The battery charging problem on JT continues to plague us and has returned with a new level of obstinacy, following what looked to be a fix after fitting a new regulator. The fix lasted two days before once again, the ammeter stubbornly refused to show any signs of charge and the low voltage light winked at us in contempt.

Jim, our local electrical and avionics man, has been kept awake at nights trying to get to the bottom of it and has tried no less than three regulators without success. He routed out a couple of bad earths from the battery that were corroded and cleaned them up, has cleaned the Circuit Breaker contacts and checked the Flight / Ground switch, all to no avail.

We’re waiting now, for a slot with the maintenance people at Perth and an opportunity to fly JT down there – a complicated and delicate balance of pilot availability, return transport solutions and suitable weather.

Myself and another syndicate member are due to take JT down to the Air Britain Fly in at North Weald at the end of the  month – a gathering of Austers, Chipmunks and the popular Rollinson Condor, to mark 65 years of said types and battery charging problem or no, we’re going! That is, if the weather cooperates……….. The battery in JT is at least, new and is good for several hours, so with a battery charger thrown in the back, we plan to fly down there anyway and just stop off every couple of hours to give it a charge. If we avoid all the class D stuff, we will hardly be using the radio anyway, and we can turn the transponder off!

It’s not a problem that will stop us from flying, but it is, as they say, a pain in the ass. I hope the maintenance people at Perth can get to the bottom of it and if not, we’ll be replacing the whole fickle system with an alternator!