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AAAARGH! Dead battery, and now fabric work...

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Dana

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Today was not my day.

Saturday was a fly-in at a local field. When I got to the airport, I found I had left my master switch on and the Concorde battery was dead as a doornail. Hand propped, but the battery wasn't charging, not enough to kick off the alternator field. Oh well, no tower, went to the fly-in anyway and hand propped to get home.

Today at lunchtime, I measured the battery at 2 volts. Put a charger on it and went back to work. This evening, battery showing 12V, but won't start the engine. Hand propped again, now the alternator shows it's charging at 20A, flew for an hour. Shut down after landing, battery won't crank the engine. I guess I toasted it. Logbook shows a "serviceable" (i.e. used) battery installed 2 years ago. So I need a new battery, no biggie.

Battery is behind the seat. Pulled the seat out, disconnected the battery and lifted it out by the nylon strap around the battery... and the strap broke, and the battery went through the bottom fuselage fabric. AAAARGH!

So now I gotta replace the battery (Odyssey or ACS's Centennial "homebuilder's" battery?) and do some fabric work. Time to order the Stits practice kit and some polytone too... glad it's not urethane...
 
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