Engine Management Systems for Single & Twin Engines
It is said that technology never stops – it keeps marching forward. There was a time when the car dashboard had a speedometer, an amp meter, a fuel gauge and an mileage indicator. All these used to be pure analog displays. With time, analog displays were replaced with digital displays. The digital displays itself further improved. Today, it doesn't just display the quantity of fuel in the tank, it displays distance-to-empty. The humble mileage indicator is replaced with its digital version that also includes multiple individual trip mileage counters within the same display. The more sophisticated the car, the more sophisticated the dashboard and information available to the driver. But even the most unsophisticated car today, offers more accurate and far more information than cars of yesteryears. If nothing else this leads to a more pleasurable drive. Ditto the single or twin engine aircraft. The analog dials of years past, have now been replaced with ultra sleek multi-display digital versions. Of course, if you fly a single or twin engine aircraft purchased 20+ years ago, you could opt to slowly replace your analog dials one at a time. With every such replacement, managing your aircraft engine becomes easier. Over time and budget permitting, you can replace clusters of digital dials with single multi-display version that do the job of several dials thus reducing overall clutter in the cockpit panels and also adding to better integration. As you might guess, an analog dial is far less accurate than its digital version. Take the fuel gauge for example, in the analog version, the quantum of fuel in the aircraft tanks is of a more a guess – assuming the needle is not stuck which can happen due to its reliance on mechanics. In the digital version, the pilot is presented with a constant digital display and he knows it is working because the digits slowly count down as the fuel is used. There are other critical gauges that provide information such as Exhaust gas temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure and so forth. Obviously, the more accurate the information, the better the handling of the aircraft and consequently, better then Aircraft Flight Instruments maintenance. In fact, modern day digital engine management systems for single and twin engines not only display the information accurately, but also store the information. This stored information can conveniently be downloaded via the provided serial or usb socket for analysis by an engineer. Just as a physician can read and view the patient reports and determine the health of a patient, so too the aircraft engineer or mechanic can read the downloaded data and figure out the health of the aircraft engine. The modern day digital Electronic Data Management Systems for single and twin engines not only aid maintenance of the aircraft, they actually make flying safer and more pleasurable.
