AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2018 - 94

P&E

94 |

SAVVY MAINTENANCE

certificate approval of its electronic ignition
system. It took the company more than two
years of work before the FAA approved the
electronic ignition system on four-cylinder
Continental and Lycoming engines in mid2011, and nearly three more years to gain
approval for six-cylinder engines. Even
after this five-year effort, the FAA would
only approve replacing one magneto with
the Electroair electronic ignition system;
the other "tractor mag" must be retained
even though it's demonstrably far less reliable. Lots of dual Electroair installations are
flying in homebuilts with great success, but
for certified aircraft the FAA remains a significant obstacle to innovation.
The promise of full-authority digital
engine control (FADEC) systems for piston
aircraft engines-the subject of heavy investment by both Continental and Lycoming in
the late 1990s-has gone almost nowhere.
Lycoming's EPIC system, developed in
partnership with Unison, never made it
into production. Continental acquired the
FADEC system developed by Aerosance

and succeeded in getting it certified for both
Continental and Lycoming engines, but only
a tiny handful of these "PowerLink" systems have been delivered (most of them on
Liberty XL2 trainers), and by any measure
the program has been a commercial failure.
Do you detect a pattern?
OUTSIDE THE BOX

A notable exception involves an obscure
Austrian subsidiary of a Canadian company mostly known for its two-stroke
snowmobile, motorbike, and ATV engines
that quietly redefined the small (under 150
horsepower), four-stroke piston aircraft
engine.
The Rotax 912 story began in 1989,
when the first 80-horsepower engines
were shipped to customers in Europe
for use on ultralights and motorgliders.
But almost nobody outside the ultralight
community took notice, especially since
the 912 had a ridiculously short 600hour time between overhauls. Yet Rotax
pressed forward, and in 1994 obtained

Lots of dual electronic
ignition systems are
flying in homebuilts
with great success, but
for certified aircraft
the FAA remains a
significant obstacle
to innovation.
FAA certification of the 80-horsepower
engine. A 115-horsepower turbocharged
version, a 100-horsepower ultralight
version, and a certified 100-horsepower
version followed in quick succession.
TBO was increased to 1,000 hours, then
1,200 hours, then 1,500 hours. These
engines started selling strongly abroad,
but never gained much traction in the
United States until 2004 when the FAA
approved the LSA rule. Sexy, factorybuilt Special Light Sport aircraft started
showing up at Oshkosh, Lakeland, and

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2018

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