(sorry if this is a duplicate post; I haven't seen it in my inbox yet)

Well, a splendid time was had by all on our Friday 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.

**Anyone have any thoughts on why the exhaust tone would be so much more mellow with the iron manifold & short stack?**

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