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Secondary Ignition/Kill Switches


paraflyer17

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I stumbled across a fairly scary video recently where Sandy/Wiltshire Man had a nasty experience with a throttle cable going through the prop. Fortunately he was OK.

 

It looks like the initial reason for this was that a) it wasn't clipped to the swing arm as the new ones are and b) the cable was maybe too long, so those 2 issues can be taken care of.

The bigger problem in this case was it damaged the cable and stopped the motor being shut off. Which got me wondering why there isn't a secondary kill/ignition switch on the paramotor body?

From the reading I've done it has already been suggested, and sounds like it would just be a N/O switch from the coil to earth (which presumably is all the original one is)

Has anybody done this, and if so do you have a guide or pictures? Sounds like a very simple mod for a bit of peace of mind.

Or are there any other ways of stopping a moster from within the harness?

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Its worrying indeed, the coil ground point is a potential failure and if the vibration causes that cable to part no amount of switches will help.

To this end last year I made a minor mod to my fuel line to ensure I could easilly reach it, over my right sholder clipped to the frame, so worst caser I can pinch the soft silicone hose and fuel starve.

That said why not add a 2nd, additional point of failure maybe but go ahead.

Just my thoughts.

Dave

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First thing that comes to my mind, attach a heat poof line from HT lead to the frame behind the pilots neck. Reach back and pull removing HT from spark plug.

Very cowboy and comes with its own potential other problems but its an idea.

Safety measures should be as bare bone minimum as possible so there's less to fail when needed.

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On 08/06/2020 at 09:49, e2vdavidb said:

Its worrying indeed, the coil ground point is a potential failure and if the vibration causes that cable to part no amount of switches will help.

To this end last year I made a minor mod to my fuel line to ensure I could easilly reach it, over my right sholder clipped to the frame, so worst caser I can pinch the soft silicone hose and fuel starve.

That said why not add a 2nd, additional point of failure maybe but go ahead.

Just my thoughts.

Dave

Sounds like a sensible solution. Any photos? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the slow responce. Fuel pipe was moved very slightly as in pics.

Advantage is that now if I follow back the starter chord I easilly reach the pipe and can pinch it to cut fuel.

I resisted adding a tap as a point of air potential leek and as 1 more thing to fail.

Simple is good!

I have practiced the reach and know how to find it easilly, my arms also not long enough to reach further so not worried about the prop.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, only just found this. I had the same concerns about a faulty kill switch and with the added risk of being stuck with the throttle wide open. I added a 2nd kill switch to the frame of my Maverick and ran separate wires to coil and a 2nd earth point for added redundancy,  i hope!  It was first used in anger on a landing approach at the Bore Chasers this year. Throttle kill swich failed due to a wire break,  and stopped it on the 2nd switch. Result.

Hope this helps.

Mark. 

 

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Dklude, glad you like it. 

Paraflyer17, no problem,  have a look at the photo below. The black wire on the right connected to the carb mounting bolt, is the new earth point, and the blue wire on the left, is a second connection to the low tension coil terminal.

The new kill switch on the panel (earlier photo) is either open circuit in the on position,  and just runs the coil lead to earth in the off position.  (Same as the throttle kill switch).

I used a 2 position switch rather than a spring return switch, so that in an emergency,  I can just flick the switch to off, rather than have to hold it against the spring until the engine dies. I guess I'd have other stuff to concentrate on at such a time.

Hope that helps.

Mark.20200704_212303.thumb.jpg.40046aa6c9bc58c2f376eab304a92464.jpg

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