Questions & Answers
 What if my
battery fails in flight ?
A
battery is essential for the safe operation of most aircraft engines
and all aircraft electric instrument systems and accessories.
As you
can read on our Q&A page, an alternator failure does not mean the
UL260i
engine will stop immediately, far from it! However the UL260i
engine (like all modern automobile engines) is dependant on an outside electrical supply
and the battery acts as a reservoir. The size and condition of the battery is
very important in the event of an alternator failure. A complete battery
failure is not very likely to happen while the engine is running. If
you had a bad battery, usually the battery would fail when trying to
start the engine on the ground because a lot of electrical current
is needed for the starter engine. In this situation you're still on
the ground so it's not a critical situation. The condition of the
battery is very important in any vehicle. If you are looking for
additional redundancy for aircraft use, a possible solution would be two smaller
capacity batteries, but this option needs some serious thinking
about the aircraft wiring.
We
often meet many
people considering the
UL260i
who place too much emphasis on a bad battery event
being the potential cause of an engine stoppage in the air. These
people usually say that the old technology engines with their
magnetos don't need a battery once they are operating - implying
that the older engines are better in that respect. However providing you perform your pre-flight checks and regularly
check the battery voltage in flight, you should see the warning
signs long before a bad battery can become a problem. What many
people forget, is that they almost always have only one electrical
connection from the airframe (ground) to their engine. In many
homebuilt aircraft the wire used is under dimensioned, not secured
well and/or subject to chaffing. If this wire or it's connection to
the engine block breaks, the engine will stop dead; not just the
UL260i
but in
many carb. and magneto engines too.... (If the engine has a so
called "hot mag" then the only way the engine will stop is by
grounding the magneto). Few aircraft engine installations
have redundant ground electrical connections although this is a
cheap and easily performed redundancy measure. If you feel multiple
ground electrical connections are not necessary and you make sure
the aircraft battery is always in good condition, then the fears of
battery failure being the cause of a UL260i engine stoppage are more psychological dangers
than real.
Pilots
should understand the basics of their aircraft's electrical system,
learn what is important to the engine and why, so that they can
continually watch out for the warning signs. Engines are like the
weather; if you don't use your common sense, don't continual monitor
the situation and take risks, you're bound to run into serious
trouble sooner or later. Prudent pilots should be able to enjoy many
hours of safe untroubled flying with our UL260i
engine.
|
