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It's interesting to see that a lot of builders
prefer a mix of breakers and fuses. I like the flexibility and
observability of the Klixon 7277 breakers. (BTW, Aerocraft Parts still has
very good prices on these compared to other suppliers.) The flexibility of
being able to quickly and selectively control power to various components
is very convenient when initially bringing up and testing a new panel as well as
a newly wired airframe. It also provides the most options if there is an
in-flight problem. The observability part means if something quits working
you can visually scan the breakers and easily see if one has tripped.
That's harder to do with fuses, although it wouldn't be all that hard to
set up annuciators that would let you know if a fuse has blown; and even tell
you which fuse.
On the other hand, as some folks have pointed out,
there's not a lot of room on some panels, the Legacy in particular.
Putting some devices on fuses to free up panel space is not a bad
idea, as long as they are things that you'd be ok with simply leaving off until
after landing. If the proper fuse/circuit breakers and wire gauges are
used then a blown fuse or tripped breaker most times indicates a
problem that isn't going to go away by resetting the circuit. It may go
away for a while, but it will very likely be back. As an engineer I once worked
with liked to say, "Problems that go away on their own, come back on their
own."
I guess the bottom line is each builder is free to
decide what works best for their airplane, which is one of the fun things about
being experimental.
Tom Gourley
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