Fuel Injection

NOTE: This was a one-time deal. Airflow does NOT normally allow customers to come down and build their own FI units. Please do not call and ask if you can go do it yourself. It was something offered on a whim by Don, and he confirms that it will NOT be a regular thing. In fact, at this point there is no plan to ever do it again.

Why did I get to go do it? Just got lucky and was in the right place at the right time!

Airflow Performance FI-101 Class

March 3-5, 2006

This weekend I invested an "airplane building weekend" to attend the FI-101 class at Airflow Performance in Spartanburg, SC. I'm going to build my engine at Superior in November, and felt that going into the engine build experience with more knowledge would be worth the effort. Boy was I ever right! What a great class. Don and Coleen are fantastic hosts, and Don explains fuel injection so that literally anyone can understand how it works. This is a real service to their customers. If you are considering an Airflow or Bendix fuel injection system (they are a FAA certified repair center and can repair and overhaul your Bendix system if needed) I can't possibly recommend this class too strongly. I feel most pilots of fuel injected planes drive around the sky and the FI is simply "magic" .. and they have no clear idea of how it works inside. This is unfortunate because it is easily understood once it is explained by someone who really knows. So .. for me .. the inside of the FI unit is no longer "Freaking Magic". :) Not only was the information great, the opportunity to see the systems in action on their test benches a treat, they also cook up great lunches and dinners making it very friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Truly an A+ experience! If you are intending to use an FI system (Airflow or not!) and don't already know about how aircraft fuel injection works .... think hard about taking this class. It is a real eye-opener! Note : I am not affiliated with Airflow Performance in any way other than as a very satisfied customer.

Build FI Regulator	July 21, 2006
Wally and I got into Airflow at noon, and pretty quickly jumped into building the FI regulator (me building, Wally taking pix). We got through the whole regulator assembly that afternoon, including initial calibration of the unit. By the time we were done it was mated to the throttle body ready for the next round of testing. Time : 4.0 hours

Flow Check / Build Flow Divider / Build Hoses

July 22, 2006

Saturday was a very very long day. We put the fuel controller on the air flow bench (a massive, carefully calibrated, vacuum cleaner) and validated that the unit performed as desired. We adjusted the idle setting, and officially recorded the performance data for the unit. We then built the flow divider (with some sub-assemblies having to have already been completed beforehand due to time constraints). That included hand-lapping the body with the center slide valve, installing plugs and fittings, and flow-checking the unit on the fuel flow bench. It was wild to see the eight individual flow measurements rising and falling in concert, showing that even at very low flow rates the divider was sending the same amount of fuel out each port. Way cool. We then lock-wired all the required components on both the fuel controller and the flow divider. I only got cut once. :) I also learned how to lock-wire without using safety-wire twisters, something I have never done before. I liked it, as it gives you MUCH more control over the process and hasn't got the "twist in only one direction" limitation of the twisters. We wrapped up the day by building (and pressure testing) two hoses that are part of the API kit. This was another new experience for me, as I have never handled the SS-braid-covered Teflon hoses and fitting before. There was an art to getting it done, but with Don helping I built two hoses without a hitch. I didn't even poke myself on the SS braid and bleed all over everything! Time : 8.5 hours

Firesleeve / Silver Solder / Finish Kit / Package

July 23, 2006

Once again we got started bright and early at 8:30. In the morning we put firesleeve on the hoses. I learned some "old pro" tricks there too. We sealed the ends, and then called it done. After that I took a shot at silver-soldering the ends onto the fuel delivery lines. Yet again a new experience for me. Mine were not as "pretty" as ones one by a pro, but they were called serviceable by Don and they passed the leak check. Don did have to step in on a few and either lend a hand, or clean up a problem, before they were serviceable. I'd need a lot more practice before I could call myself "good" at that task. We then pulled all the other parts that go into a full blown FI kit, put all the parts in boxes, finished up all the paperwork (note that I did all the paper work, including QC sheets, inventory cards for parts pulled, recording of FI performance data, etc.) and called it done. While there were some sub-assemblies I could not build due to time constraints (the throttle body assembly, which needs epoxy .. the flow divider body which needs a dry ice and heat fit assembly .. the injector nozzles themselves being the three major things I could not assemble in a weekend) all in all I built my own FI system. A -very- cool experience! Time : 3.5 hours

EAA SportAviation Article!

December 5, 2006

I've been keeping relatively quiet about this ... but today we finalized the article (finally!) for SportAviation. After an initial round of editing and work with the previous editor-in-chief, things went silent as he left SA and a new editor was in charge. A few e-mails with the new editor left me hanging, and then almost a -year- of silence. A few days ago I hear .. out of the blue .. from an associate editor saying that (a) they were going to run my article, that (b) they wanted me to review the latest draft, and (c) we were up against a really tight deadline. We did a round of tweaking, and called it good. Then today I hear from the art director saying .. basically .. you need to pick out pictures, and we need them -today-. Bear in mind that we took over 500 pictures! Starting from the set the art director picked we made some adjustments and got captions written. Layout was done, and it got sent to the editors. My understanding is that it all goes to print on Friday! Good grief. But I have to admit I'm pleased that the article is really gonna happen. Way cool. :)

 

Total Time : 16.00 hours 

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