The alarm went off and I taxied back to the hangar.  My reaction was not to install another 30 to 40 pounds of electrical stuff on the aircraft.

 

Tracy

Tracy, I understand your point here. If the pilot shows proper discipline and pays attention as he should, you are correct that significant weight savings is to be had. I think your thread throughout your posts has been, build it well, keep it simple, fly the damm thing. I am a K.I.S.S. proponent myself.

 I do believe that there can be in-air failures though. The thing is that the EXP buss is about 1 pound and does all the regular switches and the portion that makes it redundant probably weighs around an ounce. (contactor) The backup battery will weigh 5 or 6 pounds. (Use a small one.) Say 10 pounds for a small battery with back up capability. I would go on a diet myself for the piece of mind that the backup gives me. You skinny guys don't have that option OK. But you have an advantage to begin with! I DO generally believe too much is made of redundancy. People forget that the dual ignition on planes was done primarily for POWER not backup. If they don't believe it they should note that all the large displacement twin motorcycles coming out with a big cylinder like an aircraft engine are going to dual ignition, because it runs better. You could say they only have one propeller shaft, and that is a VERY important part!

Bill Jepson