Don
Well Known Member
For those of you who are flying behind a fuel injected Lycoming, or are thinking about it, I'd like to suggest taking Don Rivera's class on fuel injection. Don and Colleen Rivera are Airflow Performance. I was one of four people who took the class this weekend and I went from knowing nothing about fuel injection to feeling pretty good about knowing how the system works, how to trouble shoot problems, and how to know when the injectors are balanced and when they're not.
The short version of the class is we met for dinner Friday evening. Don and Colleen gave a tour of the shop, which I missed due to Charlottes rush hour traffic - who would have thought it started by 3:30 pm? After that we had dinner and some great conversation. The class started at 8:30 Saturday with a detailed description of how fuel injection works. It was a mix of PowerPoint slides with drawing and hands of examples of the components Don uses and a Bendix system. He runs a Bendix repair station and worked for Bendix years ago. The "lecture" and discussion runs until lunch time and is simply full of theory, practice, a bit of history, and all sorts of useful information.
After a great lunch (no one will go hungry here) we went into the lab and put the theory into practice by changing components and watching what happened to fuel flow under various conditions. If there's one thing I would like to emphasize is Don can explain the system and how it works in theory and practice very well. I went from ground zero (no knowledge) and never had trouble keeping up - but I did pay attention and I have a modest understanding of fluid dynamics from another industry. The lab really made a lot of sense and put the theory to practical use both in understanding things and likely improved understanding of what's going on in the cockpit.
After the lab there was a long period for discussion - on all sorts of things (including VAF) followed by dinner around 7 pm. I don't know exactly as my brain was pretty well fried at this point.
Sunday morning we started at 8:30 and ran until about 11:30 going over some of the practical aspects of flying behind FI. My guess is most people would have enjoyed the examples about how to balance the injectors. It sure explained a lot to me. But, I think one of the most interesting aspects of Sunday's discussion dealt with how to size the injectors for different styles of flying. If you're flying like Vlad and looking for range and economy you'll need a different size injector than someone like Bob Axom who wants all out speed. But now I know why and it has little to do with top speed! And the reason all comes down to compromises that you need to make to get the system to work within the operating ranges you fly. Every change affects the whole system. The other part of Sundays discussion that really got my attention was vapor pressure and building a system that would be less prone to giving you problems. Hopefully, I'll make a few less mistakes and a few more good decisions as I get 702DA (my FI 9A) flying.
My pirep is basically this - Don and Colleen offer a great class, excellent hospitality (you will not leave hungry!) and have a lot to offer anyone interested in learning about fuel injection. The class is $325 and I want to say I got my money's worth out of it. Don is a class act - my fuel injection system is a Silver Hawk (the competitor) and he never said an ill word about it and took time to talk about the differences between his system and the Silver Hawk (Bendix) in a way that was entirely professional and very helpful to me.
The short version of the class is we met for dinner Friday evening. Don and Colleen gave a tour of the shop, which I missed due to Charlottes rush hour traffic - who would have thought it started by 3:30 pm? After that we had dinner and some great conversation. The class started at 8:30 Saturday with a detailed description of how fuel injection works. It was a mix of PowerPoint slides with drawing and hands of examples of the components Don uses and a Bendix system. He runs a Bendix repair station and worked for Bendix years ago. The "lecture" and discussion runs until lunch time and is simply full of theory, practice, a bit of history, and all sorts of useful information.
After a great lunch (no one will go hungry here) we went into the lab and put the theory into practice by changing components and watching what happened to fuel flow under various conditions. If there's one thing I would like to emphasize is Don can explain the system and how it works in theory and practice very well. I went from ground zero (no knowledge) and never had trouble keeping up - but I did pay attention and I have a modest understanding of fluid dynamics from another industry. The lab really made a lot of sense and put the theory to practical use both in understanding things and likely improved understanding of what's going on in the cockpit.
After the lab there was a long period for discussion - on all sorts of things (including VAF) followed by dinner around 7 pm. I don't know exactly as my brain was pretty well fried at this point.
Sunday morning we started at 8:30 and ran until about 11:30 going over some of the practical aspects of flying behind FI. My guess is most people would have enjoyed the examples about how to balance the injectors. It sure explained a lot to me. But, I think one of the most interesting aspects of Sunday's discussion dealt with how to size the injectors for different styles of flying. If you're flying like Vlad and looking for range and economy you'll need a different size injector than someone like Bob Axom who wants all out speed. But now I know why and it has little to do with top speed! And the reason all comes down to compromises that you need to make to get the system to work within the operating ranges you fly. Every change affects the whole system. The other part of Sundays discussion that really got my attention was vapor pressure and building a system that would be less prone to giving you problems. Hopefully, I'll make a few less mistakes and a few more good decisions as I get 702DA (my FI 9A) flying.
My pirep is basically this - Don and Colleen offer a great class, excellent hospitality (you will not leave hungry!) and have a lot to offer anyone interested in learning about fuel injection. The class is $325 and I want to say I got my money's worth out of it. Don is a class act - my fuel injection system is a Silver Hawk (the competitor) and he never said an ill word about it and took time to talk about the differences between his system and the Silver Hawk (Bendix) in a way that was entirely professional and very helpful to me.