4 ms·

Interesting. Can you please elaborate your point about the carburetors? Why shouldn't they be used in general aviation? I don't have much knowledge about engin

• redis_mlc 6y ago
  Carburetors are mainly susceptible to icing in normal use. Your engine can just start losing power and rapidly quit. I once had carb icing in Hawaii at 2000' near Wheeler due mostly to humidity, and it was only thorough training that allowed me to figure that out fast enough to apply carb heat and save the plane. A lot of inexperienced pilots just ride it down into the ground. Dual fuel injectors prevent the icing problem (usually, unless your fuel actually crystallizes or freezes), but they have other failure modes like dirt or wear. Or forgetting to turn them on.
• stickfigure 6y ago
  I'm not a pilot but I have a lot of experience with carburetors in cars and motorcycles. Carburetors are fiddly analog devices that require tuning by way of changing port sizes, needle valve sizes, float levels, mixture adjusters, throttle position adjusters, and more. Most of these require disassembly, and they clog and distort as the carburetor ages. Carburetors are highly sensitive to temperature and altitude. Tuning them is "more art than science". Modern fuel injection systems have digital control and feedback loops using a variety of sensors. They provide optimal fueling in pretty much any condition. They may be more complicated, but (at least in vehicles) they're rock solid reliable compared to carburetors. They also have more graceful failure modes - if the O2 sensor craps out, the computer defaults to running rich and puts a warning light on the dash. I'm pretty sure that if the carburetor was invented today, it would never be allowed to carry human traffic.