Have you ever actually seen an original ground power cable for our Aero Center aircraft? Thanks to Bill Manhein, and an un-named member who loaned Bill his priceless cable, you can now!
The Photo Gallery now contains a series of good photos of an intact ground power cable. These cables fit all of the Aero Center planes, including the Duchess and Skipper, if they were equipped with the external power access port.What’s the additional good news? Bill now has a completed design for a simple and relatively inexpensive mating plug, that you’ll be able to carry around in your plane. It will basically look like the plug end of the original cable, but will be made of modern (non-deteriorating) materials. Instead of having cables on the outboard end, it will have an extended outer (grounded) shell, and an extended UHMW insulation core. The center conductor will then extend from the center of the UHMW. Any kind of clamp-on cables, whether jumpers or a battery charger, will be able to clamp on to the adapter. The extended UHMW section will prevent the negative clamp from sliding onto the positive core.
Bill says that it is too soon to commit to a price and availability date, but he has sourced materials and has the design in hand. It sounds like he’s ready to get started; and he doesn’t think that the completed adapters will be very expensive. If I were you, I wouldn’t be looking for those old $200 cables anymore!