"Peter Duniho" wrote:
IMHO, the main reasons that aircraft engines require so much fiddling
is two-fold: one is that aircraft engines operate at constant settings
for most of the time they are on; another is that improvements cost
big bucks in the form of certification costs, bucks that most pilots
won't pay when the current (albeit ancient) technology suffices.

I believe FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control)[1] systems are the
aviation equivalent of the automobile systems that automatically handle
mixture control. Aerosance[2] offers FADEC systems for ~$7k for FI piston
engines. I thought I read somewhere that someone building an experimental
was planning on installing a FADEC system and was going to whimsically use
the tortoise and hare (or is it turtle and rabbit?) symbols at the
throttle.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADEC
[2] http://www.fadec.com/index.asp