone. This idea proved to be more trouble than it solved.
I then got the idea of installing a small car horn in the engine compartment so that you could warn a larger area with the touch of a button while keeping the doors closed.
I wired it such that the horn circuit is energized only when the starter button is energized. This would keep inadvertent activation to a minimum.
I works very well except for the cheapness of the horn I purchased. It doesn’t sound very authoritative. I guess I will have to be on the lookout for a different horn.
Happy Building,
Dave