SureFly Electronic Ignition

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waynemcc999
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by waynemcc999 »

What would be the purported/measured advantages of the SureFly system over the existing ElectroAir EIS?
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Rich
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Rich »

waynemcc999 wrote: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:03 am What would be the purported/measured advantages of the SureFly system over the existing ElectroAir EIS?
Cost, for sure. And we've seen that Electroair installations can be involved and finicky. The reuse of the existing wiring harness for the Surefly eliminates sloppiness I've observed in a couple of Electroair installations I've seen.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Rich »

Perhaps oddly, a likely event that would cause me to install one of these would be a failure of the SlickStart. The Surefly is only a bit more expensive than a new SS unit. But the SS is working just fine right now. One or two blades and bingo.

The other obvious one would be another magneto overhaul cycle. Or an outright left-mag failure, of course.

Otherwise, I'll wait to see how these units play out in the real world. I do note a level of sophistication in the advance cycle that also includes RPM in the mix, which presumably is what allows more advance at higher MP's than the Electroair, though max advance is a couple of degrees less that EA max.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Lou »

My mechanic said that a number of these systems are due to come out in the next couple of years. He thought it might be best to see actual data as each system will be optimized for different circumstances. But I was surprised at how enthusiastic he was since he will lose the 500 hr inspection business. He said the only airplanes that should not get it are bush planes that spend time in remote areas. Because electronic ignition is battery dependent, you lose battery independence. Seemed like sensible advice to me.

According to my back of envelope calculations, it pays for itself in roughly 300 hrs.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by MarkA »

An Excel spread sheet is attached that estimates the break even point for installing an electronic ignition based on a set of fuel savings and cost assumptions.

Any of the assumptions can be changed in the spread sheet (the yellow cells) including the average number of hours flown per year, gallons fuel per hour used, cost per gallon, cost of a 500 hour mag inspection, expected electronic ignition fuel savings, and the ignition installation costs.

The "incremental installation cost" shown assumes an electronic ignition is installed in place of doing a 500 hour mag inspection and that the installation labor for the electronic ignition is the same as the labor to removing and replacing a magneto for a 500 hour inspection. This later assumption appears to be the case for the SureFly system but installing an Electroair system clearly requires more labor.

Obviously "your mileage will vary" depending on the assumptions made. It'll be interesting to see some real numbers on the performance of these systems once they are in use.
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Electronic ignition yrs to break even.xlsx
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by MarkA »

It appears Lycoming is now partnering with SureFly to bring SurFly's electronic ignition to market - see the announcement below.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... n-system

It will be interesting to see the performance improvement numbers once they get approval to enable the electronic ignition's variable timing feature for the IO360-M1A.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Ultrapilot1 »

I am due for the 500 hr mag overhaul and since my mags would now have a total of 1000 hrs I decided to replace them with new rather than another rebuild. Cost is roughly the same so I ordered the Surefly and a new Slick 4347. Rather than remove the shower of sparks I am just replacing my left mag with the new 4347 and replacing my right mag with the Surefly. My A&P has scheduled the work for this Saturday.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Lou »

Looking forward to a pirep. Any word on advanced timing for the M1A?
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by Ultrapilot1 »

Still no update on when advance timing will be available.
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Re: SureFly Electronic Ignition

Post by smoss »

I looked into this also, but the modifications needed for installation looked daunting--the install manual is on their website.
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