Mike,
I'm hearing ya!
I'm not so good with electronics - I need a plug in and play. I hear what the builders discuss with their programming and such and it leaves me kind of cold.
I figured if I had Bill as a local tutor I would be fine - however that's not the case. I have trouble following the schematics of a motorbike.
George (down under)

George,

It's a common concern and I hear it all the time from Lyc owners. Since they don't understand it they don't trust it. Now a magneto...... Well everyone understands and trusts a magneto. For 500 hours. Then you better overhaul it because your on borrowed time after that.

Talk to any car owner under the age of 30 and mention a tune up. Most of them will look at you like your crazy. These days nobody thinks twice about driving 100,000 miles without ever doing anything but changing oil. Not even changing spark plugs. I remember my first car in high school. A 67 Camaro with a warmed over 396 and dual point distributor - hottest ignition going at the time. With a high perf coil I spent more time replacing, cleaning, filing, and adjusting points than I did driving the car.

Funny that in the example you cited it was the mechanical switch that got you, but you immediately went to the more reliable (no moving parts) electronic system as the source of the problem. I guess its just human nature to assume the worst (been there).

I've given up trying to explain the choices I've made in my airplane. People either get it and think its great (rarely), or they think I'm a dumb guy with a death wish. Whatever.

Mike Wills

--------------------------------------------------
From: "George Lendich" <lendich@aanet.com.au>
Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2010 2:40 PM
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Weber chokes

George,
You are correct but remember the manifold efficiency is based on having the correct size runners to begin with. The venturi is needed to improve vacuum to draw fuel. The Weber has a secondary venturi as well, the little bullseye one in the middle. So things are complicated in any case. A well tuned FI is almost always better.
Bill Jepson

Bill,
I love the concept of FI, it's the electronics and the complexities of it all that worries me. I think Lynn said it best, FI is almost always better - provided you have power. I couldn't have said it better myself.

That statement struck a note for me, as I remember when I was traveling by myself in a very remote part of north Western Australia on a new bike (1800 Suzuki), it's got fuel injection the lot, all of a sudden it stopped and I was thinking %^&(*^$# how in the hell am I going to fix this out here. Luckily by the time it rolled to a stop I realized I had bumped the kill switch - -but for that moment there was a lot of anxiety.
George (down under)

--
Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub: http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html

--
Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub: http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html

--
Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub: http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html