switched
off the right engine. None of that tired
old, “dead-foot- dead-engine” stuff.
The Proof is in the Piloting Having flown behind the standard type piston engine controls for a lot longer than I care to admit, I was anxious to see what FADEC would really bring to the piston party. And after spending the day with Diamond’s exceptional turbo diesel powered DA42, I can tell you it’s quite a lot. And be warned, once you fly FADEC you won’t be satisfied with the “old three-knob method” of engine management again.
Ease of start up it one of FADEC’s biggest benefits. Master on. Check the MFD to see that the glow plugs are out (this is a turbo diesel remember), flip on the fuel pump switch and turn the key. The left engine comes to life. Repeat for the right side. That’s it. If you’ve ever suffered through a hot-start, FADEC is as close to perfection as you will ever find. Many pilots describe the DA42 as “a piston engine that acts like a turbine.” I couldn’t agree more. Push the power levers forward to go fast. Pull them back to go slow. It’s also turbine-like in its simplicity. In fact, I preformed the “run up” as we were taxiing to St. Augustine Airport’s runway 13. Since the entire engine/propeller/fuel system is controlled by a pair of Engine Control Units (ECUs), all you need to do to check the system is press the two “ECU” buttons on the panel. The system’s computer takes care of everything else. If there’s a problem, it will be displayed on the MFD. That’s about it. No fiddling with throttles, checking mags, cycling propellers – when you’re flying a FADEC equipped airplane, that’s all so last century. The FADEC system also does a lot to lessen the emergency quotient of an engine-out. When it was time to simulate an engine failure on takeoff, my demo pilot, Earle Boyter, V.P. and partner in Diamond dealer Premier Aircraft Sales
Quicker than you can read this
sentence, the FADEC had the engine shut down and the three-bladed propeller feathered.
Since the computers took care of everything, I could concentrate totally on keeping above blue-line, stowing the gear and flying the airplane. FADEC is the system piston engine pilots have been dreaming of for a long time. Restart was as simple as turning the ignition key. After landing, my only real question was: why isn’t FADEC standard on all piston airplanes?
The Cost Conundrum
As with everything in aviation, the answer is cost. But there’s more to the issue than you might think. “It’s a combination of high development/certification costs and low production volume,” Defever said. “We don’t make millions of airplane engines, we make hundreds – in the ‘good ‘ol days’ maybe thousands.” “Also, the highly regulated safety
environment and software certification requirements are a huge hurdle in trying to implement these types of advanced systems,” he added. “The FAA’s DO-178 requirements to assure the safety and reliability of the software are extremely time consuming. Every aspect of the software and engine responses is validated for every nuance of the engine’s operation. That’s all on top of the traditional aspects of certifying an engine’s durability and operability.” “People wonder why we can’t just use the same technology proven in cars,” Defever said. “It’s not really a straight transfer of technologies. The aircraft’s system has to be totally redundant so the software needs to be developed to a much higher level.”
54 Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | December 2011/ January 2012
“The way the engines are operated also varies dramatically,” he said. “An automotive engine runs at 15 to 20 percent of its rated horsepower most of the time. Whereas an airplane engine needs to perform at 60 to 75 percent power – there’s a lot more strain on the components and a much less forgiving environment.” While the general aviation market may be slow to adopt the FADEC technology, Defever said that Northrop Grumman recently awarded Lycoming a contract to supply its FADEC-equipped TIO-540 engines to power the Firebird unmanned intelligence gathering air system. “This will allow us a much broader market to get the FADEC-equipped engine in the field for continued testing and development,” he added. “UAS operations build time very fast. We will learn a lot in a very short time and allow us to accelerate many of the processed you might not see for years in the GA market.” Whatever the reason, while the industry acceptance of FADEC-equipped engines has been slow, both Continental and Lycoming see nothing but positives for the technology. In fact, according to Chatten, the company has been building its current engines to accept FADEC or EEC aftermarket upgrades in the future. “Some number of years ago we made changes to all of our production engines that will allow them to accept some of the new digital engine control capabilities,” he said. “It’s possible to upgrade the engines built 30 or more years ago, but it’s going to be expensive for owners. It will be easier just to upgrade to a new engine.” With all that being said, while the general aviation industry as a whole is struggling to find a new generation of pilots and aircraft owners, having a feature like FADEC that takes a lot of the work and confusion out of the cockpit can only be looked at as a huge drawing card. FADEC sure sounds like an idea whose time has finally come. AM
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