Electronic ignition

S

Superhawk

Filing Flight Plan
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Apr 5, 2020
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Superhawk
Hello fellow pilots, I have a 1958 C-172. Over the years it has been modified with 180hp o-360, constant speed prop and STOL kit. Annual is due in December. I’m wondering if you folks have an opinion on electronic ignition. There is nothing wrong with the airplane, just looking to improve the overall performance and reliability.
Thanks in advance.
 
So far I like my Surefly EI on my Arrow II. Pretty much as advertised. Smoother running, quicker starts, lean further. Not life changing but certainly an improvement.
 
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Just received ours today along with a new full harness set, excited to get it installed on Monday
 
I've flown with an EI for ~20 years on my RV-6. The RV-10 I'm soon-to-complete will have mags. Why? Travel/AOG risk. If a mag fails away from home, you have a chance that a local A&P can fix it without requiring 2 down days for parts to arrive. Not so much with EI's.

And in the 20 years of flying with 1 EI and one Mag, I've had 3 EI failures and no mag failures. Small sample size, but my experience is that the purported reliability gain may not be there with EI's.
 
kyleb said:
I've flown with an EI for ~20 years on my RV-6. The RV-10 I'm soon-to-complete will have mags. Why? Travel/AOG risk. If a mag fails away from home, you have a chance that a local A&P can fix it without requiring 2 down days for parts to arrive. Not so much with EI's.

And in the 20 years of flying with 1 EI and one Mag, I've had 3 EI failures and no mag failures. Small sample size, but my experience is that the purported reliability gain may not be there with EI's.
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Both magnetos and the SureFly are bolted to a hot, vibrating engine. Magnetos are locomotive technology: simple and robust. Electronics are computer technology: sensitive to a lot of stuff that magnetos shrug off.
Ford used to have an electronic ignition system that had a sensor in the distributor that fed the electronic circuitry in a box mounted on the fender where heat and vibration were minimal. It worked really well. Then they came out out with the TFI system that had the circuitry shrunken into a big chip mounted right on the distributor. It became a big pain, failures frequent and all. Heat and vibration. A decent aviation EFI might move the sensitive stuff off the engine to the inside of the firewall, with the ignition coils on the forward side or on the engine. Or on the plugs, like cars have now.
 
I'm likely going to install a Surefly unit; I already have Slick mags, so the harness matches, and I can carry the mag I removed to install the Surefly in my AOG box, there, ready to substitute in if either the other mag, or the Surefly, should fail. I can install and time a mag in about 30 minutes.
 
Got a surefly going in my bonanza hopefully this week. They are working approval for a dual install.
 
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