I would think that given the lack of maintenance requirements and ease of starting a solid-state ignition is a no brainer.
Advance management is the cherry on the cake and work is being done to find a satisfactory solution for turbo engines as well. A solution derived from the iE2 engine would not be a total surprise given the existing cooperation between Lycoming and SF.
With regards to track record, it’s the same team that came up with the PlanePower line – not exactly their first picnic.
As I understand things the primary reason for ignition advance is that it is advantageous as the MP goes down ( ie as an aircraft climbs ) in view of the fact that aircraft operate in a very narrow cruise RPM range and the very reason for fitting a Turbocharger is to maintain sea level MP at altitude this seems to limit the advantages of electronic ignition in supercharged engines.
Something which fixes the issues with starting a hot injected engine is interesting in itself, without any performance gains. If maintenance is indeed easier, that’s a big plus.
Would it do that?
A hot fuel injected engine doesn’t want to start because the pipes going to the injectors, and probably others, are full of vapourised fuel, which has to be purged. It’s not because the magneto isn’t making a spark; it must still be doing that.
Avoiding mag maintenance is a big plus.
Nobody is currently doing a D3000 replacement, which speaks volumes for the certification (read: suspected reliability etc) issues.
I used to build electronic ignition systems for motorbikes, as a hobby, aged 16-17. The biggest part of the improvement by far was just replacing the contact points with an optical (or magnetic – better for dust issues) sensor.
A hot engine start either with ElectroAir, SF or iE2 is a non-event. I like counting 12 blades, priming, putting mags on and advancing mixture with the third hand but there is really something to be said about push-button simplicity…
Less ignition advance and a much stronger spark are quite effective problem-solvers.
Electroair is working on an electronic replacement for the D3000. The initial coil-over idea did not pan out.
What plane and what engine do you have, T28?
The push-button is an Acclaim with Electroair.
The blade-count is a bit older.
The simple and cheap answer to starting problems is to fit a slickstart , fitting them to the training fleet that I owned saved the cost of the slickstart many times over in the batteries and starter motors that inept student pilots did not wreck because the engines started no matter how much they got abused.
It is a mystery to me why everyone in the UK flight training industry does not fit slickstarts, to me the decision not to is so shortsighted.
I had not heard of slickstart – thanks
denopa wrote:
I had not heard of slickstart – thanks
If you have a TIO-540-AE2A in fact you already have such a system installed. But from my experience that does not solve the hot starting issues of that engine…
