Magnetism

My compass suddenly stuck in northerly directions some time after I mounted the Trigg transponder (I think, it took a while before I noticed. While in testphase I' not in the need of a compass, every flight). It now is in the hole two-o'clock.

I looked this forum over for ideas, and found the paperclip trick: two or three clips together hanging as a string could point out the magnetism as were it a compass itself.
And so I did, just to discover that apparently all my switches and fuses are somewhat magnetised....

How can this happen, and more: what do I do now?

Any reaction highly appriciated!

Hello Hans. There was a discussion on this a while back. I know JP and others will have some very good input on this and I hope they will chime in after our Independence Day celebration here in the U.S.A. I am cautious about compass calibration. There are some very good write ups on this. They speak about placing your aircraft on the compass rose at your airport on the zero deg. North line, then directly east. Engine on, all electronics on etc. Very easy and very clear. Also, in the Navy, we did what is called degaussing. The ship’s hull can become magnetized and they have to go through a procedure that demagnetizes it. I question whether an airframe could suffer the same ailment. Just a thought -Tom,(Lion8) U.S.A.-N.J.

Hi Lion, hopefully they do chime in. Swinging as you discribed is exactly what I did,and it worked just fine. Then I put my tx in, and a few flyinghours later the compass gets stuck. I'm not sure about the relation with the tx, however, as at first I didn't notice it. I was in the beginning of testing at that moment and stayed on and around the field - who needs a compass then?

Probably not related, but I put new fluid and gaskets in my compass. I noticed when flying that it was way off. Eventually I found I had put a steel screw in the glare shield near the compass instead of the stainless screw that had been there. It's working great now.