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Fadec for the RV-10

F

Flappy

I'm New Here
Is there a FADEC solution available for the RV-10, which would combine mixture, prop and throttle into one lever?

Im new to the RV world and liked the look of flightchops RV 14 which had a Fadec throttle. Im sure his powerplant is different, Id really like a single lever in a 4 seater one day.
 
2 levers

Flappy said:
Is there a FADEC solution available for the RV-10, which would combine mixture, prop and throttle into one lever?

Im new to the RV world and liked the look of flightchops RV 14 which had a Fadec throttle. Im sure his powerplant is different, Id really like a single lever in a 4 seater one day.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure FlightChops has 2 controls, one for throttle and the other one prop.
 
SDS and EFII will control mixture for you. But no prop.

A while ago I dug and asked around and the answer I got is no one is working on the prop aspect of it.
 
There's that Lycoming iE2 which has FADEC with single-lever control. Of course it's an angle valve (and turbo), so too heavy for a -10, plus you'll have a hard time keeping it below VNE.

ie2.jpg
 
Even if you could fit an iE2 engine to an RV-10, the engine would cost more than the entire airplane.

Just looked at Aircraft Spruce - Europe. They have an ECU for an iE2 - 53K Euros.
 
hgerhardt said:
There's that Lycoming iE2 which has FADEC with single-lever control. Of course it's an angle valve (and turbo), so too heavy for a -10, plus you'll have a hard time keeping it below VNE.
Click to expand...

Why? Can you not reduce power with that? How do you taxi?

The throttle is just one more of the flight controls that the pilot must manipulate as needed to keep the aircraft within its flight envelope.
 
tims88 said:
Flightchops has all 3 levers on his quadrant. This pic is from 2021 at Oshkosh but his recent YouTube videos show all of them there still.

View attachment 47477
Click to expand...
Right. Well it looks like I got that very wrong then.

Thanks for pointing that out.
I wonder what percentage of people have FADEC controls - less than 1% of new builds? Perhaps I'm keen on something I really dont need, I just liked the idea of a FADEC system one day.
 
Flappy said:
Right. Well it looks like I got that very wrong then.

Thanks for pointing that out.
I wonder what percentage of people have FADEC controls - less than 1% of new builds? Perhaps I'm keen on something I really dont need, I just liked the idea of a FADEC system one day.
Click to expand...

FADEC usually describes an engine control system including the prop control which is the harder part to integrate effectively into a single lever design at a low cost point.

Controlling an electric prop from the ECU would be easy or controlling a servo to move a hydraulic governor control also easy but seems like you'd need air data like airspeed, OAT and altitude as a minimum to have the ECU do what you want as a pilot. Prop pitch would be vastly different WOT on the TO roll compared to high speed flight at 12,000 feet for instance.

Diamond has single lever on the DA50RG Conti CD-300 V6 diesel. Would be interesting to know the control strategy they employ. A fascinating project to consider...
 
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single lever

Not long ago, I finished my Cessna 180-like aircraft, with an SMA SR305E diesel. It has single lever control. Uses an MT hyd CS prop, and a Hartzell governor. It has a prop control used ONLY to cycle the prop during run-up. Not sure how they do this, but it works great. Maybe Scott can enlighten us...

The engine has an ECU, but can be run in "mechanical" mode as well. Far as I know, the ECU only controls the fuel rack; nothing to do with the prop.

Somehow it all works nicely together. Single lever is a good feature. Just set it where you want it and forget it.

Our Sportsman is also single lever control but it is legit FADEC. Super nice.

Kurt Goodfellow
RV9 WAM 120 diesel 650 hours
Glasair Sportsman CD155 diesel 830 hours
C-180 SMA SR305E diesel 60 hours.
 
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