musing about fuel savings

The D-5 heads were dual sparked but they didn't come about till about '70 and they were a 'race only' item.

Never did anything with it other than playing, Bill. The one setup I messed with when the subject of backup generators came up had a threshold switch that kept the regulator bypassed (actually open) until the initial voltage reached 12.6 volts. At that level, it would latch and connect the regulator plus starting the detector for excess available current to determine when to connect the load. Whole thing was to evaluate backup systems to see if they could be made reliable enough with prolonged idle periods - batteries tended to degrade after

2-3 years - and we had to be able to hand crank the suckers. We f> Something would be wrong, you risk over charging the battery if

I still have one of those super-secret cards that the salesman carried around in his pocket that showed the dealer list prices. When they wrote up an order, they never showed the individual prices of options, just the total price. Of course you could always deal those prices down. Often with a highly inflated trade-in so you didn't really know what you were paying for the car. The one I have is for the 1957 Ford. The radio was $72.20. The heater was$45.20, unless you wanted the Magic Aire which was $68.70. The wheel covers were $14.70. If you wanted an oil filter, that was $9.50 extra.

Dick

Nope. Not a magneto. High tension magnetos will not reliably set off bllasting caps. Low tension mags-like on telephones of old-will. But the common generator, not a mag, was the more reliable and most used device.

It would be very simple for the car manufacturers to build in a small secondary winding and a couple of magnets to make a single phase AC gen and a couple of 10 amp diodes for an exciter, but why would they spend a dime they didn't have to?

The most creative bunch out there are the few EAA types actually experimenting instead of whipping out credit cards for RV kits (and POSL's). The sanitary and cool solution is a permanent magnet alternator made for installation in outboard motors. You bolt the stator on the front of the redrive and put the magnets on the prop hub. The circle track racers have a similar deal in Circle Track magazine for Pinto engines. I guess they still race them in some class.

1,338 TT when I lost my medical :-( PP-ASMEL,Inst (single only),

I applied for a waiver, declined. If only I had simply not renewed, I'd be eligible for Sport Pilot today. A pisser.

MOST pilots cannot operate a GTSIO Continental or TGIO Lyc properly. It's a job for a FLIGHT ENGINEER, not a PILOT. Single pilot IFR in our nightmarishly complex ATC system is tough enough in a single-power-lever aircraft.

One mag, one electronic system with an electronically trimmed mechanical FI system-called "supervisory" rather than "full authority"-would give 99% of the redundancy of two mags plus provide for single lever power control (especially if we got rid of free air cooling, which worked on the A-65 in the J-3 pretty well but which has no place on a 240 kt aircraft).

The average GA pilot IS NOT Yeager, Armstrong, or Hoover. And will not, cannot, and does not want to be. Personal aircraft are consumer products. We need to get rid of the fighter pilot mentality and design for realistic owner-operation. That means single lever power control, positive redundant electrical and/or vacuum sources for full panel (no needle ball and alcohol crap-even the Air Force does not expect UPT pupils to fly the T-38 that way) attitude display, and a few other things. Combined with mandatory basic aerobatic training and airframes that make even minimal use of crashworthiness lessons learned in military helos and race cars, aviation can be made safe.

Of course you don't want that.

Dragsters have no electrics, and besides on fuel cars the ignition is for start and idle. Once the run starts hitting the mag kill switch has no effect.

Sprint cars also run mags.

P.S. Ask your A&P about the dual mags on your Continental and the ONE gear that drives both.