8-25-04 .4 hours / 30.1 total
Added a trim tab
today on the rudder. The business
end of it is about 7 inches tall, and 1.25 inches wide. I bent it about 30 degrees, and found
out that it’s way too much. Now,
instead of having the ball about half way to the right, it’s about 2/3 of the
way to the left. Took out about
half the bend after the flight.
Again, the takeoff
was no problem. Once you get the
tail up at low power, it’s easy to balance rudder with additional throttle. I may actually end up leaving the mount
like it is for the foreseeable future.
After yesterday’s
tests, I decided to try flying the plane with the TB open to the inside of the
cowling. I did leave the old inlet
tubes pointing in the general direction of the TB, to at least give it some
cooler air. There is certainly no
ram air pressure though.
During the takeoff,
I got a real sense of increased power.
Climb out at 130 mph was 6000 rpm, up from 5800 with the inlets
connected, but still down from the 6200 that
Tracy reported. MAP was only 26.5.
I could only play at
1400 ft today, and ran a couple flat out bursts of about 30 seconds each. TAS only showed 190, which I’m going to
have to test because I think it must be wrong. Map was 26 inches, and rpm was 6500. This is 300 rpm more than when I had the
inlet connected, but probably lower MAP.
I think what I need
now is an improved ram air inlet, that continues to use the current air
horns. I feel like this will be the
key to getting the performance I hoped for, but unfortunately, I don’t know if
I’ll be able to do it without making a completely new scoop for just the
TB. Naturally, the most convenient
place for that new scoop is on top of the cowl, similar to what
Tracy did before. I’m trying to resist, but I think it’s
almost inevitable at this point. I
just don’t have space to route a large enough duct around the engine.
Finally, I’m happy
to report a significant reduction in my personal aft
temperature with the new tailpipe.
It was noticeably quieter as well.
Most importantly, I didn’t smell exhaust once!!!