REFLECTOR: Rotary

[Al Gietzen]

Another site for real Rotary experiences is John Slade
(http://www.canardaviation.com/) he has a Cozy IV with a Rotary, his flight
testing section is really interesting and shows exactly what can be involved
with getting a Rotary working.

Steve;
I recently read over John's experience, and I would say it ranks somewhere
on the extreme of a guy that had to do a lot of things over - not exactly
typical; and not related to it being a rotary.

I was on John's site to see if there were common issues with Tracy's EC2 and
EM2 (engine controller and engine monitor).  I've had some similar issues
(although it seems the causes are different).  My conclusion at this point
is that Tracy's units are not designed for the case of the engine a long way
from the panel, in a composite airplane which is more subject to propagation
of electrical and RF noise; and much of the noise is generated by the
electronic ignition and injectors the system controls.  Doesn't mean they
won't work; just that the probability of some issues may be high.  Still
spending hours trying to solve issues of programming data corruption.

Sometimes that's the price you pay for leading edge technology (or as Tracy
likes to refer to it "bleeding edge").  For me a beautiful state-of-the-art
airframe needed a state-of-the-art powerplant.  The entire package was the
engineering and artistic challenge I was looking for.  Tracy is right, if
you don't want the engine to be part of the challenge and somewhat
developmental; don't go the alternative engine route.

FWIW,

Al