Flight Recording in EFIS

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mherweyer@gmail.com
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:40 pm

Flight Recording in EFIS

Post by mherweyer@gmail.com »

Hi all,

I made my first flight today in my Zenith Cruzer. All worked well, but went to download the auto-generated flight file and there wasn't anything to be found. It looks like the EFIS has to determine that an "active flight" is taking place. My EMU that was configured with a GPS captured lots of data, and I was able to play that back in Google Earth, but the MGL Challenger produced no flight files. I did have recording activated in the setup menu.

Is there some secret to getting the EFIS to create flight files that I missed?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Mike
rainier
Site Admin
Posts: 662
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:03 pm

Re: Flight Recording in EFIS

Post by rainier »

You have two choices: Manual or automatic flight detect.
Look at your flight timer - if it is flashing you are in an active flight and recording happens.

Manual flight detect: Action menu has the first entry to start or stop a flight. If you have automatic flight detection setup then this entry does not exist in the menu.

Automatic flight detect: Here we have setups for rotor craft and aircraft where the wings make shade.
For the latter you will choose an engine RPM that must be exceeded to signal a possible start of a flight.
If this is exceeded AND we have airspeed above stall then it will provisionally start a flight log and start the flight recording. From this point onwards your engine RPM no longer matters. If you maintain airspeed above stall for one minute (short breaks are permitted) it will take the flight as valid and you will get a flight folio entry and the internal recording will be active. The internal recording cannot be disabled (Unless you snooker the system so it does not think you are flying).
mherweyer@gmail.com
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:40 pm

Re: Flight Recording in EFIS

Post by mherweyer@gmail.com »

Thank you for the detailed explanation of how it works. I ran down to the hangar and sure enough, I had failed to set the auto detect. Activated the start flight and the EFIS showed that it was recording. Looking forward to some VFR weather and putting the recording to work later this week.
adamoconnor
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2020 2:33 pm

Re: Flight Recording in EFIS

Post by adamoconnor »

mherweyer@gmail.com wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:51 pm Thank you for the detailed explanation of how it works. I ran down to the hangar and sure enough, I had failed to set the auto detect. Activated the start flight and the EFIS showed that it was recording. Looking forward to some VFR weather and putting the recording to work later this week.
Good to see you're flying! I'll be looking for your airplane cruising around D95...

Adam
Adam O'Connor
Michigan Avionics
MGL USA Sales and Support
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