----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 17,
2006 9:23 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary]
Progress Report
Its been a while since I posted anything
on Fly Rotary, so I though I would post a progress report on my 20B Lancair
ES. This report will pale by comparison to Buly’s first flight
report. But here it is anyway.
Well, after many hours of pain and
suffering, I finally got the cowl installation finished. There are some
minor “finish-up” items, but for the most part, it is done, except
for some micro and primer. Wahoo!!! Now on to more enjoyable stuff.
After getting the cowl install done I felt
that I really needed some fun. Last time I ran the engine was before
Christmas ‘05. So, I decided to roll the ES out of the hangar and
run it a little yesterday. After looking over the engine compartment for
loose items I set the parking brake and chocked the wheels just to be
sure. Before I could even get settled in the cockpit a small crowd
had formed. It seems like that’s going to be the norm for a while
yet.
Oops #1… a few weeks back I had
unplugged the lead to the starter solenoid so I wouldn’t accidentally
trigger the starter while working on installing the cowl fasteners. As
luck would have it, I had neglected to plug the connector back into the starter
solenoid. When I hit the start switch all I got was “click,
click”. Then I remembered disconnecting the starter solenoid
lead. Phil plugged it back in and we were good for engine start.
Oops #2… The next thing I did was
flood the engine to the point that there was fuel running out of the exhaust.
It formed about a 1’ dia. puddle on the pavement. With temps
in the 90’s, I guess I didn’t really need to use the “Cold
Start” feature. That plus a few hits on the primer/program button
had it flooded royally. A short wait for the puddle to dry followed by
cranking with the fuel pumps off and throttle open got it cleared out.
Ready to try it again, Mains ON, ignition ON, “COLD START” OFF,
pumps ON, and coils ON. Hit START… And this time she started right
up. Turn on ALT FLD for MAIN and AUX
alternators, both are charging. After warming up the engine and with all
readings in the green, and an OK from my observer Phil standing off to the side
(next to the fire extinguisher), I ran it up to 2500, then 3000, 3500, 4000,
and 4400. It felt strong and like it wanted to keep revving faster and
faster. A little tweaking with the mixture knob made a huge difference in
smoothness. Its really obvious when the mixture is set right by how silky
smooth the 20B gets. Its like having an electric motor under the cowl.
Too cool!
It was at that point that Phil yelled that
things were blowing around inside the hangar and stuff was dancing around on
the shelves. I had wanted to go to 5k, but decided to call it quits for
the day and so I shut her down. I still need to do the finer tuning with
the new auto-tune feature, but I was pretty happy with how strong it ran.
The crowd, with their windblown faces, dispersed and Phil and I rolled the ES
back into the hangar. Next weekend it will be back to working on the last
10%.
Keep building…
Mark