Message-ID: <3F554707.10304@netdoor.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 20:42:31 -0500
From: Charlie & Tupper England <cengland@netdoor.com>
Reply-To: cengland@netdoor.com
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] and another one fly's....
References: <list-2564433@logan.com>
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Haywire wrote:

> Hi Guy's
>     13:32 PST another rotary climbed into the air, 3 years and a month 
> after construction started. It was worth every single sacrifice. I 
> made an attempt to record flight data, but was kinda excited to do a 
> good job of it, and now I'm enjoying a couple of beers, but I'll give 
> an outline of events and post better data after more flights.
>     First flight only lasted 18 minutes, as we could faintly smell oil 
> burning, so returned for inspection. On removal of cowl we found that 
> the oil injection lines had melted off of their attachment to the 
> metering pump. Even though I felt it was unlikely we speculated that 
> heat from the exhaust may have caused it. So I replaced these and 
> sleeved them with Hi-temp 3/8 hose. The second flight was supposed to 
> be a short hop just to test this but as everything was working we 
> continued on. This lasted 42 minutes. Upon inspection after landing we 
> discovered the protective sleeve burned but this showed me the source 
> of the heat appears to be the turbo manifold gasket seems to be 
> leaking, directing a stream of hot exhaust gases. As it was too warm 
> to investigate further we decided to call it a day and get some beer. 
> Tomorrow I'll remove the turbo and exhaust and investigate further. I 
> just hope that the manifold hasn't cracked.
>     Temps on climb out peaked at 98C (208F) for the coolant and 95C 
> (203F) for the oil. I was running the EWP on bypass from the 
> controller, meaning it would just run at a full 12v supply 
> continuously. This caused me an anxious moment when on descent on the 
> first flight, as it suddenly dropped of below the bottom of the scale 
> and pressure dropped from 20psi to 5psi. I thought we'd sprung a leak 
> but as soon as we landed and began to taxi temps climbed back to 80C. 
> I guess I'll have to start trusting the electronic temp controller to 
> maintain temps.
>     I'm experiencing similar disappointment as Rusty in my climb 
> speeds. However on the second flight we used the GPS to do a few runs 
> to check the airspeed we found that it reads 15-20 mph slow. This 
> meant we were climbing at too high of an airspeed. Even when we 
> adjusted for this is was still disappointing. I feel that a big part 
> over the problem may be that I'm over-propped. I'm currently using a 
>  76" 3-blade IVO prop, which may need to be shortened. I've got allot 
> of testing to do before I shorten it however. I have heard all the 
> good and bad reports on the IVO prop, so I was already aware that it 
> may not be ideal or may be perfect, but decided that I'd like to find 
> out for myself.
>     I have to commend my test pilot Ron, who took care of most of the 
> flying duties while I closely watched the engine (he let me have a few 
> minutes of stick time on each flight). The airframe handled 
> beautifully, flies like a dream. It required a little left rudder on 
> take-off, no rudder at all at 130-160mph and a little right rudder 
> above 160. Both landings were perfect greasers, so I guess tomorrow 
> I'll have to do landing just to test the gear :-)
>     It was a pretty successful day with a few snags to be dealt with, 
> but damn it feels great.....   WhaaaaHooooooo
>
> S. Todd Bartrim 
> Turbo 13B RV-9Endurance
> C-FSTB
> http://www3.telus.net/haywire/RV-9/C-FSTB.htm
>

Way to go, Todd!

Suggestion on the prop (ran one on a Lyc RV-4 for a short time):

If you are comfortable with running that large a diameter, try running 
it as a two blade before cutting it down. I'll bet that the 2 blade 
magnum will absorb most of what you can feed it; it just won't be super 
efficient at high speeds. The 2nd one I tried on a 160 hp RV-4 was 76" 
dia, 2 blades & it climbed like a banshee. Just be prepared for that 
brick wall as you look for top speed numbers.

Charlie