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It's hard to get your LNC-2
past 200 kts., that seems to be the wall on the design for these rockets.
There's about a dozen of these Lancair's in my area so it's easy to compare data
from one build to another. Getting past the 200 kt barrier is the hard part.
Adding HP is exponential, takes allot of ponies to get a few more knots. So you
have to look elsewhere to get speed. Weight, straight airframe, rigging, drag.
This includes cooling drag, flap reflex, balance, just to name a few. And since
everyone of our Lancair's are different there's no real hard data and set
ways to build. You just have to ask and experiment... That's the whole
point.
My LNC-2 is on the lighter
side, about 1150, and I have small cooling inlets, flap reflex, direct RAM air,
electronic ignition, small wing tips, small landing gear, small tail. When I do
my flight testing I'm using a calibrated Micro Encoder for TAS, CAS, DA and a
Garmin 430W to get accurate ground speeds and winds aloft. I also use a
VM-1000 for all my engine monitoring.
As I said in my posting about
installing the ECI cold induction system, I did do more then just add the cold
induction. It certainly makes HP and a better performing engine, no doubt.....
But it also allowed me to cut allot of weight off the front and the cowl, make
the cowl much more aerodynamic, create a better RAM air system and change the
cooling differential. This all adds up to more knots and a better flying
Lancair.
An obvious change is in the
bottom of the cowl, looking at the before and after pictures, you can see how
the airflow now "holds" the nose up instead of the old cowl adding drag. This
helps take the pressure off the tail, kind of the effect of reflexed flaps.
Doing this allows the airframe to go faster. Less drag = More speed. The tail is
drag.
More RAM = More HP. The least
amount of air you force into the cooling inlets = Less drag. Performance exhaust
= More HP. More HP + Less Drag = More speed.
These are just a few of the
many changes and mods we can do to increase performance and have a better flying
Lancair.
Randy
Stuart
LNC-2
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