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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.
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