From: "Charlie England ceengland7@gmail.com" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
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To: flyrotary <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Warning: Electrical rant mode
Message-ID: <9faef59e-c08e-df38-e782-b906b9f71508@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2021 14:11:48 -0500
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We don't talk a lot about electrical stuff here, but we probably should. 
A couple of months ago there was an on-airport engine-out crash landing 
of an LS V8 powered P51 replica in CA, and a subsequent discussion on 
the HBA forum with the non-builder, non-flying owner asking what could 
have gone wrong. He could offer almost no info about the way the plane 
was set up, but Eliot Seguin was doing what was supposed to be a simple 
flying off of the insurance company-dictated 5 hours flight time when 
the failure happened, and he just  posted a long Youtube video on the 
flight and accident sequence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PHTVTw_Y2A
I found the video very hard to watch due to the visual edit cuts every 
second or two, but the after-action analysis is worth the hour you'll 
spend watching.

Guys, the builder of that a/c seemed to find every possible way to make 
the electrical system failure-prone. Seguin describes the elaborate 
steps they took prior to him flying the a/c to inspect the airframe, but 
they apparently totally ignored the electrical system. Because of that, 
the choices the builder made almost certainly caused the original gear 
issue, and then caused the total electrical failure that took out 
everything in the a/c, including the engine. _There is no justification 
for wiring an a/c the way this one was wired.

_With most of us running automotive style engine control, electricity is 
obviously quite critical to engine operation. We really should do 
Failure Mode Effects Analysis on the whole plane, including the 
electrical system, but with electrically dependent engines, it's 
critical. Draw your schematic. Look at *every single wire*. Pretend that 
it got broken, and ask what happens, and then ask what plan you have in 
place to work around it. Then short it to ground, and ask the same 
questions. (You can get very different effects.) Move to the next wire, 
and do it again. Rinse; repeat. Then fail each component and ask the 
questions.

Don't let any one electrical issue cause the engine to stop, or cause 
more than momentary distraction from normal flight. Most of us know 
about the Aeroelectric Connection email list, but if you don't, please 
sign up for the list and get the book (relatively inexpensive in print; 
free for download). If you're not absolutely confident in your 
electrical design decisions (or maybe even if you are), get peer review. 
The AEC list is best, but at least ask here if you don't want to sign up 
over there. There are a *lot* of wrong ways to wire an a/c.

I hate it that the FAA's accident database will now show yet another 
crash 'caused' by an alternative engine, when in fact it was caused by 
uninformed/bad electrical design decisions made by the builder.

OK, rant mode off...

Charlie
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    We don't talk a lot about electrical stuff here, but we probably
    should. A couple of months ago there was an on-airport engine-out
    crash landing of an LS V8 powered P51 replica in CA, and a
    subsequent discussion on the HBA forum with the non-builder,
    non-flying owner asking what could have gone wrong. He could offer
    almost no info about the way the plane was set up, but Eliot Seguin
    was doing what was supposed to be a simple flying off of the
    insurance company-dictated 5 hours flight time when the failure
    happened, and he just  posted a long Youtube video on the flight and
    accident sequence. <br>
    <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PHTVTw_Y2A">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PHTVTw_Y2A</a><br>
    I found the video very hard to watch due to the visual edit cuts
    every second or two, but the after-action analysis is worth the hour
    you'll spend watching.<br>
    <br>
    Guys, the builder of that a/c seemed to find every possible way to
    make the electrical system failure-prone. Seguin describes the
    elaborate steps they took prior to him flying the a/c to inspect the
    airframe, but they apparently totally ignored the electrical system.
    Because of that, the choices the builder made almost certainly
    caused the original gear issue, and then caused the total electrical
    failure that took out everything in the a/c, including the engine. <u>There
      is no justification for wiring an a/c the way this one was wired.<br>
      <br>
    </u>With most of us running automotive style engine control,
    electricity is obviously quite critical to engine operation. We
    really should do Failure Mode Effects Analysis on the whole plane,
    including the electrical system, but with electrically dependent
    engines, it's critical. Draw your schematic. Look at *every single
    wire*. Pretend that it got broken, and ask what happens, and then
    ask what plan you have in place to work around it. Then short it to
    ground, and ask the same questions. (You can get very different
    effects.) Move to the next wire, and do it again. Rinse; repeat.
    Then fail each component and ask the questions. <br>
    <br>
    Don't let any one electrical issue cause the engine to stop, or
    cause more than momentary distraction from normal flight. Most of us
    know about the Aeroelectric Connection email list, but if you don't,
    please sign up for the list and get the book (relatively inexpensive
    in print; free for download). If you're not absolutely confident in
    your electrical design decisions (or maybe even if you are), get
    peer review. The AEC list is best, but at least ask here if you
    don't want to sign up over there. There are a *lot* of wrong ways to
    wire an a/c.<br>
    <br>
    I hate it that the FAA's accident database will now show yet another
    crash 'caused' by an alternative engine, when in fact it was caused
    by uninformed/bad electrical design decisions made by the builder.<br>
    <br>
    OK, rant mode off...<br>
    <br>
    Charlie<br>
    <u></u>
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