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Permalink Reply by Dave Gardea on September 13, 2014 at 4:41pm

Hi Russ,

I have a Corvair with over 330 hours flight time. You'll shut down the Corvair by putting it in the center position. If you switch to the points while the the engine is running it will just keep running. Part of your switch checking procedure when you park your plane in hangar will include master off, this switch in center pos, etc. Send me an email offline to dgardea@outlook.com and I will forward you a schematic that includes the coil switching you describe if you need it. This is a circuit recommended by Bob Nuckolls.

Regards,
Dave

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Permalink Reply by Russell Johnson on September 14, 2014 at 12:35pm

That would work as long as you don't shut the engine down with the mixture control and forget to switch the A-B to neutral position.

I have Bob Nuckolls book, just need to take time to set down and read it.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on September 14, 2014 at 2:09pm

The main reason aircraft have "always" been shut down with the mixture is because of the magneto ignition. If the mags are hot because of a bad "P" lead or because the last pilot forgot to shut off the mags, the engine wants to start if you move the prop. With the electric (rather than magneto) ignition in the Corvair (and in Rotax engines for that matter) when the ignition is switched off the engine will not fire if you move the prop. For that reason WW (and Rotax) recommend that you shut it down with the ignition switch(s). If you add another switch into the circuit you are just adding another possible failure point, in my opinion. There is no reason to shut down with the mixture as far as the health of the carb or anything goes, it just has "always" been done that way to add a layer of safety because of the magneto ignition.

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