Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:39:35 -0800
From: Ken Welter <rotary.coot@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] EAA 782 meeting
In-reply-to: <list-1619120@logan.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Message-id: <p0623092bc192f53d6a7d@[63.24.51.29]>
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References: <list-1619120@logan.com>

>I attended the 782 meeting tonight.  Ken Welter talked of his rotary 
>powered Coot experiences.  at some point I realized that he wasn't 
>just some hp nut with his nitrous powered 13B (putting out 300hp to 
>get up on step, gross weight up to 3200lbs).  with his machinist 
>profession, racing experience, gutsy experimenting, and many stories 
>of surviving potentially lethal situations his opinions are a little 
>more weighty than "I read on the internet that....".  another member 
>ran a machine shop that produces all the geared parts for Boeing 
>airliners.  he impressed the fact that many experimental failures 
>are with geared redrives, because of the lack of tolerances they run 
>under, unlike belt and pulley systems, that any failure usually 
>becomes catastrophic.  Ken talked about a friend who is a top 
>authority on transmissions and his love of ford t-6 gear systems, 
>because they keep him well employed.  he said this friend proceeded 
>to show him a 55 gallon barrel of broken parts, not a Chevy or dodge 
>part in there, all ford. ken is working on building a redrive for 
>his Coot from a dodge planetary gear system, 5 pawl, that would 
>produce a 3.12 reduction.  his current belt system is at it's size 
>limit and he hopes to reduce the drive ratio he currently has.  I 
>wondered if Tracy had heard of any of this, or was looking at the 
>dodge 3.12 ratio drive.  I'm not taking sides, just repeating what I 
>heard.  I will note, too, that ken wasn't bashing anyone, just 
>relating his experiences.  he has 2300 hrs behind Mazda engines in 
>his Coot, using up at least 3 engines and 2 Ross units.  he 
>currently has a belt redrive he designed.  that upper wheel must be 
>12" dia!   kevin
>


    Thanks for the compliments Kevin, got a couple numbers wrong 
however that I thought I would correct, the planetary I am working on 
is a 3.21 to 1 and the time I have on my Rotarycoot is approaching 
1400 hrs.
  Ken