- Barnyard BOb - wrote:
Ja, Bob, and I'm not even an engineer. Does it tell you something that
spark timing on autos has "advanced" into this century while spark timing on
aircraft engines is mired up in the 20th?


What your reply tells me is --
until you are more engineer than lawyer...
lawyers know jack **** about advance
or timing... except as it applies to collecting
monies from clients and adversaries.

This reminds me of a conversation I witnessed between a sales guy and a
lawyer. The lawyer worked for a large firm on K street. He was in
charge of technology on a couple of really, really large cases which
involved the preparation and exchange of millions of pages of
information. The sales guy (a friend of mine for some years) had sold
the firm on a particular method of handling the documents
electronically. Things hadn't been going well. (In fact, that's why
the sales guy called my company in. We had, on a couple of previous
occasions, cleaned up the mess made by his company.) During a misguided
effort to "bond" with the lawyer, the following exchange occurred:

SG: Law fascinates me.
Lawyer: Hmmm.
SG: I always wished I had become a lawyer.
Lawyer: Hmmm.
SG: My father is a lawyer. And a diplomat. My sister is a lawyer. My
grandfather was a lawyer. It's really ironic that I'm not. I mean,
I've been surrounded by it all my life, and I've been influenced by so
many people, all lawyers. I can't really think of any better heritage
than to come from a long line of lawyers.
Lawyer: Is that so? You feel that being brought up around all those
lawyers made you a better person?
SG: Oh, absolutely. In subtle and not so subtle ways.
Lawyer: Yeah, well everybody in my family was an auto mechanic. I think
I f**ked up.

snip

I am sold.
I'm just not gonna write an outrageous check for an
upgrade that is not required and CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED
by my current airworthy application.

snip

Klaus's ignition works.
So does the Electroair.


So do magnetos... at a far, far lesser price.


snip
Variable timing ignition is more efficient, saves fuel, gets you there
quicker.


Let the spin stop for a moment.

Give me some hard numbers that I can take to the bank.
My calculator sez...it will take me a gazillions years to
recoup an investment in any upgrade priced like Klaus's
at the current price of auto fuel and the hours I fly per year.

Figure this, too....
When a Klaus unit drops dead and I can't find Klaus or I'm
cross country and need to get home what do I do? Buy
a standard magneto to get home and then mail the offending
high priced Klaus unit to the Republik of Kalifonia for service?
I'll pass, thank you.
snip

Some good points on both sides. The new stuff is great; the old stuff
is adequate to the purpose. The new stuff doesn't have decades of
provable success under its proverbial belt. But the old stuff doesn't
make use of anything we've learned in those same decades. Great
discussion, ****ing aside.

Bob, I know you're one of the old hands here at
deja.yahoo.flamebait.experimental, and its great to read a lot of your
stuff. But GD, did I miss something significant in the couple of years
I was away, such that everybody started ****ing on you, or did you get
touchy? I'll go back and read the archives when I have time, but for
now, I'm just happy to have enough time to check in again.

Ben "still not caring whether you all get along, just curious" Sego