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Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:55:03 -0700
From: Dale Rogers <dale.r@cox.net>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Bud Warren- Geardrives .com
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Hi All,

thomas walter wrote:
> Yikes!  First I heard of the accident, and was sitting next to Larry 
> at dinner Friday night!  Never thought to ask "any exciting happen 
> this week".   Bud, Larry, and Phyllis had to leave early, but it was a 
> pleasure to meet them.  Only wish my wife had been there.

   Actually, he did mention the crash - almost in passing - in his first 
presentation, Thursday 14:00.


> Spotted a neat marker/strobe wingtip lights at one booth.  No details 
> other than "only takes 250mA".  250mA @ 12V is 3W, yet holding the 
> acrylic light in my hand it felt much warmer. The comment "adjust 
> voltage to make it brighter" and the fact it was "toss into trash can" 
> if anything failed left me wondering about reliability. Folks 
> explained "all details on the web".  Well, no details on the web other 
> than pricing.  www.aveousa.com <http://www.aveousa.com>   My thought 
> is 'wait five years.... " before buying to see if they are still 
> around and have a reliable track record. 

AveoUSA also put on a fairly informative seminar on their
"Flight Deck" glass panel product line.  It looks like they're
trying to go toe-to-to with Blue Mountain, Dynon et al. 
However, it consisted of a bunch of separate display
modules - not terribly unlike Dynon - in that they "talk"
to each other on a shared communication bus.  But the
functions seem more limited, so it wil take up to four
modules at ~$1500 - $2200 each, to duplicate Dynon's
functionality.


> Rotary Aircraft Engine folks were there.  Fellows at the booth were 
> very nice, but not too technical as he kept telling me the engine is 
> 'air cooled'.  Incoming mixture is used to cool the engine, in 
> addition to water.  It's been done before, but always with reduced 
> power levels, so it was interesting.  1300cc displacement, but the 
> fellow said they made all their own parts.

   Technically, the speaker was correct.  All engines - except
watercraft, and others that transfer their heat directly to a
body of water - are, in fact, AIR cooled.  I remember my
high school auto shop instructor being very emphatic about
that. 

   Of course, that isn't the point.  The folks at many of these
promotional booths are ~sales~ personnel.  They have
memorized a script about the great features of their
product(s) and maybe a list of the most common
objections.  Get past that, and they are seriously lost.

   As an aside, has anyone else noticed the growing
appearance of companies and joint-ventures with eastern
European connections?   Last year, it was the Czech
Republic (propellers). This year it was a couple of
promoters lauding their Slovakian engineering.  

   That brings to mind an outfit promoting a  small (50 HP)
radial diesel that was scalable to six, nine, or 12 cylinders
(200 HP).  He was claiming a BSFC in the low 40s to mid-
30s.  Another "revolutionary" design. I noted that he only
had a core mechanism - no cylinder heads, or support
mechanisms.  Certainly, no engine on a test stand.

   General observation: When the guy that owns the company
answers with, "I'll have to ask my engineer", it's a hint that
this is a wheeler-dealer you're conversing with.

Best Regards,
Dale R.