I just made my first flight with the new Surefly and Maggie ignition harness. Really like it and think it might be a little smoother than the two Bendix cruising around. Bendix are getting some hours on them though. Biggest thing I noticed was how much nicer it idled below 1000 rpm. I have a 28 volt system on the 180K and reading Mooney and Van's forums they had some issues but that are resolved now. Definitely would do it again at this point.

I have a Surefly and I love it!

I have a Surefly on my O-360 powered Maule. Its been solid for the 250-300 hours its been on the plane. Plane continues to start amazingly well. I am running fixed timing currently. Here is a post I've written up elsewhere regarding why. I've since moved down to lower elevations but I haven't bothered to change the timing back to variable.

"Its a long story but I did the STC and install to allow it to use variable timing and ended up changing it back to fixed timing. I was flying at high DA in Colorado and the Surefly advance scheme basically lets the system go to full advance of 37 degrees at 21" of MP and below regardless of engine RPM. In the late spring and summer time with a field elevation of 6800ft, I was only getting around 21" of MP at takeoff with full throttle which mean the mag was fully advanced while I was trying to takeoff and climb. I lost about half my climb rate and had several hundred feet extra added to my takeoff roll and being at 9500-9800ft DA, its not like I had much extra performance! After talking to Surefly and reading lots of user data on the relationship between ignition timing and max power, I switched back to fixed timing and have used it like that ever since. I think the system would be ideal for aircraft based at low elevations that want to climb up and cruise LOP which is how they tested the system. For my case though, it turned out to not be ideal for my conditions.

I think it is a good system for lower elevation planes but I would not use the variable timing for high DA takeoffs. I know this is a different engine than yours but hopefully you might get some useful info for your decision. In fixed timing mode I have been very happy with the Surefly, the plane starts better at 0F on the first start of the day than it did with Slicks on a nice pleasant day. I kept on impulse coupled Slick and took the jumper off the ignition switch so I have both firing when I crank."

John wrote:Ya I was going to ask that as well are Bendix better than slick?

Especially for a plane that lands out beyond reception and would be a pain to hike out of

Bendix