N130PM
Active Member
First, it is not my desire to flame Electroair in any way. I believe there are some data points that should be found in the archives, as I have spent the last few days searching VAF and the RV list, I think this needs to be added.
Way back in 2006 I was helping my buddy Mike Cupiole finish his 6. Being a staunch believer in Jeff Rose and his EI unit I goaded him into purchasing one. Mike was a better mech than me but it never worked. He took it out and put in a Slick and asked me if I wanted it.
5 years later I put it in my plane. No workie. Send it back, it was returned with two new coils and deemed to be OK. OK!
Flew 55 hours with it. Strange stumbling at low power while taxiing. Ran fine at first at high power then a couple of stumbles early in the flight. They were no kidding get your attention right now events. I circled the glider port for 5 minutes the first time trying to figure it out. It just stopped.
Last Saturday at Valkeria (by the way outstanding little airshow) as I raised my tail and stuck the RV down for that extra cushion of pull off speed I feel "DUUUH". It registers but I'm really busy at the time and I'm passing the shut her down and abort point, so I pull her off. Instead of flying off like she usually does, she sinks back in and bouces twice, I feel her tail drop down and then she just somehow flys off. I see I'm down 150 rpm from normal. This is new. So I just hold what I have and start looking for a place to go. Its much quieter than it usually is at this point in the flight. I find a road if need be, level out, I reach 110MPH and start a 300 fpm climb. I get to 500 feet and turn a wide base to return to Valkaria and the **** thing kicks in like an afterburner. It was ...DRAMATIC....she took off like a scalded cat and in a few seconds I was climbing at 1700 fpm. OK, so I'll climb up and see what I get. At 4500 feet I cycle the EI off and on and I do recreate what I just experienced. It was working fine and I flew home with no further pucker.
Today I received a return call from Electroair. They told me exactly what I had witnessed. I give them huge credit for not telling me that I was crazy and they never heard of such a thing. They told me the following.
When I sent my unit to them, there was no way they could duplicate the situation. Well, neither could I today. The problem is in the board, something I also knew since the Hall Effect unit was still functioning as that gives me my RPM reading and I was down 150 rpm on take off (its an enormous 150). Its an old unit and the silicon in the board degrades with time. I asked if I bought another unit, would I face this again? "Yes, in another ten years. But if you want we'll sell you another lower unit for 800 bucks. "Or, for your own piece of mind now given what happend, you might want to just put a mag in." I'll give them credit, they shot straight.
And this is the reason for the post. If you have one of these, straight from the horses mouth, it is a time sensitive component. I realize that 95% of those installed are problem free, but thats not a big comfort when you are trying to stay out of the trees at the far end. Seriously, it climbed like a Cessena 140 on a hot day. I have a Bendix on the shelf that was O/hauled with my left mag. I'll put it in, just for simple economics and the comfort of my wife who is a little freaked out.
I hope this will be helpful to someone in the future.
Way back in 2006 I was helping my buddy Mike Cupiole finish his 6. Being a staunch believer in Jeff Rose and his EI unit I goaded him into purchasing one. Mike was a better mech than me but it never worked. He took it out and put in a Slick and asked me if I wanted it.
5 years later I put it in my plane. No workie. Send it back, it was returned with two new coils and deemed to be OK. OK!
Flew 55 hours with it. Strange stumbling at low power while taxiing. Ran fine at first at high power then a couple of stumbles early in the flight. They were no kidding get your attention right now events. I circled the glider port for 5 minutes the first time trying to figure it out. It just stopped.
Last Saturday at Valkeria (by the way outstanding little airshow) as I raised my tail and stuck the RV down for that extra cushion of pull off speed I feel "DUUUH". It registers but I'm really busy at the time and I'm passing the shut her down and abort point, so I pull her off. Instead of flying off like she usually does, she sinks back in and bouces twice, I feel her tail drop down and then she just somehow flys off. I see I'm down 150 rpm from normal. This is new. So I just hold what I have and start looking for a place to go. Its much quieter than it usually is at this point in the flight. I find a road if need be, level out, I reach 110MPH and start a 300 fpm climb. I get to 500 feet and turn a wide base to return to Valkaria and the **** thing kicks in like an afterburner. It was ...DRAMATIC....she took off like a scalded cat and in a few seconds I was climbing at 1700 fpm. OK, so I'll climb up and see what I get. At 4500 feet I cycle the EI off and on and I do recreate what I just experienced. It was working fine and I flew home with no further pucker.
Today I received a return call from Electroair. They told me exactly what I had witnessed. I give them huge credit for not telling me that I was crazy and they never heard of such a thing. They told me the following.
When I sent my unit to them, there was no way they could duplicate the situation. Well, neither could I today. The problem is in the board, something I also knew since the Hall Effect unit was still functioning as that gives me my RPM reading and I was down 150 rpm on take off (its an enormous 150). Its an old unit and the silicon in the board degrades with time. I asked if I bought another unit, would I face this again? "Yes, in another ten years. But if you want we'll sell you another lower unit for 800 bucks. "Or, for your own piece of mind now given what happend, you might want to just put a mag in." I'll give them credit, they shot straight.
And this is the reason for the post. If you have one of these, straight from the horses mouth, it is a time sensitive component. I realize that 95% of those installed are problem free, but thats not a big comfort when you are trying to stay out of the trees at the far end. Seriously, it climbed like a Cessena 140 on a hot day. I have a Bendix on the shelf that was O/hauled with my left mag. I'll put it in, just for simple economics and the comfort of my wife who is a little freaked out.
I hope this will be helpful to someone in the future.