Originally Posted by
Centaurus
Sounds like an Old Wives Tale. Flying the Convair 440 I have used ADI on hundreds of occasions. Not once did I experience back-firing on take off. Certainly we experienced occasional rough running due to spark plug fouling with 115/145 Octane fuel but it usually cleared itself during initial climb. As far as I recall autofeather was armed for every take off. .
I had never heard of ADI causing backfiring either, at least not a properly functioning system. I did have one incident where I rejected a takeoff due to backfiring and it turned out to be a ruptured diaphragm in the ADI regulator. However that problem made itself evident as soon as the throttles were pushed up far enough for the ADI flow to start. WE didn't arm auto feather, but it was only required for takeoffs over 100,000 lb, and our operations were relatively short legs so were were always landing weight limited, so never needed to depart over 100,000lb.