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Although I got my "I love flying my rotary" button from Tracy a few weeks
ago, today was the first day that I was more concerned with assorted other
issues (marker beacon not working, GPS won't drive the autopilot...) than
the management of the engine. Today was my second flight since solving my
voltage fluctuation issue and the engine sounds so good I even took off my
headset before shutting down just so I could listen for a while. It will
idle below 900, but I put the stop at 1200 as that's where it sounds best.
Solving that issue has allowed me to run much leaner, the mixture setting
went from 12:00 for best idle to 8:00. Fuel burn is of course down
somewhat, and EGT's are about 40 deg cooler.
I also made a new, larger and smoother cowl air outlet without the cowl flap
(see picture). It actually turned out better than it looks - the last layer
of micro made some drips that need to be sanded.
Between the new cowl, leaner mixture, and cooler OAT my coolant temp are
down. I am allowing myself more MAP on climb out at slower speeds. I can
now cool 32" MAP in a continuous climb as long as I keep the speed above
120kts. Today max temps were 160 oil and 180 coolant.
This is still a rather anemic climb rate of 500FPM on the VSI (RPM is about
5000). Come to think of it - it sure seems like I am climbing closer to
1000+ FPM. Will have to do some timed climbs.
BTW here is a link to the rest of the video I took with Paul Lamar.
http://bob-white.com/lamar/
Dave Leonard
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