Been down this road, AFP and EIS, nice folks
I went around with getting the flight computer. Having the EIS4000 there is a lot of overlap: MAP, OAT, **FF, RPM sensors to name a few. I just could not justify it.
The AFP fuel computer is awesome and would love to have it. You get real time fuel endurance at destination (with GPS and FF sensor) and percent power (RPM/MAP/OAT).
However with the EIS4000 with the FF option you do have total fuel endurance. With a GPS you have time to destination, so knowing these two times, with a little math, Vol-la, fuel endurance at destination.
Also % power display of the AFP is nice. However all you need is a laminated power look-up chart, or a little programmable calculator with look up tables or formulas to estimate % power. with just a little effort. All you need to know is RPM/MAP/Temp. Most of the time we set "standard" MAP/RPM's we know the % power of. I think its a cool thing AFP has but I did not want the extra RPM/MAP/OAT sensors.
**Bottom line since the EIS and the AFP can't use the same FF sensor, plus adding another OAT (third for me, with Dynon and EIS) and second MAP sensor I just could not justify the cost. It would be an awesome combo, but I am cheapskate and lazy,
so I decided not to add the AFP. There is not really a reason not to. The big kicker was the need to use dual FF sensors to drive both EIS and AFP.
If I had steam gauges, I would buy a AFP in a heart beat. Nice product and nice people to talk to. They answered all my questions and went out of their way to help me. GRT is also a great company to work with, so I recommend both 100%.
You know at one time in the stone ages (about 20 years ago) we had no GPS, glass panels, and fuel flow computers totalizers where unheard in little planes. I must be getting old, I am waxing poetic over a Piper Cub with a needle ball airspeed and jelly jar compass (as my Dad called them). Oh yea, the "fuel tantalizer computer" was a cork floating with a wire sticking out the gas cap.
George
**FF sensor, I did not want two FF sensors. I asked AFP about piggy backing both the AFP and EIS on one FF sensor, but it's a no go, even though I believe they are the same sensor. The answer I got was the signal is too weak for both instruments, so you need two FF sensors. I
guess if some electronic expert could make a FF sensors splitter/filter/booster to drive both instruments from one FF sensor, adding the extra OAT, RPM and MAP would be no big deal. Because the FF sensor is so expensive and tapping into a fuel line where the FF will work is hard to do with one. Any takers. It should not be hard to do. You could probably incorporate a way to make small calibration to the signal for high or low readings? ANY TAKERS.
