Accident N390SG

[chris]

I
I am unable to post a picture, I tried several times and my photo's have to many pixels. Look me up on face book and friend me and I will get you pictures that way if you are that interested. Make sure you make it clear on your Facebook request that it is about the Sonex or I won't accept the request as I get a lot of strange requests.

Email your pictures to me and I will post them for you.

[kevinh]

For anyone who is building an electrical dependent plane (which is a fine thing IMO) should read Bob Knuckols bible on the topic. It is free here: http://www.aeroelectric.com/Book/AEC_R12A.pdf or you can get a print or CD copy here http://www.aeroelectric.com/Catalog/pub/pub.html. It is a great simple way to get a reliable electrical system (either with a small backup battery or without). I used it when I built my RV.

[lutorm]

Glad you got out of that unscathed. However, with all due respect, I think you are drawing the wrong conclusion from the event. If you had had an engine failure due to a magneto, would you have said "I will never again use an engine that is entirely dependent on magnetos"? No, because even though it is, and magnetos fail disturbingly often, you have two of them and it would have been a non-event.

Similarly, if you have an engine with electronic ignition (or EFI), it seems prudent have a backup source of electrical power for the engine. Electronic ignitions are generally very reliable, but any number of events can take down your electrical bus. If you'd had a backup battery providing power to the ignition system, this would also have been a non-event. I believe the "Aero-electric connection" already referenced makes this point very emphatically.

[vernd]

Interesting note. Simple Digital Systems owner had this system installed in his own RV-6 with Subaru engine. He had a similar experience with loss of electrical power, resulting in engine failure and off airport landing. The following link has some information about his experience and what he did to remedy any further occurrences.

http://www.sdsefi.com/rv12.htm Scroll down to Feb 2005 for the story.
Lots of good information on their website about this product. To me it always looked like a good system