After 155 hours of flight I decided to try some performance enhancements.  Klaus Savier's LightSpeed Plasma II electronic ignition was installed in place of the right magneto.  The installation took three full days of work, but was not at all difficult.  The hardest part was removing the gear from the old magneto to install it on the new hall effect sensor.  It was finally removed with a gear puller.  A data acquisition flight was made with the magnetos before installing the electronic system to have some data for comparison. The flight lasted one hour and was done at high power settings (21.3" and 2300 RPM) at 9500' and 8500'.  Subsequent flights were made with the electronic system in similar weather conditions. Here is the Data: Flight 1 - Two Magnetos timed at 26 degrees BTDC.  Fuel Used - 9.52 gallons.  True Airspeed 172 kts. Flight 2 - One Magneto timed at 22 degrees BTDC and The Plasma II timed at 37 degrees BTDC at idle with its Spark plugs gapped to .028".   Fuel Used 9.74 gallons. True Airspeed 173 kts.  Flight 3 - One Magneto timed at 25 degrees BTDC and The Plasma II timed at 42 degrees BTDC at idle with its Spark plugs gapped to .035". Fuel Used 10.01 gallons. True Airspeed 174 kts. Outside temperature was four degrees cooler than flight one.  Personal impressions as of 11/20/01 --  Starting and idle -- vastly improved.  Speed and fuel economy -- there is no noticeable improvement in speed.  Economy at high power settings does not seem to be improved either.  At reduced power there may be some savings, but I did not collect any data prior to the installation at low power settings.  Reliability -- should theoretically be better, but, the system has plastic electronic connectors,  RG-58  antenna wire, and porcelain automotive spark plugs in the engine compartment.  All of these possible failure points might negate the gain of removing a failure prone magneto with its many moving parts.  EGT - CHT temperatures -- no changes. Overall I am a bit disappointed with the system. (See update below!!) The cost of $950 for the complete installation seems to yield little benefit other than a smoother idle.  I will be in contact with Klaus to see if there is additional tweaking to be done and post any  results here.  Update 4/6/02 -- 70 hours flying behind electronic ignition.   Good news -- Fuel burn has not  been greater than 9.0 GPH since installing the system.  Typical burn before installation was 9.3 GPH and is averaging 8.8 GPH now.  So far, it has been completely reliable.  It is very important for the timing to be set exactly as Klaus specifies to achieve good results.  The biggest savings seems to be at power settings below 75%. Update 11/3/03 -- 400 hours electronic ignition operation. Bob Knuckolls of Aero Electric fame had another good idea on his website.  It involves using shielded aircraft wire instead of RG-58 wire in the engine compartment.  Seemed like a good safety improvement and works fine so far....  See the picture to the left. Here is the link to his good idea:  http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/RG58/RG58.html More operation observations:  -- No problems at all so far  -- The higher one flies the greater the benefit  -- With my fancy four probe KS Avionics engine analyzer leaned to 25 degrees rich of peak, fuel consumption is 8.0 gallons per hour (block to block) at 65% Horsepower.

This is the position one assumes when working behind the panel of a completed RV-8.