46 BC12D Compass

[Jim Herpst]

I know for a fact that the compass mounted at the tubes with the factory mount in 43831 worked very well. So well that in 1970 when my dad flew us to Oshkosh from Pittsburgh PA (Doglegged around the lake stopping at Juliet Illinois for the night). Dad would turn the plane over to me saying maintain x attitude and y heading while he worked time speed and distance calculations by hand . One of the things that got me hooked in aviation was his hitting his check points dead on. That compass was all we had. Some owner between then and now cobbled up a rube Goldberg mount to the orginal mount(thank God not screwing up that mount) and mounted a new style Airpath which in further interest of Scott's post I just temporally put back up there a moment ago and lifted the fuselage stripped down to almost nothing except on the gear and rolled it out of the hangar and circled coordinates on the ramp and it looked to be working well .

Good to know that the panel mount was an option and considered original however .

[Scott]

Yes degaussing works fine, but it's temporary at best. One of the "regaussing" phenomena is weather... the very risk factor that may cause you to need an accurate compass!

Reliability in magnetic compass is or should be a fundamental requirement, as it is an expectation.

no doubt there were pilots who were able to live with large compass corrections, after all in calculating your heading, compass correction is one of the components. So in theory as long as you know the error, no matter how large, you can still calculate a heading that will yield the desired track.

These days pilots are far less current on basic navigation calculations, with all manner of portable and fixed navigation gizmos at their disposal.

a magnetic compass has basically become a last resort system. Perhaps making it much more important that its heading information is going to get you out of trouble and not compound your problems.

But there's lots of airplanes flying around with useless compasses ( surprising how many have no fluid at all). Likely a low probability of leading to serious accident or fatality.

[Jim Herpst]

Let's add to this your experience may vary .

[3Dreaming]

I have a compass like is listed on Ebay, with the panel mount enclosure. I would entertain letting it go.

[Jim Herpst]

I hope someone in the tribe purchases this from your offer. It would be a great addition for someone .

[Jim Herpst]

Found A yellow tagged unlit rebuilt by Keystone Kollsmann B16. Not an Airpath B16 mind you however period correct. And again mounted it to check and found it dead on. In fact even better than the newer little Airpath the last owner had rigged to the mount. By the way Martin if you read this Keystone can repair / rebuild the Airpath Compass ( or any other compass I imagine) to a point...that point being that if you cannot get the floating numbers to rotate and that part simply sits on its side (fluid or not) it is not fixable by Keystone according to them. Now to set it (where I see it to remember move it occasionally )and on to other tasks.

[Hank Jarrett]

Have the lower two lugs been machined off so it can mount in a dome?

Hank

[Jim Herpst]

Hank,

I know where you are going with that question. The answer is no. While I could fab something up to make it look like an earlier Taylorcraft compass (which are really sweet) the reality is it would not be original. I am doing everything I possibly can to make it as you and I have said where if CG Taylor were to look at it it would be close to what would have left the factory. In 46 the B16 WWII surplus compasses were being used. They were simply mounted to the bracket I already have thank goodness. other stuff is being taken out of the panel (turn and bank and rate of climb) as well as the venturi on the boot cowl (also being replaced). Those were added in the 50s.. although I could make a case of planes leaving the factory with them, I know this one did not. Also I have the glove box door handles (that are orginal) coming from the Chevy of the 30s and forties folks . They were Chevy ash tray grab handles in the mid 40s. Also I found the interior door handles (that you saw on my doors) to be from that Chevy era as well . New ones from them are cheap.. a LOT cheaper than replating the originals,,,,

[Hank Jarrett]

Sounds great. I have just seen a lot of those compass' where someone ground the lower lugs off. Yea, it makes them look like the older ones, but it also ruins the B-16. Not as rare a compass, but if you are going to fake and early one, MAKE one, don't ruin a slightly less rare one. I think you are making the right choice going original.