Inner Workings of an Attitude Indicator | Gyroscope
Hello and Wellcome and today we're going to be taking a nice close look here at our attitude indicator. So exactly what makes it up and how it works. So you should already know that this is a vacuum-powered instrument, so obviously in the back here we're gonna have a vacuum line in and then we're gonna have air inlet so the vacuum is actually pulling air out and then air is flowing in usually through this little filter here some sort of filter there to make sure its clean air going into the instrument. And of course, this one's had a little bit of a rough life. We have our little knob that just the horizon line up and down for us so we can configure it based on what attitude the aircraft's flying at. And if we take all that off we get to our glass and our little o-ring because of course, this entire instrument is under vacuum so it's totally under suction on the inside there.
And if we go ahead and pull this guy out the back we'll get to the inner workings of the instrument. So for starters looking at the face here, we can see that we obviously have the pitch component of this, and then we have a roll component. So the way this instrument is set up it can actually roll a full 360, of course, that would be quite a wild ride. And then we have a limited pitch component, so we can see that if we tilt this gyro here on the inside that I'm holding with my right hand if I start to tilt that I get to a maximum of about twenty degrees nose-down and if I tilt it, even more, you don't see the actual face of the instrument moving at all. So although the instrument knows that you're tilting more than twenty degrees, it limits the indication to about twenty degrees or so. Now if we were to go even further, say we were trying to do a loop, that's when our gyro would hit some limit and when the driver hits its limit that's when the instrument tumbles and gives us really bad information. So during a spin or during loops and things like that gyro and Sprint's do not indicate so well because they don't like doom spins like that. So to take a closer look at this we should have air flowing in through here, vacuum pressure suction right here so this entire instrument everything in here is under suction air is being pulled out of the instrument coming in through there, in through here, through this arm right here into the old gyro housing and if we rotate that over there and we remove these little limiters we can then go ahead and take a look at the actual gyro inside the instrument.
So this is what actually spins around inside there that big spinning brass weight is what gives it rigidity space. Obviously, it has to spin pretty fast thousands of RPM to really have any sort of gyroscopic effect and create that rigidity in space. So since we have air pressure flowing in through here, coming through this arm there into the instrument and there's sort of just awesome cuts in that brass weight to make the airflow as it flows around there. The airflow is actually coming in through here and then exiting through these little slots here to the rest of the instrument that is under suction and then going out the back of the case. Now to see this work a little bit, we'll go ahead and use our handy Dyson to create some suction and see just how fast we can spin this gyro.
And now the gyro wants to remain rigid in space so as we turn the airplane and rotate and bank and pitch it they want to remain rigid in space giving us good accurate indications as to where we actually are relative to the horizon. You can see that if I actually try to turn the instrument that gyroscopic precession converts any sort of turning motion 90 degrees in the direction of rotation actually makes it want to pitch, so that's why if there's any sort of resistance in the instrument it's not going to indicate accurately. It needs to be nice and free moving around that axis with very nice precise bearings. Movements in the aircraft say like actually do a full loop you can see that the instruments not going to be too happy and it's going to start giving us a very strange odd indication. That is when an adjudicator tumbles from making an aggressive pitch or bank inputs. Now take a look at what the gyro actually looks like as we pull it out here, you can see those slots on the sides and what that is there so that as air flows through, through the air inlet like we said, through this armature here into this chamber through that little opening there this little hole on the side there, it then will flow past these vanes spinning the gyro up and then exit this little chamber through these little slots here. So just a simple airflow over these vanes is what causes the gyro to spin.
So that's pretty much it for your attitude indicator those are the basic parts and pieces. Really just a very simple suction instrument. As long as you have suction going to it that gyro is going to spin and it'll indicate properly. Now if any of these little things get bent in here anything comes disconnected obviously there are a lot of small very precise parts and pieces and connections in there, that can cause the instrument to go bad. But ultimately as long as these things have suction they work pretty well, obviously, dirt can get in there make the gyro spin slower, making it not indicate properly. That really it. Have any questions about this at all guys leave them in the comments below I'd be more than happy to get back to you. Make sure you give us a. Check out our blog page, we really appreciate all your guy's support in helping us to make these blogs, and as always if you can't fly every day We will see you all next time!
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