Steve
That's exactly what
I was thinking. I prefer to have both my pumps on separate switches, but
I don't see any fire hazard in regards to leaving your pump on the
master. Like you said, if there's one switch you'll hit, it's the
master.
Cheers,
Rusty (hope I don't
get flamed
<g>)
No
flames Rusty - just fire {:>).
If I
understand this discussion correctly, I can think of a number of reasons I
might want my master switch on (on the ground) and would not want the fuel
pump running. But, I would presume in that case one could pull a circuit
breaker to disable the fuel pump. I would think you would hear the pump
running - if not (and you canard guys might not) you might quickly run your
battery down with that pump drawing its 5 - 9 amps with the Master on because
you wanted to work on your intercom wiring,etc.
Here's
a possible safety issue (may be far feched, but then that's the ones that get
you). You have your pump wired through your master power switch.
You fuel pump malfunctions - say it shorts out and starts to draw a
bunch of amps in that case, unless you have the pump on a circuit breaker (you
do don't you?) , you would be forced to turn off the master switch - but wait
that turns off your engine!
Your
fuel pressure guage/alarm will give you the first indication of pump
failure. Then as it fall (rather quickly) below a certain level, the
leaning of the mixture will cause the tone of the engine to change follow
shortly by surging and stumbling followed even more shortly by engine
stoppage. It takes my system approx 3 - 5 seconds from the time the pump
shuts off until the engine has stopped producing
power.
My
personal preference is all critical subsystems require an overt action by me
to either turn them on or turn them off. I do not personally like
machines/software that want to do important things for me as I have found they
and I don't always agree on the needed action in all circumstances. My
suggestion is think hard about it before you hardwire yourself into
modes that may preclude you having full control over a
situation.
But,
then that is just my personal preference.
Ed
Anderson