What is this David? Some sort of cyber bulling? Should I be scared off the forum or something?
No and No. This is challenging the proposed concept. Simple as that.
but so far it's lacking anything meaningful that I can benefit from.
Well I can't help you then. You would need to do a bunch of research on the topic yourself and form some opinions based on scientific data. If this concept was easy, everyone would be doing it now. Look at all the Electronic Ignition systems that are available for experimental aircraft. I would not install any of them. Not saying they do not fire the spark plugs, and I fly a mates plane with one, but they only half address the situation. I could sit here for hours on this alone. But I do have plenty of other more pressing things to do.
So if a single lever system was easy....why are there none? That was basically your original question. You asked for thoughts, I gave you mine. I think it is a dumb idea, taking out the human brain from the loop. And then giving it no way of making parameter adjustments should you have detected a problem.
Even GAMI have a really good system for ignition control, yet it has been years and still not on the market. How many of us have pressure sensors in our engines? The sort that sample at a rate of something like 1 MHZ recording ICP's? None of us. So how does Dynon or someone else come up with a system to retrofit to all sorts of engines without resorting to this? Lookup tables are fine, we use them here at work, but when it comes to an aero engine, that is fine provided you have the table right. But when things go astray, like a failing plug or injector clogging or worse.....what is it going to do. How will it handle it.
Let me ask you to ponder a quick question, and you have to be honest with yourself here....and you have only 60 seconds to answer this............... You are flying over the Rockies at 14,000 feet, fat dumb and happy at night, LOP or ROP, and your wife is admiring the moon in the night sky, kids asleep in the back, and you notice your EGT on cylinder 4 has dropped a bit, and the CHT on that same pot is rising fairly quickly. You have no airports anywhere in gliding distance, the Lowest Safe is not far below and an outlanding there is certain death. You now have 30-40 seconds left to make a correct decission. So what did you do?
Would I trust this to some Lookup Table and fault diagnosis box on a single lever operation............ NO WAY!!!
Time to disgorge all that knowledge and understanding that you claim you have and enlighten us. We wait with bated breath.
I find that comment rather condescending, and rude. It may well be you meant it with some tongue in cheek humour and given the seriusness of this topic, or my serious take on it, I am not easily seeing any humour in the question. So my apologies if you had meant it more humourously.
I could sit here for days and days, and not be able to disgorge the info you need, or want, for a start I have no idea what it is you know, or dont know, and what you understand and do not. This is not just a few paragraphs and its all over thing.
And this is the problem, when we are taught to fly, most of what are taught about engine management is either wrong or misguided and is able to fit into less words than this post. So trust me when I say, when I was taught to fly, just like everyone else I come across, we all learned the same stuff. It is just not enough. What I did was make it a never ending quest to learn more but for a while, I did not know what I did not know. Then I started learning more about aero engines from guys like George Braly John Deakin and Walter Atkinson, then as my education expanded my knowledge, I started to realise, I know stuff, but did not understand the stuff, then the more I understood, the more I needed to know.
This takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort and money. I did have the benefit of being an engineer, and having been in motorsport, racing cars building engines etc, so this all helped, but the time you think you know it all, you are wrong, so I have just made it my job to learn, soak it up like a sponge.
Maybe I am suffering the internet written words do not offer inflection and tone syndrome, maybe you are too, but if you want me to disgorge education, that I have worked hard for and spent a lot of money on, you may need to lighten up a little
and ask some good questions, engage in debate based on data proven facts, not old wives tales passed down from instructors or mechanics.
I have a family motto or two.....one that springs to mind, "Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better" and that sums up my thoughts on the dumbing down of aviation and in this case a simple one solution single lever to fit all.
All the best!
David
