Posted for "colyncase on earthlink" <colyncase@earthlink.net>:

 John,
    I did come to a decision.   I went with Bill Maddox aero-option speed
brakes.
    You can reach him at reddog@bentonrea.com
 
    Here are some of the things I found out.   Note I use "claim" when I could
not verify the information directly.
 1) It is claimed that the mechanical brakes are a pain to rig and somewhat of
a pain to keep in rig.
 2) It is claimed by some that the mechanical brakes sometimes do not retract
fully.
 3) Bill's brakes will fit in the original mechanical brake hole with the
original plate.   precise flight electrics will not.
 4) Bill claims to be more effective at speed.  This has been corroborated by
posts on the site.  His paddles are longer
 and have more holes.
 5) As far as I can tell, both systems have negligible impact at low speeds
(e.g. < 130 knots)
 5) Precise-flight electrics have a safety feature that detects if there was
not full deployment of both sides within
 a certain time delta.   If not, both sides retract fully.    Bill's don't
have that feature.  You can retract them in the normal
 way or you can yank the power and they clutch will disengage and allow full
retraction.
 Bill's are two unsynchronized motors.   You turn the motor on until the
brakes are in the position you want and then
 turn the motor off.   Bill says in practice they always work precisely
together.
 6) Bill's can be set at any intermediate position.  Precise-flight cannot.
 It takes about 4 seconds to fully deploy
 7) for pricing, I would suggest you call the obvious sources
 
 I was most concerned with max descent rate for emergency purposes.   In
summary I wanted a) max descent
 b) least installation hassle (vs. precise flight or either type)  c) least
maintenance hassle  (vs. mechanical)
 I decided I was comfortable without the auto-detect of assymetric deployment.
 
 regards,
 
 Colyn