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I flew for 6 years with two batteries (one alternator) and hauled around
the extra 16+ lbs of battery. The only time I ever found it somewhat useful
was starting on cold mornings. I finally removed the second battery and now
simply swap out the battery ever year or two. While it happens, alternator
failures are rare (mine is underdriven by approx 40%) and if you have a
suitable warning (big yellow light in front of my eyeballs as well as
voltage meter) of voltage abnormalities, a single battery will get you to an
airport most places. For those of you flying in desolate wilderness, then
two batteries are a different matter.
I think you will find that almost everyone currently flying is flying with
one alternator and battery. I have not heard of any problems with such.
The additional complexity and more belts make me question the need for two
alternators, when I never needed the second battery. But, that is my
personal viewpoint and you need to do what makes you feel comfortable.
FWIW
Ed
Ed Anderson
RV-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
Matthews, NC
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Steitle" <msteitle@mail.utexas.edu>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 3:09 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: alternator redundancy
Ken,
Something to consider... a second conventional alternator adds a second
fan
belt. If one lets go, the second one (hopefully) will survive to continue
spinning the water pump and alternator. If you loose both belts at the
same time, you will have to land asap since your coolant won't be
circulating. Also, these little Geo alternators are about half the weight
of the Mazda unit, so by this rationale there isn't a weight penalty.
Mark S.
At 06:35 PM 6/15/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>Hi Mike,
>I've been kicking this around for quite some time (I was a motorcycle
>mechanic while in college). The idea was to use a motorcycle or
>snowmobile magneto. The problem is that there just isn't much room on
the
>between the flywheel and the redrive to mount the magneto components. I
>just recently received my 2.85 redrive from Tracy and hope to take
another
>look at this problem this fall. There is also a possibility of mounting
>the magneto components on the accesory end of the engine. More to follow
>in the coming months; I hope someone beats me to finding a solution.
>
>Ken Powell
>
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> > There was a thread a while back in which one of our colleagues
> suggested the
> > possibility for a second alternator perhaps mounted on the PSRU??
> >
> > Could be a lighter option for redundancy than two batteries
> >
> > Did this go anywhere?
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
> > >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html
>
> >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
> >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html
>> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
>> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html
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