----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 5:36
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Shady Bend and
Weather and the EDDIE
Hi Folks,
Just got home after 5
"terrible" days of being stuck in Shady Bend due to weather {:>). I
mean how much worst could of it have been? Stuck there with 5 guys who
knew nothing to talk about but rotary engines and aircraft, day and
night. Just Pizza and beer to sustain us (with an occasional donut - for
vitamins) and Coffee to keep us awake. It was as close to heaven as it
comes for a rotary flier. Sorry the rest of you were able to drive out
and therefore missed the post event activity. Yes, I know some of you
had exciting adventures of your own returning on our commercial air carriers -
but, don't think they beat the post event activities {:>)
As everyone has mentioned, Tracy and
Laura, produced a great event. Well, to be more accurate, Laura,
produced a great event and Tracy went along for the ride {:>).
Couldn't imagine two more gracious host/hostess who not only worked their
butts off to bring off the event, but then were stuck for 5 more days
with 4 of us. Three who couldn't get out due to
weather. Well, Laura could only stand so much and left for Atlanta on
Tuesday morning - leaving us guys to fin for ourselves - the house is still
standing, Laura.
I think various reports have covered the
events without me taking up disk space repeating them. I just wanted to
state that it was great meeting some of you finally face to face, who I
have chatted with for several years over the e mail . Of
course, great to again see those of you who I had met before (even
If I didn't always remember).
I was greatly honored be presented
an award for my efforts to get stories published on the flying rotaries.
I am certain my old English Teacher is smiling up in heaven and recalling when
a young 12 year old told her "... twarn't nuting 'portant - 'cept
Math and Science" as she tried to (rightly) convey how important
communication skills were - even for budding Engineers and Scientist.
{:>)
EDDIE
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to
present the EDDIE Presentation to those of you there. It seems to have
stood up well to the inquiring minds present {:>). I hope in the
not too distance future to refine the value bounds for some of the
variables in the equation, but nothing was brought up (to my knowledge) that
raised any doubt as to the logic and structure of the basic EDDIE
equations. So I feel fairly comfortable that it represents a reasonably
sound (no pun intended) mathematical analysis of the phenomena and small
advancement of our rotary knowledge.
For those of you who have inquired about
the EDDIE presentation. An effort was made to video tape it, however, I
am not certain it was totally successful - Tracy and Laura will let us know as
soon as they find out. I am going to attempt to put the presentation
slides into PDF format and Laura Crook has offered to put it on there RWS web
page for all (who are interested) to view. I need to write some script
to go with the slides, so it may be a week or two for me to get that finished
and then of course however, long it may take Laura to put it on the RWS web
page.
Unusually Happening #147 to Ed
Anderson
Jim Mosur and I launched from Shady Bend around
0830. Kevin had unfortunately done one of those things that no one else
has ever done - leaving his master own after returning from giving rides in
his great looking RV at Shady Bend. But, as we left Tracy had hooked up
a battery charger, so I'm certain that small problem was quickly
corrected.
Crossed the Okefenokee swamp at 5500 MSL, where I
noticed that my oil pressure began to fluctuate about the time I was dead
center over the Swamp. It appears that the fluctuation I thought I had
imagined when I shut the engine off when my exhaust pipe backed out of its
header was indeed real.
The oil pressure which is normally rock solid at
around 70 psi was slowly wiggling its way up to 90 psi in 5 - 10 psi
fluctuations. I could detect no other indication that there might be a
problem. But, I'll tell you that I kept an eye out for clear cut areas,
dirt roads, anything that might possibly provide solid ground to touch down on
should I have to. Needless to say there would be no "precautionary" shut
downs of the engine over this swamp. But things like that do tend to
raise the pucker factor a bit {:>).
Made it across the swamp and on to Way-Cross,
Georgia where Jim and I topped off the tanks and then Jim Launched headed to
Canada trying to get there before the next front rolls through and I headed
for Charlotte, NC. Well, on this leg, the oil pressure was again jumping
and now going up over 100 psi. I was beginning to suspect that there was
no real problem (at least it wasn't falling oil pressure) as there was no
other indication of a problem.
I thought that if it were an oil problem it must
be associated with my recent reinstallation of the redrive and was wondering
if I could do any airborne analysis to find out. So I decided to pull a
fraction of a "G" to see the results. As soon as I put "Positive"
loading on the airframe, the oil pressure immediately dropped back to 70psi
for a few moments, before again wiggling back up to over 100 psi.
Aha! That provided the input to
decide on the most likely cause of the oil pressure fluctuation. Yes,
you guessed it. Apparently the electrical terminal to the oil pressure
sensor can is loose. Several more pull ups confirmed that with "Positive
Gs" the terminal apparently would make adequate contact. Negative "G's
produced no effect. The sensor/gauge combination I have, go to maximum
reading on the gauge if the ground connection fails, so this appears to be a
intermittent contact problem causing the gauge to bounce.
So made the rest of the trip a bit
more relaxed and got home around 12:30. Too beat to take the cowl off to
check the oil pressure sensor terminal, so will do that this
weekend.
Again, I had a great time and enjoyed it
enormously. See you there next year.
Best Regards
Ed