William,
I actually have such a switch.  It works independent
of even having the master switch on.  It didn't occur
to me to activate it, but it happened pretty fast.  I
had identified a place to ;and, and had just started
surveying recovery options when the power came back.
I hope that I would have remembered the emergency
bypass switch, but I'm not sure.  I'll be creating an
emergency checklist to keep in the plane should the
need ever arise.  I hope it never does.

Steve

--- William <wschertz@ispwest.com> wrote:

> Steve,
> Congratulations on the successful outcome -- your
> experience fits right into
> what "Sport-Air" states in their flight testing
> course, namely that the most
> common problem on experimental aircraft in flight
> test mode is engine
> failure.
>
> Can you arrange two paths for electrical to the
> "engine bus", one for normal
> use, and the other coming from second battery via a
> separate switch?
> Bill Schertz
> KIS Cruiser # 4045
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Brooks" <prvt_pilot@yahoo.com>
> To: "Rotary motors in aircraft"
> <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
> Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 9:35 AM
> Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Intersting flight
>
>
> > Hi Al,
> > You make an excellent point on the single failure
> > point.  I've been trying to come up with a way to
> > eliminate the problem, but outside of going to 2
> > switches, I'm not sure how to do it. Even with 2
> > switches the one for the engine is still a single
> > failure point for the engine.
> >
> > The emergency checklist is also a good idea.  I'm
> > going to check today, I think that I already have
> one
> > with my preflight checklist.  A placard for engine
> out
> > is probably better though, rather than trying to
> find
> > a paper copy during an emergency.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > --- Al Gietzen <ALVentures@cox.net> wrote:
> >
> >> What a relief the find that the power came back
> on;
> >> and that you landed
> >> without mishap. My adrenalin level was going up
> when
> >> I got to the part of
> >> your story where you were heading for the
> highway.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I see two important lessons in your experience;
> >>
> >> Redundancy in the system isn't much good if there
> is
> >> still a single point
> >> failure.
> >>
> >> Have an emergency checklist that is well
> memorized,
> >> but kept handy.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Glad everything is OK,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Al
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Rotary motors in aircraft
> >> [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
> >> Behalf Of Steve Brooks
> >> Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 6:29 AM
> >> To: Rotary motors in aircraft
> >> Subject: [FlyRotary] Intersting flight
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I made it down to South Carolina, to among other
> >>
> >> things, fly the Cozy.  It had been 2 months to
> the
> >> day
> >>
> >> since I had been down, so the remaining 8 hours
> of
> >> the
> >>
> >> 40 test hours have been slow to come off.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thursday I washed about 30 lbs of dust off of
> the
> >>
> >> plane (open T hanger) and checked everything out.
>  I
> >>
> >> did a high speed run down the runway, but didn't
> >> have
> >>
> >> time to get in a flight.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Yesterday I went to the airport after it warmed
> up a
> >>
> >> few degrees, and took off.  The engine was
> running
> >>
> >> very strong in the cooler air (54 degrees).  I
> had
> >>
> >> planned to do about a 30 minute flight ad land,
> just
> >>
> >> to check everything out, and was was doing turns
> and
> >>
> >> just cruising around about 6-7 miles from the
> >> airport
> >>
> >> at about 2900 MSL (2300 AGL).  While flying
> straight
> >>
> >> and level, I felt a sudden miss in engine.  When
> I
> >>
> >> check the I/P, I also noticed that the digital
> >> gauges,
> >>
> >> fuel and oil, had rebooted.  I immediately
> started a
> >>
> >> turn toward the airport.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> About 15 seconds later, I lost total electric.
> The
> >>
> >> I/P went dead, and so did the engine.  This isn't
> >>
> >> good, I thought.  Actually, it was more like, OH
> >> SH**.
> >>
> >>  I took a look at the airport, and I was too far
> to
> >>
> >> make it there, so I looked around, and a 4 lane
> >>
> >> highway, which has light traffic appeared to be
> my
> >>
> >> best option.  I had just started turning toward
> that
> >>
> >> highway, when the electric power came back, and
> the
> >>
> >> engine picked back up.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I immediately started a climb, and headed toward
> the
> >>
> >> airport again.  I already knew that there was a
> >> plane
> >>
> >> in the pattern doing touch and goes (unicom
> field),
> >> so
> >>
> >> I called the airport and advised the other
> aircraft
> >>
> >> that I had a serious issue, and needed to make a
> >>
> >> straight in landing.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> It didn't lose power again, on the trip back to
> the
> >>
> >> airport, but that 6-7 miles seemed to take
> forever.
> >> I
> >>
>
=== message truncated ===