Greg wrote:
Y'know, not meaning to offend anyone, but I am trying
to mate a 400 hp 20B
to a 250 knot+ Lancair, and after hearing how
successful some of these
installations have been, I am getting a little
nervous. Are these
firing/grounding/running problems common? What
am I missing here? How
about some straight answers from some people in the
know? My life depends
on this stuff. Although my budget isn't
unlimited, I am willing to spend
what is necessary to guarantee that at least I can get
on the ground if
something goes wrong, but what do I
buy???? I could sure use some input
from Tracy, and guys like Tom Parkes, etc. (who won't
return a query), about
what they are experiencing with this genesis of rotary
installations. I
just want to get to 18,000 feet, cut back to 70%, and
relax.
Don’t forget we’re
talking “experimental” here, and with an alternative engine that part is
likely more experimental than the airframe kit. There are lots of
opportunities to do something wrong. Would you relax behind a
turbocharged Continental 550? Things can go wrong there as
well.
I now have 80
hours on my Velocity 20B
installation, and happy with it. I was one of the first to use
Tracy’s
EC2 for the 3-rotor, and there was de-bugging to do. I had electrical
noise issues with both the EM2 and the EC2, the EM2 issues were fairly simple,
and Tracy
came up with the solution. The EC2 never failed me, but I had on-going
problems with corruption of settings. That was noise related, and
fortunately with help from my electronics whiz son we eventually resolved the
problem, and found a couple of bugs that Tracy
hadn’t come to yet – things which he has fixed in the
design.
Electrical noise
issues are very installation dependant, and are likely worse in a composite
airframe; especially one with the panel in front and the engine in the rear
requiring long wire runs. The issue I had seemed unique to my
installation and my circuit design. Overall, the EC2 features are well suited
to aircraft operation, and the unit is a major bargain.
Each installation
has differences, and going alternative engine means having the tenacity to
resolve each of the teething problems as they come along.
FWIW.
Al