There is absolutely NO doubt that he knows the
difference between fuses and breakers and WHY either one would be used.
Thomas;
Certainly not impugning the competence
of the flight instructors; just suggesting the design engineers may have other reasons
than cost. One may be reliability. The reliability of CBs goes down
significantly after they have experienced a ‘trip’. I recall
reading one experts opinion that a CB should be replaced after a ‘trip’.
Yeah; seems extreme. The modern philosophy of circuit design is to design
for fault tolerance, so a fault; once causing the protection device to open, is
left for repair when you land.
The key for using fuses is fault
tolerant circuit design and proper selection and sizing of fuses. Having
done this; studies suggest that the fuse offers higher reliability and lower
cost.
There certainly reasons for either CBs
or fuses, and I have both in my plane. For my flight critical circuits I
opted for simple, fault tolerance and fuses. I wouldn’t argue with
someone making a different choice.
FWIW,
Al