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THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

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racerjerry

Joined: 15 Dec 2009
Posts: 202
Location: Deer Park, NY

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 12:20 pm Post subject: THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY



“Parts left out cost nothing and cause no service problems.”  Parts left out also can cause no emergencies or smoke in the cockpit.  I believe that the first statement was attributed to GM’s Charles “Boss” Kettering.  Henry Ford was a great advocate of the value of simplicity too; whether it be in life, in work or in play.  If our missions often involve flying IFR at night, then a very good case can be made for all the backups, added equipment and redundancy advocated in this forum.  What concerns me is that all the emergency procedures required to take advantage of redundant systems must be committed to writing and to memory; then must be tested, practiced and periodically rehearsed.  With the increased costs of flying, TRUE currency becomes even more elusive.  During an emergency, pilots rarely have time to look in their POH for emergency procedures; you will not have time either.  When the adrenalin and sweat is flowing and when fear and tunnel vision sets in is not the time to begin learning emergency procedures.



What is your plan to counter smoke in the cockpit?  I have a plan.  The FAA is currently saying that you need one too.   



If 99% of your planned missions are day VFR, think twice or 3 times, before going overboard on adding overly complicated equipment and redundant backup systems, much of which you barely understand.  And don’t forget that your airplane will perform better with less weight.

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_________________
Jerry King

nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:11 pm Post subject: THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

At 02:20 PM 1/1/2010, you wrote:




THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY



"Parts left out cost nothing and cause no service problems." Parts 

left out also can cause no emergencies or smoke in the cockpit.  I 

believe that the first statement was attributed to GM's Charles 

"Boss" Kettering.  Henry Ford was a . . .



    <snip>



     CFK is one of my heros. Purty smart fellow . . .



If 99% of your planned missions are day VFR, think twice or 3 times, 

before going overboard on adding overly complicated equipment and 

redundant backup systems, much of which you barely understand.  And 

don't forget that your airplane will perform better with less weight.



    Dead on right! The simplest, lightest, and most profound

    adaptations of legacy TC electrical systems to OBAM aircraft

    was the conversion of an "avionics bus" to a "dual feed-path

    endurance bus" and replacement of the vacuum pump with an

    SD-8. This produced a system  for less weight and several-fold

    improvement in system reliability. In other words, Z-13/8

    gives you system reliability of the system in a King Air but

    with the addition of only one switch (S/B Alt Control).



    Further, there are NO combinations of mis-positioned switches

    that put the system at risk for exacerbating a failure event.

    Any contemplated departure from Z-13/8 (or any other Z-figure)

    should be evaluated for validity of design goals. I receive

    many direct inquiries from folks who say they've read the book,

    studied chapter 17 and then ask for an evaluation of their

    particular recipe for success. The system generally consists

    of cherry-picked features from the Z-figures stirred into their

    personal desires/worries.



    I have to remind folks that each Z-figure speaks to an

    architecture crafted to a design goal. Further, each

    drawing as-depicted has a high-order probability of

    being the elegant solution for an electrical system in

    one aircraft out of 99.9% of OBAM aircraft under

    construction.



    Adding switches, busses, back-ups to the back-ups  and

    similar exercises will generally have a poor return on

    investment in complexity, weight, and cost-of-ownership.

    It's relatively easy to add perceived "enhancements"

    but with a risk of inserting new failure modes along

    with the certainty of increasing weight, complexity

    and cost of ownership. But as Jerry pointed out, ideas

    that seem to add comfort for perceived concerns may

    backfire by adding complexity that the pilot has to

    sort out when things are NOT going well in the

    cockpit.



    I've written extensively about dark-n-stormy night

    stories that offer little in the way of understanding

    while generating new worries amongst those who

    have the least understanding of how the system works.



    So just a friendly heads-up for those working on

    progressive evolution of the z-figures: If your

    design goal is to embark upon a new expedition

    into experimentation, you're certainly free to do

    so. We are, after all building EXPERIMENTAL airplanes

    . . . or are we?



    On the other hand, if one desires to tap the collective

    knowledge, understanding and willingness here on the

    List to teach, then consider questioning any perceived

    shortfall in the Z-figures before you spend a lot of

    $time$ cutting and pasting. The majority of folks

    on the List are interested in seeing just how FEW parts

    we can assemble in the MOST elegant combination to

   MAXIMIZE failure tolerance of your project's electrical

    system.



    Bob . . .

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ralphmariafinch(at)gmail.
Guest

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:11 am Post subject: THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

To play the part of the loyal opposition:



Yes, but.

Do any of us really want to depend on one of the old cars for daily transportation?  I have memories, almost all bad, of the old clunkers. I love my modern autos, turn the switch and they start and run. Oil changes at greatly increased intervals, hardly any "tune-ups" and such.



Our lives would be simpler without building airplanes, dealing with computers, and so forth.  But by definition those reading this are doing those things and other non-simple chores and hobbies.



To airplanes. Day VFR implies no lights, even no radios.  Stay out of Class B and no transponder required. My build is delayed considerably by adding lights and such but I want them.  I'll also have an EFIS and autopilot because I think they nice and a good convenience.



These are, after all, experimental.  Experiment as you wish. Let's just be aware of all the costs of adding equipment.



BTW, I'm flying an Aircoupe now.  When my RV-9A is finished I don't think I'll notice a few extra pounds in comparison...and besides, most of us Americans could easily make up for added equipment weight by losing our spare tires 

Ralph Finch

Davis, California

RV-9A QB-SA



--

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:55 pm Post subject: THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

At 12:10 PM 1/2/2010, you wrote:


<ralphmariafinch(at)gmail.com>



To play the part of the loyal opposition:



Yes, but.

Do any of us really want to depend on one of the old cars for daily 

transportation?  I have memories, almost all bad, of the old 

clunkers. I love my modern autos, turn the switch and they start and 

run. Oil changes at greatly increased intervals, hardly any 

"tune-ups" and such.



   How does "simplicity" translate into "old" hardware or

   degraded service life?



   <snip>



These are, after all, experimental.  Experiment as you wish. Let's 

just be aware of all the costs of adding equipment.



BTW, I'm flying an Aircoupe now.  When my RV-9A is finished I don't 

think I'll notice a few extra pounds in comparison...and besides, 

most of us Americans could easily make up for added equipment weight 

by losing our spare tires



    I think you missed the significance. The kind of

    simplicity we strive for is the minimum cost, parts count,

    weight and therefore maximum reliability of any one

    system. If your design goals call for lots of bells

    and whistles in your airplane, the minimalist rule

    for selection of systems suggests that those accessories

    with fewest components while meeting design goals are

    a better value.



    I'm having a good time designing accessories

    with micro-controllers where software replaces a bucket-load

    of components while allowing me to do more with fewer

    parts. Capability goes up while parts count goes down.

    I think this tread got started with a List member's

    notions of adding more busses and switches to Z-13/8

    followed by questions of design goals to be met

    while doing so.



    Bob . . .

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ralphmariafinch(at)gmail.
Guest

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject: THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

I think you missed the significance. The kind of

    simplicity we strive for is the minimum cost, parts count,

    weight and therefore maximum reliability of any one

    system. 



I think you missed my point. For example, the OP equated simplicity with

less weight, which might be literally true but is irrelevant, because the

weight saved is probably trivial. That's a notion from value

engineering...those evil and arrogant engineers again.



Minimum cost? Minimum parts count? Really? The least cost, greatest

simplicity, maximum safety, minimum parts count, and least weight, is...no

plane at all. Seriously. Absurd? Probably, but it makes the point that it's

foolish to use "minimum", "maximum", and similar extreme or unbalanced terms

in a discussion like this.



    If your design goals call for lots of bells

    and whistles in your airplane



No. Don't be silly. My design goals include better reliability, ease of use,

and maintenance than certificated aircraft, balanced with cost

considerations. To achieve those goals I will use modern systems where I

think appropriate. It doesn't include gizmotrons for the sake of gadgetry,

or saving a few pounds because the "airplane will perform better". Other

friends of mine have different goals, or perhaps the same goals but

different decisions to arrive at the same goals.

	

    I'm having a good time designing accessories

    with micro-controllers where software replaces a bucket-load

    of components while allowing me to do more with fewer

    parts. Capability goes up while parts count goes down.



I'm sincerely glad to hear this.  I would be quite interested if you

provided lessons in two related areas:



1. How to design the few conventional electrical parts a microcontroller

needs, that is, the resistors, inductors, caps and perhaps transistor or two

needed.



2. Basic programming of a microcontroller.  I'm comfortable with programming

several high-level languages, and years ago knew some assembly, but a class

or lessons would be great.  I'd be very willing to pay for a well-designed

set of lessons for this knowledge.



At this time--a couple of years before I actually must decide--I intend to

use Vertical Power's electrical system to wire my aircraft. Many

electromechanical devices are replaced with a few solid-state devices and

software...approaching what cars have had for decades.  I consider it a

significant step towards greater simplicity, fewer parts, less weight, and

greater reliability. Of course many differ. I know builders who consider

round gages the way to go for greater reliability; to each their own in the

OBAM world.



    I think this tread got started with a List member's

    notions of adding more busses and switches to Z-13/8

    followed by questions of design goals to be met

    while doing so.



I'll take your word for it. The OP's post didn't say anything about that.



BTW Bob, have you thought about memristors, and how they might change

electrical/electronic design (not just for aircraft systems, but in

general). They are the fourth, long forgotten basic electrical component,

just now coming into practical use.  I wonder how much of a change in design

and future device capability they might start.

 



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