Spinning the DA20 and gyro instruments?

[keithPTC]

Was curious if spinning the DA20 has caused gyro instrument damage or degraded gyro performance requiring removal for repair/replacement. Anyone heard of this happening or experienced it first-hand? Thoughts? Thank you!

[krellis]

We have replaced our turn coordinator and DG on our 20. Really don't know if the failures were related to spinning or just an MTBF issue. I would not be terribly worried about the spins. It's one of the benefits of owning a DA-20.

Unfortunately there is no way to cage these instruments before spinning and I would not suggest you power them down. They can be damaged by not being fully erect and then being bounced around.

Careful on the comments.

Krea Ellis

[Fred]

I would think the gyro instruments would be impacted when spinning (often).

When I do Acro in a fully Acro aircraft part of my checklist is pull the breakers on the gyro instruments as the G's do impact the gyro instruments. In a spin the only G's should be on the pull out, but wouldn't think that little bit would cause damage unless doing it all the time and recovery is taking 2+ G's often....

Atitude indicator that is on a Vac normally can be caged. Our electric AI's need to pull the breakers to avoid damage.

Hope that helps

[keithPTC]

Attitude indicator that is on a Vac normally can be caged. Our electric AI's need to pull the breakers to avoid damage.

The vacuum gyros on the DA20 can not be caged unfortunately.