The OTHER Kevin in San Diego wrote:
On 23 Nov 2005 12:52:22 -0800, "JohnO" wrote:

How come Robinson never brought out an EFi upgrade? I understand the
development, testing and certification would cost a lot but surely the
equipment is already available, not THAT expensive, and the safety and
performance benefit (no carb heat or mixture controls!) would make it
worthwhile?

Dunno. I'll ask Frank when I see him at the factory safety course...

Heh! Don;t forget to report back!

EFI aircraft engines can be finicky to start when hot. As far as
mixture goes, I don't know anyone who touches the mixture control in a
robby other than to push it down to full rich at engine start and idle
cutoff when shutting down.

I do know a couple people who tweak mixture in the C300's but it's got
a vernier mixture control on it so it's a lot easier to make precise
changes..


I'm from a fixed wing background and in cruise we do lean out the
mixture until just before power drops. I'm put off by all the things
that make an R22 fall down, and I'd heard that there had been problems
with leaning out the mixture too much in flight? I guess with the low
intertia rotors leaning out too much and not correcting quickly could
lead to a crash.

I'd like to see an R44 based turbine powered ship from Robinson myself

But why? Isn't the R44 is about as fast as a light turbine anyway? What
would happen to the operating costs with a turbine?

Do R44 Raven II pilots find that the EFi makes flight much better/safer
than the non EFi R44?

Cheers,
JohnO