It's only a $20,000 - $40,000+ option, depending on your engine and airframe. This assumes you're in the market for a retrofit. You can imagine owners are jumping right on that.;)
Yeah, that's the unfortunate thing about aviation engines currently. Everything is stupidly expensive. The EFI retrofit costs more than most modern fuel injected cars. Hell for that money you can get a mid level luxury auto with drive by wire and other nifty technologies.
More and more modern aircraft are getting this feature but it has its downside. A DA-42's accident, which is a twin, was traced back to ignition failure
That's why it's a good idea to have mags as a backup. A flip of a switch and they can be active powering the engine. I've seen setups like this on homebuilt engines and they work amazingly well.
Liquid cooling adds weight and load on the engine. A coolant leak means a scrubbed flight. A water pump is yet one more component which can fail.
True, but modern liquid cooling designs are much more reliable than those of yesteryear. And for the increased load the increased power output would more than make up for it. Most LSA's have a Rotax wich is air/liquid cooled. The cylinder heads are liquid cooled for even cooling, and they seem to be pretty reliable.
Also, shock cooling is a myth. If it were real, it would be a noteworthy statics for twins and especially for twins used for primary training
Shock cooling is more of a maintenance item than a failure item. It reduces the usable life of the cylinders and can lead to early formation of cracking or scoring of the cylinders. Most high performance twins have cowl flaps to help prevent this. I'm not sure why/if there aren't any statistics on this. But my A&P buddies can personally attest to having seen the effects on cylinder bores.
EFI would largely eliminate carb ice on carburated airplanes. An alternate source of air would be needed, just like on larger Mechanical fuel injected airplanes.
Eliminating the user mixture control would allow the pilot (student pilots especially) to focus more on flying the airplane than tuning mixture for best economy. It would also reduce the wear and tear on an engine from improperly leaning the mix.
Modern ignition could allow for more power in a more reliable system than magnetos. CDI units are largely bulletproof anymore and will frequently run the life of the engine without maintenance. A backup magneto system can be present in case of electrical failure.
Liquid cooling would eliminate the need for concern about shock cooling (thermostats are good things) and would reduce the amount of worry about exhaust gas entering the cockpit through the muffler shroud for the heater. Plus an actual working heater/defroster would be a handy thing on those cold winter days. Honestly nothing is more pathetic than the "heater" in a 172.
It would also reduce hot spots within the engine and reliability concerns there. Plus not having huge open holes in the front of the cowling would reduce the amount of bird nests.
Interesting. There are quite a lot of auto conversions running around in the homebuilt community and they typically have TBO's in the range of 1500-2000 hours. And Engine failure, while slightly more common than in your standard Lycoming/Continental crowd, still happens very rarely. Especially considering most of these engines are homebuilt from parts kits and not professionally maintained I think that's a very good track record.
Honestly the whole "certified" engine issue is really holding GA back. A 40+ year old Conty design can run for 2000 hours while A modern automotive engine can run for 10,000 or so with very poor maintenance and in harder conditions. (how often do you put your ga engine through constant cycles of full throttle acceleration and sudden deceleration with no warmup time)
I think Rotax is on the right track, but they need to go further. EFI, Modern variable ignition, and liquid cooling would all benifit aviation immensely. Plus if you move them out of the space where a 100hp engine costs $30,000 to replace you can make aviation more available to all.
That would be great. I would love to interrupt a meeting by throwing off my shoes and shuffling around the room in my socks. "Sorry my laptop's battery is almost dead" It would be wonderful.
Uhh, I think it was a joke about nobody on Slashdot actually ever clicking links for articles. IE nobody ever RTFA on this site.:P
Not really a statement about slashdot's unimportance or anything related.
They come with the "Gimic" accessory in the box. GH2 is $80 with a guitar. So you walk in to the store and walk out with a box containing everything you need to play. Every person I've had play my version has gone and bought one of their own. One friend even bought a PS2 just for GH2. Same story as the Wii really. Especially with displays set up in BestBuys and Wal-Marts around the country, they are doing very well in the casual market.
5000kg with 120hp? You're kidding right? I've towed that much (11,000lbs) with an older 1/2 ton v8 manual pickup and it was working pretty hard at it, especially up hills. Most modern 1/2 ton pickups are only rated for 6-10k lbs towing capacity.
How badly were you having to slide the clutch to get started on that. Did you have a super granny (super low first gear) or something to get going? And what speeds were you capable of acheiving with that setup?
Not necessarily doubting you, it just doesn't sound right given what I know about towing heavy vehicles around (old school buses and the like).
One of the bigger surprises when I bought my 360 was the arcade. I got it with Dead Rising and Chrome Hounds. After getting thoroughly frustrated or bored with both titles one night I started looking for something to do with my $400 investment. $30 later in the arcade and now I have a collection of games I can pick up and play whenever. Some of them are pretty inventive. Wik is very strange but good. Not to mention they have DOOM! Quite a few of them have multiplayer built in too.
Naturally these won't supplant the normal A list titles, but when I am looking for some quick game play they fit the bill nicely. Just have to make sure to download the demos before buying them, the quality can vary widely.
Slashdot Mirror
It's only a $20,000 - $40,000+ option, depending on your engine and airframe. This assumes you're in the market for a retrofit. You can imagine owners are jumping right on that. ;)
Yeah, that's the unfortunate thing about aviation engines currently. Everything is stupidly expensive. The EFI retrofit costs more than most modern fuel injected cars. Hell for that money you can get a mid level luxury auto with drive by wire and other nifty technologies.
More and more modern aircraft are getting this feature but it has its downside. A DA-42's accident, which is a twin, was traced back to ignition failure
That's why it's a good idea to have mags as a backup. A flip of a switch and they can be active powering the engine. I've seen setups like this on homebuilt engines and they work amazingly well.
Liquid cooling adds weight and load on the engine. A coolant leak means a scrubbed flight. A water pump is yet one more component which can fail.
True, but modern liquid cooling designs are much more reliable than those of yesteryear. And for the increased load the increased power output would more than make up for it. Most LSA's have a Rotax wich is air/liquid cooled. The cylinder heads are liquid cooled for even cooling, and they seem to be pretty reliable.
Also, shock cooling is a myth. If it were real, it would be a noteworthy statics for twins and especially for twins used for primary training
Shock cooling is more of a maintenance item than a failure item. It reduces the usable life of the cylinders and can lead to early formation of cracking or scoring of the cylinders. Most high performance twins have cowl flaps to help prevent this. I'm not sure why/if there aren't any statistics on this. But my A&P buddies can personally attest to having seen the effects on cylinder bores.
Quick followup.
Modern engines would increase safety as well.
EFI would largely eliminate carb ice on carburated airplanes. An alternate source of air would be needed, just like on larger Mechanical fuel injected airplanes.
Eliminating the user mixture control would allow the pilot (student pilots especially) to focus more on flying the airplane than tuning mixture for best economy. It would also reduce the wear and tear on an engine from improperly leaning the mix.
Modern ignition could allow for more power in a more reliable system than magnetos. CDI units are largely bulletproof anymore and will frequently run the life of the engine without maintenance. A backup magneto system can be present in case of electrical failure.
Liquid cooling would eliminate the need for concern about shock cooling (thermostats are good things) and would reduce the amount of worry about exhaust gas entering the cockpit through the muffler shroud for the heater. Plus an actual working heater/defroster would be a handy thing on those cold winter days. Honestly nothing is more pathetic than the "heater" in a 172.
It would also reduce hot spots within the engine and reliability concerns there. Plus not having huge open holes in the front of the cowling would reduce the amount of bird nests.
Interesting. There are quite a lot of auto conversions running around in the homebuilt community and they typically have TBO's in the range of 1500-2000 hours. And Engine failure, while slightly more common than in your standard Lycoming/Continental crowd, still happens very rarely. Especially considering most of these engines are homebuilt from parts kits and not professionally maintained I think that's a very good track record.
Honestly the whole "certified" engine issue is really holding GA back. A 40+ year old Conty design can run for 2000 hours while A modern automotive engine can run for 10,000 or so with very poor maintenance and in harder conditions. (how often do you put your ga engine through constant cycles of full throttle acceleration and sudden deceleration with no warmup time)
I think Rotax is on the right track, but they need to go further. EFI, Modern variable ignition, and liquid cooling would all benifit aviation immensely. Plus if you move them out of the space where a 100hp engine costs $30,000 to replace you can make aviation more available to all.
That would be great. I would love to interrupt a meeting by throwing off my shoes and shuffling around the room in my socks. "Sorry my laptop's battery is almost dead" It would be wonderful.
Uhh, I think it was a joke about nobody on Slashdot actually ever clicking links for articles. IE nobody ever RTFA on this site. :P
Not really a statement about slashdot's unimportance or anything related.
They come with the "Gimic" accessory in the box. GH2 is $80 with a guitar. So you walk in to the store and walk out with a box containing everything you need to play. Every person I've had play my version has gone and bought one of their own. One friend even bought a PS2 just for GH2. Same story as the Wii really. Especially with displays set up in BestBuys and Wal-Marts around the country, they are doing very well in the casual market.
5000kg with 120hp? You're kidding right? I've towed that much (11,000lbs) with an older 1/2 ton v8 manual pickup and it was working pretty hard at it, especially up hills. Most modern 1/2 ton pickups are only rated for 6-10k lbs towing capacity. How badly were you having to slide the clutch to get started on that. Did you have a super granny (super low first gear) or something to get going? And what speeds were you capable of acheiving with that setup? Not necessarily doubting you, it just doesn't sound right given what I know about towing heavy vehicles around (old school buses and the like).
One of the bigger surprises when I bought my 360 was the arcade. I got it with Dead Rising and Chrome Hounds. After getting thoroughly frustrated or bored with both titles one night I started looking for something to do with my $400 investment. $30 later in the arcade and now I have a collection of games I can pick up and play whenever. Some of them are pretty inventive. Wik is very strange but good. Not to mention they have DOOM! Quite a few of them have multiplayer built in too.
Naturally these won't supplant the normal A list titles, but when I am looking for some quick game play they fit the bill nicely. Just have to make sure to download the demos before buying them, the quality can vary widely.