Airpath Compass for sale

[8708]

New Airpath 2300 compass.
Bought it a couple of months ago for my BC-12-D thinking my old compass was bad.
Turns out the tubing cluster at the top of the windshield was so magnetized that a compass could not be mounted there.
Long story short, my original compass was fine. Mounted it on the dash.
So, I have this new compass to sell. Has some scratches on the side where it was slid into the compass holder but otherwise is in great shape.
Complete with non-magnetic mounting hardware and compass correction card with card-holder frame.
Asking $110 plus shipping of $15 or so. New is $175.
Use Paypal for payment.
Thanks! Jay

[LostnSpace]

That reminds me of long ago when I bought a J-3 and the compass always showed one direction. The old time mechanic that worked were I did in Southern Oregon told me the fuselage was magnetized, and if I wanted to fix it he would help. He had me remove the compass and what to get, he showed me how to demagnetize the front of the fuselage, the younger mechanics were making fun of him/us, after he was done, I put the compass in and it worked fine, that old man knew more about aircraft repair than the younger guys would probably ever know. Thanks for the memories, Gary

[Bernard]

Can you tell us what you to demagnetize the plane?

[LostnSpace]

Sure, I had just bought the plane, my first I was 19, so it was long ago, first, remove the compass or plan on using your new one, cause, well you can imagine, the mechanic had me get a long extension cord, it was light sort of like what you'd see on an old floor lamp, but it was 50 feet long, had to go to the hardware store to find it, this part I didn't see, he did it while i was taking the compass out, he made the cord so it was linked together in a loop, but when he plugged it in the wall, nothing blew or happened, we coiled it with about 4 very large coils, big enough to lay over the prop and fuselage to over the top of the windshield and it layed under the boot cowl he held one side of the loop and I the opposite side, then lifted it over the prop and moved it aft as far as we could reach, then slowly moved it forward off the plane, never heard of such a thing before or since, then he unplugged the cord. Later he showed me a deguase, not spelled right, but the machine was used in the overhaul of starters and generators, at one end of the machine was a coil and he turned the machine on, took a long magnet and moved it through the coil, with out touching the sides, then withdrew it slowly and it was not magnetized, the next part I don't remember, but he did something to magnetize it again, and that's what was being done to the parts of the starters and generators during overhaul. That's what I remember, but that was a long time ago, his name was Francis McNeal and a Tcraft ran thru a fence trying to take off and the fence post hit the strut and bent it, he asked me if I'd like to go with him to repair it, so I got a lesson on how to do "field repairs", like they had done them long, long ago, he learned to weld working for the Eaglerock aircraft company and could tell stories all night long. I also saw him splice a rear spar on a Porterfield with the wing still on the plane, mechanics of his time were what I always thought of as being real mechanics, Gary

[PA1195]

Degaussing loops using household AC require a resistor in series or will blow a fuse. Typically the simplest resistor is a 120V light bulb inserted in the line, usually the + lead. Several loops from the same long wire rotated 180* between them create a stronger field. I've done that to some success by moving the loop combo back and front over the affected area. It can be the whole fuselage or just a weld cluster.

Gary

[Hank Jarrett]

When I bought my first Taylorcraft it also had a compass that always pointed the same way. I thought I had the same problem and it would have been nice to know the extension cord trick! I started to take my compass out expecting to have to de-gause the fuselage but when I removed one of the screws the compass started to swing around! You guessed it, some ding dong had used a magnetized steel screw to mount the compass. All the screws were painted black and you couldn't tell one was steel while the rest were brass. I asked teh prior owner how he had managed to pass his annuals for so long with a stuck compass and he said he always parked the plane facing the same way so it wouldn't be noticed!!!! I decided NOT to use that IA for my annuals! This was back in the mid 70s. Compass still works fine today.
Check the easy stuff first. Could save you a lot of trouble. My fix cost less than a dime, but I was lucky.

Hank