Well, a splendid time was had by all on our lunch trip to Dauphin Island followed by a stop at St Elmo. Around 15 a/c from MS & AL (29 people) landed at Dauphin Island, were picked up by the restaurant for a great meal, then several of us hopped over to see Paul's SQ2000.

Paul's got it running great & we got to see a couple of fast taxi's at near full power. Here's an interesting data point. It is the most 'pleasant sounding' rotary I've yet heard in an a/c. He's running the stock cast iron exhaust manifold with just a short stack out the cowl, & it almost sounds like a big V-8 instead of that '2-stroke' rotary bark. Even though he's running turbo rotor housings, there's none of the sharp edged sound that everybody seems to get with tube headers & mufflers. Paul, I'm really anxious to see how much power you're making in flight. You've certainly removed the sharp exhaust sound common to all the other engines I've heard.

We also got to inspect his brother's new gyro with a 2.5 L Subaru. It's a beautiful a/c & I want a ride as soon as the test time's flown off.

Rusty, you were missed; hope you can make it next time.

Everybody keep building; one trip like today's will make it all worthwhile.

Charlie