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Spark Plugs and Carbs by Ron Price Not every powered parachute pilot has the opportunity to test different bolt on products for their unit so they read about it from articles such as this. My name is Ron Price and I am a BUCKEYE dealer based in Baytown, TX just east of Houston, TX where there is an abundance of farm land and turf farms. Not only a great training area but I'm able to fly year round and enjoy training pilots on there schedule, even though the humid weather can get unbearable at times a well tuned engine can make it without any faults. I first started flying in April 1999 with my new BUCKEYE 582 Dream Machine which comes standard with the NGK spark plugs, I quickly noticed that even though these plugs fired and operated well that my fuel consumption was higher than I intended I had given into the fact that my weight and the higher humidity probably played a major cause for this. I decided to experiment with the spark plugs first in my quest to get better fuel economy, in doing so I went with the BOSCH PLATINUM +4 plug (4417) and quickly noticed a better fuel burn, rather than flying up to three hours on the NGK plugs the BOSCH bumped me up to 3 1/2 hours right from the start. I thought this was great but there must be a way to squeeze a little more so it was on to the carburetors, the BING 54 can't be any simpler to adjust the needle if you take your time. The main needle was set in the middle slot, I moved it to the top slot which put it in the leanest position and then went test flying. My main purpose of testing was first to check the temperature ranges of the water coolant, cylinder head temperature and the exhaust gas temperature. Water at cruise was a respectable 146 degrees, the cylinder head was from 190 to 220 and the exhaust gas was 1020 to 1090 these were all good numbers then came the final test what was my fuel burn after all this? Over a three day period and 12 1/2 hours of flying the fuel burn averaged 2.3 to 2.5 gallons per hour and on the 4th day I went for the true test which was flying until the fuel tank went dry, after 4 hours and 18 minutes 2.39 gallons per hour was my burn. Not bad for an amateur pilot at the time, since the test I put a total of 110 hours on the plugs before retiring them and depending on the weather they still gave me between 2.3 to 2.5 gal per hour fuel burn solo flight. The down side to using the plug is that it is a cold start plug and it is easy to over prime and flood, with a recoil start that will give you a good work out as well as a lot of ground time, just prime half of what you normally would and you should be fine. The other down side is that this plug will not work on an inverted engine, to much gas and oil load up on the plug before it can fire. BOSCH corporation will not indorse or acknowledge their plug being used in 2-cycle engines but they were happy to receive the input on my test anyway. Since my first day that I've flown a powered parachute I have logged 162 hours with a goal of reaching 200 by my first anniversary, but even more so I enjoy flying either by myself, with a passenger or with anyone else that comes out to fly all the way from garage homebuilt to factory ready to fly, powered parachutes is a great way to enjoy flying and to meet some great people. Even though I have had great results with the BOSCH plugs every person is going to have a different opinion, if you should need anymore information on the plugs just call me or e-mail, HAPPY AND SAFE FLYING!!!! Ron Price
PH- 281-421-9987
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