how to know when mag dies?

I've never flown with an electronic ignition, so everything I know about it right now is from reading.

My question is if I have 1 mag and 1 EI, from what I've read the EI compensates so well if the mag dies, that most pilots won't even notice that they're down to 1 ignition system.

How have others gone about a warning system for this situation? I'm assuming if the EI dies, you'll know by the engine roughness, so I'm not worried about that. But if the EI compensates as well as I've read, how will I know if the mag dies?

Thanks,

The only way I know to check in flight is to turn off the E.I. briefly and see if the mag is still working. If you are concerned about that you could do that every hour or so. Personally I never have found that necessary.

Martin Sutter
building and flying RV's since 1988

I'll second what Martin says. On the mag check on run up, I have no RPM drop with the EI, but the standard drop when running off only the mag. I do that check before each flight, and a mag-ground check before I shut down after every flight. If the mag were to die in flight, I probably wouldn't know about it until the run-up before the next takeoff. The engine runs so well with just the EI that I'm not too worried about it. If you do check in flight and the mag has died, the engine will die. To me, that kind of check doesn't make much sense. Check it on the ground before takeoff, and just be glad the EI works so well that you can't tell if the mag's even there.

Mark

Have seperate switches for the mag and Ei. Than do a check of each before flight.