Hey Gang,

Being from the old school and I do mean old!..

Paul the problem with audio. The FAA requires us to
have one oil pressure direct reading instrument for
each engine installed, same for temp, tach and gas
gauge etc: and on and on.

John, frozen in KY.

Does that FAA rule apply to experimental airplanes?

Paul Lamar.

Yes it does.  That's part of Part 91 (91.205), so it applies to anyone

flying under Part 91 rules (which is us).  In addition to oil pressure,
you would need the following instruments for a rotary:

       1.  Tachometer;
       2.  Coolant temperature gauge;
       3.  Manifold pressure gauge (if you are turbo'd); and
       4.  Fuel gauge.

Them's the rules.
Rick Price

  I wouldnt think that your proposed pure audio system would meet the
requirement but all of the engine monitors with some form of visual display
that are currently on the market do. I know several guys with flying RVs
that have nothing in their panel but an RMI micro encoder (airspeed, ROC,
altitude) and an RMI micro monitor (all the engine data) plus a single fuel
gauge.

  Somebody mentioned that the Grand Rapids system wasnt appropriate for a
rotary because it doesnt measure necessary parameters for a liquid cooled
engine. Not true. I found when I was shopping for monitors a couple of
years ago that both Grand Rapids and Audio Flight Avionics were happy to
provide customized software and probes to measure anything I wanted to. RMI
was less flexible but I hear that has changed and that they will customize
to meet your requirements.

  Dont you guys have enough to do trying to stuff a rotary into an airplane
that you've built yourself? The time you're gonna spend designing your own
EFIS has to be worth something?

Mike Wills

I will use industrial gages to meet the FAA requirements
bought from McMaster Carr. Far cheaper even than automotive
gages.

All too true Mike. But what are we going to build after we get it
flying? Also I want data acquisition to a hard disk as I plan on doing a lot
of R&D for this news letter on such things as turbo charger performance and
temperatures, cowling and cooling related aerodynamic pressures.

You won't be able to do that with anything less than a PC mother board
and a hard disk.

I wish more of the people flying would install at least manifold pressure
gages and report those numbers like Chuck Dunlap has. Thanks again Chuck.

Paul Lamar
 
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