The Power of 3 – Part Deux | Aviation

By Michael Baranowsky, EAA 1381366, Oshawa, Ontario, CYOO.

Builders like details. A lot of details.

Reading an article about a triple redundant avionics panel without knowing the Mil-Spec of the Tefzel cable is … well, it is just wrong.

Part 2 was called for, and so was a ghost writer who clearly understood how a builder thinks.

Okay, not all builders build their own panel. But virtually all builders want enough specific detail so they can make good decisions to have the panel and wiring harnesses built (as an example). We’ve all gone to air shows to look at how the vendor put everything together and how all the parts worked together so we could build a good solution.

So, let us get to it. What does triple redundant avionics mean, because it surely does not mean the same thing to everyone. For many, if not all, without having a triple redundant electrical bus it misses the point. For me personally, if there was not a significant measure of component independence it meant that a single vendor solution could see the whole concept fail because of a firmware update with a collective (distributed) fault.

Thus, the design parameters required several completely distinct lines of thought.

1. Flight instruments
2. Avionics
3. Electrical bus

And yes, this could easily be three separate articles, but at the least the intent here is to address some of the larger…