Hi Paul:  I agree with your position on carb vs EFI. For remote flying I
   would want a simple carb that is easily serviced in the field.  With
   that in mind I would also want mechanical breaker points for the same
   reason.  As long as emmisions are not the issue the simple carb wins
   hands down.  Honda got and gets remarkable results with simple carbs.

   Bob Y

Paul and Bob,

First, I agree with the KISS principle, but many carbs are far from
simple devices. They don't require POWER which is their major benefit in
our use. Several Honda carbs are listed as non-repair items! New-part
replacement only. If you stay within the contiguous 48 while flying I
would argue you will soon have an easier time finding FI parts at your
local auto parts store than carb parts. Let's be honest you WON'T find
Webber parts at Kragen or Advanced Auto parts. Hell my brother and I
were looking for Holley jets to jet down his big block chevy boat for
high altitude use and couldn't find any in his size in all of San Jose
Cal. Not exactly a small town! (For non-California viewers; Population
approx. 1 MILLION)

My point is you must try to INSTALL a reliable system first and then be
sure it is serviceable. Case in point, my EAA chapter recently had Dick
Randolf the guy that flew around the world in his RV-8 as a guest
speaker. He blew both main gear tires in a bad landing in Thailand. He
found it easier to have new tires and wheels shipped in from Vans than
to find the parts locally! That is a pretty common part. (a 6 x
6.0 tire) Secondary point in the same vein: If you plan to fly long
over-water or remote locations your INITIAL requirements should be for
simpler systems or complete (by that I mean isolated to prevent double
failure modes) redundancy. Electrical, fuel, ignition. If I was going
anywhere remote I'd consider carrying a spare set of injectors in the
baggage. you should already have 2 fuel pumps. A spare set of plugs
likewise. Pardon my long-windedness on this subject.

Paul, the only reason I can think of for using the fly by wire throttle
is if you have such a packaging nightmare that you can not route the
cable there, otherwise I'm using a simple steel connection
Bill Jepson


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