philiplane

If Champion made a dual mag electronic replacement, you can be assured it will cost more than $6k. They get $1900 for a new conventional single magneto now, after the latest round of price increases.

On a new installation, failure modes are simple. Not enough torque on the nuts, or a crimped connection failure, for example. There's also the question of whether the required standby battery was added, and if it was properly installed to be a true backup.

Given Champion's pricing, I would expect they'll price this at $3k per unit.

I also have an extensive background in all things electrical, and avionics. I've had Surefly SIMs on my own Aztec since they were first approved. And yet there is no way I would put dual sims on each engine, until 5-10 years of experience has passed with no unexpected failures. I am based at Pompano and I know of the accident airplane, the pilot, and the instructor who perished in this unfortunate crash. We'll see what the final report says next year, but I would expect it will come down to some sort of installation error.

Plane Power makes the 150 amp belt-drive FLX series alternator that should fit. It puts out over 70 amps at idle.

This plane also had an inflight loss of power a day or two before the crash, which occurred about a week after the engine change and Surefly installation: New Engine equipped with Surefly Electronic Ignition. Prelim- https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/ ... 194668/pdf ....The airplane then flew south to North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport (F45), West Palm Beach, Florida, where it performed a touch and go landing. During the subsequent takeoff, the airplane reached an altitude of 75 ft above ground level (agl), made a right turn and was 25 ft agl above a pond at the last recorded data point. A witness at the airport stated that he observed an airplane perform a touch and go landing on runway 27L. The airplane took off, performed a 180° descending right turn and disappeared behind trees. He then heard the airplane splash into water. He and another person drove to the pond to render assistance. The airplane was located in a pond about 600 ft to the right of the departure end of runway 27L. The airplane was submerged in about 15 ft of water. The right wing was impact separated and located on the north side of the pond. ....Both electronic magnetos remained attached to the engine. Power was applied to both electronic magnetos. One tower of the left magneto produced spark when the magneto drive was rotated by hand. The right magneto produced no spark when rotated by hand. Water drained from both magnetos when the distributor covers were removed. Both magnetos were set aside to dry overnight. Both magnetos were powered the following morning and rotated using an electric drill. Neither magneto produced spark from any electrode tower. According to a mechanic, on or about July 2, 2024, he removed the airplane’s previously installed Lycoming O-320-D3G engine and installed a Lycoming O-320-D2B. He further converted the engine to a O-320-D2A by replacing the Bendix magnetos with Slick magnetos. The owner of the airplane then supplied the mechanic with two Surefly, electronic ignition modules, which were installed under a supplemental type certificate (STC) which also required the installation of a backup battery system.

I wish we had a time machine to go back to those prices. Those isolators are now $980 each.

We have 50% more population now, why don't we have 50% more pilots? We have fewer total pilots today than in the past.

Sorry to say, but the real reason we have fewer GA pilot/owners is due to a lack of enthusiasm for aviation. More on point, we have a generation of soft people who don't like hard work and challenges. They would rather play video games than explore the world. And GA is not simple or easy.

I have plenty of friends who buy a new Cirrus every 3-5 years. They spend between $900k to $1.35 million for a fixed gear piston single. And another friend just bought a new Piper Archer LX, and it was $559,000 with a/c and two other options. Fully loaded it would have been $630k. But, overall there is a declining population of pilots who buy airplanes, coupled with airplane prices that have tripled or quadrupled since the heyday of GA in the late 1970's. That is the insurmountable obstacle: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2021/04/28/prices-for-new-general-aviation-aircraft-may-be-pricing-pilots-out-of-the-market/ “In 1970 a Cessna 172 was 1.3 times the average salary in the U.S. and a Bonanza was 5 times the average. Today it is 6 times the average salary for a 172 and 14 times the average salary for a Bonanza. Anyone else wonder how [the manufacturers] are staying in business?” According to Plane & Pilot magazine, the price of a new Cessna 172 was $12,500 in 1970 and the average salary in the United States was $6,186. In 2021 dollars the 1970 sticker would equate to about $85,000. But with the current ask for a new 172 at $432,000 minimum, the ubiquitous Skyhawk has even outpaced the Bonanza (which cost around $50,000 new in 1970) in terms of cost growth. Piper’s venerable Cherokee, the latest edition of which - the Piper 100i - debuted at the recent Sun ‘n Fun airshow in Florida, cost about $13,000 in 1970. Today, the price for one ranges from $259,000 to $285,000. Chinese-owned Cirrus Aircraft has only been making production piston-singles since 1995 but the list price for its parachute-equipped, fixed-gear SR-22 was $755,000 in 2020.

New in the box Hartzell 3 blade PHC series bare aluminum spinner part number is C-3532-5 This fits most aluminum and composite blade equipped Hartzell props. Spinner only. $800 shipped.

They complied with the AD due to some sort of prop strike. That's the only reason to do it. If it was a result of a non-running prop strike, where the nose gear collapsed while towing for example, the engine is probably fine. No damage to rotating parts under power in that case. The exhaust system is the biggest concern. Especially the turbo transition piece.

gone

sample_aeronautical_lease_dummy.pdf

Sheltair had their usual 3-5 percent land lease rent increase from the city. So they added a zero to that number, and passed that increase along to their tenants. It must be to pay for the new doors, roofs, upgraded electrical systems....oh wait...all of those have been neglected for the past 48 years. The buildings are literally falling apart.

Updating this topic- At FXE and PMP, Sheltair is raising the rents by 50 percent. A standard, 1000 square foot, 40 foot wide, rusty, leaky, 45 year old tee hangar is going from $890 per month to $1350. You can get better hangars for less money anywhere else.

when was the last time the HSI was calibrated? It should be checked every two years. The remote compass and the HSI require regular inspections to ensure accuracy.

Unfortunately the tail comes off first in most cases

South Florida heat is a battery killer. I never expect more than 3 years from any battery. The manufacturer's instructions say to store batteries below 95 degrees. But planes here experience 95 degree for half of the year. Sometimes more, in these un-insulated hangars, where it gets to 110 degrees from June to September. You'd have to take the battery out between flights and store it in an air-conditioned space to get more than 3 years from one. When I lived in Connecticut, I could get 7 to 9 years from a battery.

"instrument repairs" means opening up individual instruments for repair. That's all. Avionics repair stations are only needed to do the altimeter and transponder 24 month inspections, and to open up radios or instruments such as altimeters and airspeed indicators. Everything else on the plane is the domain of A&P's. Including auto pilot installations, and changes of their components.

The SIM should have an air blast tube focused on it. Lycoming used to provide those when using Bendix mags, but when Slick mags became the standard, the blast tubes went away.

Then your engine is improperly tuned.

It's hard for our brains to comprehend the microscopic difference the second spark makes at cruise power. We're talking milliseconds of burn time. You can't extrapolate the 100 rpm difference you see in a pre-flight mag check, to what happens during cruise. The hazard of having two opposing flame fronts also increases the octane requirements to avoid detonation.

I don't have an opinion on this, I follow the facts from 20 years of experience in dual-fuel customized engine controls, NASA studies of aircraft engines for emissions/performance, electronic ignition conversions, and more. People don't fully understand combustion events. Once you light the fire, it burns. Adding a second source is for redundancy, not for improving the performance of the initial ignition. There's a lot of nonsense that claims that higher voltages, or longer dwell times, make more power. That is untrue. If there is spark at the right time, the mixture burns. More spark does not make it burn better, more spark just wears out your plugs faster. I've written about this extensively. If you have an optimized ignition source like a Surefly, not a crude one like the Electroair, adding a second one only provides a backup. The initial ignition event is what matters. You get better starting because you have full voltage the moment the engine cranks. No waiting for an impulse coupling or showr of sparks to build voltage. You get better low-power performance due to the advance available under those conditions. You get zero benefits in a full power takeoff and climb because certification prevents advancing timing when detonation margins are small. So the benefits of the first SIM installation are HUGE, and the second one is virtually nil.

there is zero benefit to a dual Surefly installation, and significant downside. If you have a SIM failure, there are no spares anywhere you might land. You'd have to put a magneto back on it, or wait days to get a replacement. This has already happened in the Cirrus world. Second, there have been a few failures, not many, but it is an electronic device, and we don't yet know how long it will last. Especially with the extra heat of a Continental, where it sits on top of the engine and gets baked on every shut down. Lycoming installations don't suffer from this. I've had Sureflys on my twin since they were first approved. They work great. But there is no way I would put two on each engine, until the fleet accumulates enough hours, and years, to prove that they will last.