On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 8:38:48 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Today's USA Today newspaper (Wednesday, June 18) has a front page article about aviation safety.



Included is a long report of the float mechanism in many tow plane carburetors.



The original float has a serious defect which causes engine failures. (This happened to us.)



The plastic replacement float also has a defect.



Tom Knauff

Ridge Soaring Gliderport

Just read it. Having owned a PA-28-181 Cherokee powered by a Lycoming with a troublesome carburettor, I pretty much have to agree with the article. To an engineer, there are some pretty damn weird aspects of light aircraft design.

For example, what engineer in their right mind would duct hot air from around a muffler (made from thin, crack-prone metal) into the cabin for heat? That's 1930's technology which is just begging for a CO poisoning accident.

Most engines already have little oil cooler radiators the same size as automotive heater cores which reject about 50% of the waste heat. Why not use the oil cooler as a heater core? The only objection I have heard is oil leaks might soil the carpet. If my oil cooler is leaking oil, I don't give a damn about the carpet. I want to know about it ASAP so I can land.

Carburettors were proven inferior to fuel injection in the Battle of Britain 75 years ago. Adding to the absurdity is old-school, constant-flow fuel injection is simpler and cheaper to manufacture than carburettors. Objections to FI come from those who never learned how to start hot, fuel injected engines. Direct cylinder injection, which is now appearing in car engines - and was standard on Battle of Britain ME-109's - eliminate hot-start issues. There's just no excuse for airplane engines using carburettors.

USA Today was a little off with ice protection. Ice detection with piston GA airplanes is simple - look outside - if there's ice on the airplane it's accumulating ice - duh! No GA anti-ice system can protect an airplane from the worst icing conditions. The solution is to stay out of icing conditions in the first place and if a pilot screws that up, he needs to get out of it ASAP. Anti-ice systems just give the pilot a little more time to do that.