Got back from Osh late yesterday and have barely scratched the surface of
my email in-basket.

I was really bummed about the EAA's screwup on Auto Powered area.  There
must have been 200 people during the past year who asked me where they could
find me at Osh and I always said "Just look for me in the Auto Powered
area".  There was a dedicated spot for virtually every type of plane I've
ever heard of but this year they scattered the auto powereds all over the
place.  Sorry I missed many of you who went looking for me.

The flight up & back went great except for some messy weather between WI &
FL.   50 mph headwinds on way up and for once there was a light tailwind on
the way home.  Average TAS was 175 mph and fuel burn for entire trip worked
out to 6.2 gph.  Flying high really helps fuel economy (and dodging
weather).  Most of flight was between 12,500 and (briefly)16,000 ft.  Hobbs
rolled over to 1350 hours on the way home.

Cooling is working really well now.   Had a 25 minute ground taxi before
departure and water temp was up to 205 when I started my takeoff roll.  Temp
was already droping as I climbed out.  After futzing with cooling systems on
the plane for almost 10 years now, I am convinced that the key factor is
pressure recovery.  If you are having cooling problems, measure the pressure
in front of the rad.  If it is not a high percentage (at LEAST 60 - 70%) of
dynamic airspeed pressure, start working on your inlets and/or ducts.  Back
side pressure should be fairly low too (mine is about 2" H2O) but front side
pressure is the 400 pound gorrilla in airplane cooling.

Saw the first sign of waterpump failure on the engine.  Noticed a drop of
coolant hanging from the pump pulley every morning when I took the cowl off
to begin another day of talking airplanes & engines.  No noticable play in
the pump bearings and I noticed no drop in coolant pressure on the way home
but a new pump is definitely in order.  This was the original pump I got
with the 1988 13B engine I bought back in 1992.

Tried to ignore the negative trends at EAA and enjoy the old friends, new
people I met and the time I got to spend with my daughter who just got her
private pilot ticket.  All in all a pretty good trip.

Tracy Crook