Return-Path: Received: from marvkaye.olsusa.com ([207.30.195.98]) by ns1.olsusa.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-64832U3500L350S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Wed, 12 Jul 2000 10:36:45 -0400 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20000712103826.00adcdb0@olsusa.com> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 10:43:01 -0400 To: lancair.list@olsusa.com From: "Rumburg, William" (by way of Marvin Kaye ) Subject: Vacuum Instrument bashing! X-Mailing-List: lancair.list@olsusa.com Reply-To: lancair.list@olsusa.com Mime-Version: 1.0 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> << Lancair Builders' Mail List >> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> Time: 08:35:51 AM PST US From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" Subject: Lancair-List: Re: Vacuum Instrument bashing! --> Lancair-List message posted by: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" >If your alternator goes out, your battery dies or your buss fries, a >few suck type instruments would look mighty good up there in a murky sky. The 'dark panel' syndrome has been topic of many a hair-raising, wing-and-a-prayer hangar tale for decades. Virtually all of these experiences happend in a government approved, certified aircraft where the technology and design philosophy are carved into 1960's era regulatory stone. >With all electric, you could lose all instrments at once unless you have a >lot of back up electrical systems in place. There is no reason for a modern aircraft to suffer an electrical emergency of any kind. Wires are no longer cotton-covered-rubber or nylon-over-PVC insulation. Reasonably maintained batteries are dependable sources of power when and if the alternator craps. A second alternator capable of extended endurance engine powered flight costs less than a vacuum system and weighs 1/2 to 1/3 the pounds. Certified alternators repeately demonstrate 50-200 hrs limits before something breaks . . . modern alternators that ran the lifetime of the automobile they came out of are ready to go another thousand hours or so in your airplane. Simple departures from system architectures revered for decades provide operational alternatives to every simple failure of any component. Physics and facts don't support the rhetoric. Busses don't "fry", any battery that enjoys a modicum of preventative maintenance doesn't die in flight, and alternators (particulary two of them) are going to be there in one form or another when you need them. MOST importantly, YOUR airplane is going to be fabricated and maintined under aviation's finest traditions of craftsmanship and attention to detail. On an assembly line, the kid bucking rivets has been working there two weeks. If something doesn't quite line up, he'll stick an awl into the hole and MAKE them line up. If something gets bent or broke, 3 supervisors and 5 inspectors will stand around for an hour and deduce the MINIMUM effort and expense that will allow the factory to LEGALLY put the airplane out the door. Is that how your airplane goes together? >So you install double alternators, double batteries, seperate busses and so >on. Also, if I am not off the bubble, electric instruments cost a lot more. True. But you save on vacuum system weight and installation time. The rat's nest of plumbing and hoses behind panel go away. Weight of system goes down. In 1965 while working at Cessna single engine engineering I was told that it was worth $100/pound to the end user to reduce the weight of an airplane. Each pound left OUT didn't have to be fabricated, installed, maintained nor was fuel burned carrying that extra pound of stuff around in the sky for the lifetime of the airplane. What is a pound of excess weight worth to you 35 years later? What's it worth to have reliability in a single engine airplane that rivals or exceeds that of a LearJet? What's it worth NOT to fabricate, install and maintain several pounds of plumbing? >Vac. pumps have been around for ever and to suddenly say they are no good >makes little sense. With Vac. pumps as with most other things, you get what >you pay for. Even one supposedly good for only three hundred hours would >run most pilots three years. It runs deeper than getting what you pay for . . . you can pay a lot of money for trash. If you endorse the "been around forever" philosophy then how about keeping dual VOR and an ADF in the panel? I know some folks that would make you a really good deal on a DME. I work daily within the morass of regulated aviation. A substantial portion of my time is expended trying to figure out how to fix a problem without opening the Pandora's box of recertification. The system works against truly effective solutions to problems. The very reguations offered up in the quest for aviation utopia are in fact making airplanes less friendly to the people who own, maintain and fly them. You don't know how refreshing it is to come home and work the folks who are building the finest airplanes to have ever flown. You may find comfort in a familiarity with "the devil you know". However a little study of aviation's history and some observation of truly modern and (more important) UNREGULATED evolution of aviation technology proves that "the devil you don't know" is really a pretty nice guy. Bob . . . -------------------------------------------- ( Knowing about a thing is different than ) ( understanding it. One can know a lot ) ( and still understand nothing. ) ( C.F. Kettering ) -------------------------------------------- http://www.aeroelectric.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html LML Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>