Bill Freeman wrote:
SNIP
BILL?????!!!!!........No starter on your bird?....I'm
surprised at you, I thought you were a Chicken S--T like
me? :-)
Butch
Well, there is some reasoning behind the decision for no starter.
The EZ empty wt is 826 lbs. The ring gear/flywheel, starter, 00 wire
(25 ft+) and larger battery would add over 10% to the empty wt.
Have only really wanted a starter once, coming down from backpacking
in Sept in Wyoming, the air temp at the airport was about 25F
(unusually cold) and I still had 50wt oil. Took 45 minutes to
get it started, bad news. Otherwise, it has almost never been
a problem. I use 15W-50 now, no problems down until about
15F. I have a pretty good heater, but rarely fly in 15F weather.
Bill Freeman
Long EZ builder & pilot
BSME, MSME
EAA Technical Counselor
Bill do you have electronic ignition or mags? With electronic
ignition the advance can be set to zero and the engine hand
props much easier. I watch Klause do it every day and it starts
on the first flip 90% of the time. Of course we don't see
25 degrees F here ever :-)
Is 15-50 available for aircraft engines? I need to buy some oil soon
when it comes time to change the break-in oil.
Paul Lamar
I use std mags. The lag coupler gives me zero advance, too.
If you look very closely into this issue, and talk to independent
real experts like Gary Hertzler (many CAFE records in his extremely
sophisticated Vari Eze) the stock mags are indistinguishable from
a sophisticated electronic ignition EXCEPT under two conditions.
** 1) above 10K MSL the lack of advance starts to be measurable, by
about 14KMSL the advantage of advance is quite significant.
**2) Starting.
Mine starts in the first 3 flips about 80-90% of the time. Was worse
at the 700-800 hr time on the original mags. Slick says replace them
at 800 hrs. I did and it starts easily again.
Note that the certified LASER electronic/ mag system is
installed by no certified aircraft manufacturer. They actually test
this stuff and I'm sure have found the same results. 95% of SE
production aircraft do not exceed 10K MSL due to O2 reqmts,
and poor climb performance; therefore the cost of the LASER
is not justified by any significant performance improvements. Mags,
in good condition, start just fine with a starter, esp Conts which use
both mags to start, unlike the silly Lyc "left only" start. This kills
the "benefit" #2 for production planes. As much as everyone wants
to condemn std AC practice, these systems are pretty damned
close to optimum. The biggest real improvements are in the area
of starters and alternators, where the AC stuff of 10 yrs ago or
more are real dinosaurs, size and wt wise. Electronic ignition could
possibly be cheaper and more automated, but witness the
Porsche flugmotor debacle to see how little the average pilot will
pay to have a 100% automation vs a simple and almost crude
mech fuel injection. The problem is that once you manually
adjust the mixture in cruise it is correct for the next few hours.
Having an electronic system verify this 10 times a second adds
very little to the cruise performance. Porsche designed, built and
certified a VERY advanced, modern in every way, auto-technology
aircraft engine. Due to a slightly sloppy integration to the Mooney
airframe, the cooling drag was a bit higher and the Porsche-Mooney
was maybe 5 kts slower than the Lyc Mooney, yet cost a few grand
more. Sales - near zip. A cautionary tale, along with LASER for
those that whine about antique aircraft "junk" systems.
All said, I simultaneously believe that certified aircraft systems are
actually quite good AND that the rotary is a fundamentally simpler
machine with almost certainly more benign failure modes. There
ARE some real QA, maintenance and esp accessory issues where things
could be much better with certified engines. I wish we could avoid
PSRUs and liquid cooling with the rotary, but in the real world, we cannot.
Since integration and cost of certified ignition and fuel injection would
be impossibly expensive for the Mazda, solutions like Tracy's
systems are excellent and much welcomed. The Perf FI is an afordable
copy of the Bendix certified FI, and a good system, IMHO.
Klaus flies at VERY high altitudes and has very high compr ratio, so he
can make good advantage of the benefits of his electronic ignition. Many
EZ folks with big motors go to 17,500 MSL (canula O2 limit, positive
control limit) to get max range and need the benefits of large advance, hence
many use electronic ign. My tiny, low compr O-235 struggles above about13,500
with a full load, so I would see very little benefit (except starting)
from an electronic ignition. I keep an open mind, but insist on
understanding the real world benefits prior to dropping my cash
on something - NOT because it is juse newer.
My starting has been good enough 98% of the time to not worry about
it, altho it took me a few months in '89 to understand the proper hot start
procedure. Without it, the engine floods EVERY time; with it, 1st or second
pull 98% of the time. Quirky carb.
Aeroshell makes a 15W-50 semisynthetic, which is what I use. I recommend
straight W100 (50 SAE) for summer and 15W-50 for winter or whenever
you may be going to colder climates in your C182. In your warm climate, 50
SAE should be fine most of the time.
Bill Freeman
Long EZ builder & pilot
BSME, MSME
EAA Technical Counselor
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