----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 8:21
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Rev-4 wanders around
the airport under it's own power
Greetings,
The Rev-4 rebuild is
nearing first flight readiness. I just put the prop back on yesterday,
and took it for a spin around the airport today. Despite some
tuning touch-up that's needed (trying to hold off for a test of the auto
tune feature), the engine is running fine.
The only problem I've had
on the last two starts was, well, the starts. Last time I ran the
engine, it took almost a full battery to get it cranked. Today, for
the first time EVER, I ran the battery down without getting the engine
started. Nothing is wrong, but I guess I need to relearn my
technique. In fairness to the Odyssey battery, the stupid under
drive pulley hasn't been letting the battery charge much in the previous
runs. I really hate having the EM-2 blinking at me anytime I get below
about 2000 rpm. I may have to reset the low limit.
I ran the engine up to
4800 rpm while attempting to hold the plane with the brakes. It sure
seems strong, and this isn't close to full throttle. I had a 6000 rpm
static before, and asked Clark to give me 500 more rpm when he did the
final finish on the prop. My static should now be
6500+ Zoom, zoom :-)
The engine has not leaked
a drop of anything, and it stayed quite cool today. I never saw oil over
130 degrees, or water over 170 during my joyriding. The evap cores had
their ducts in place, but the oil cooler did not (since it's built into the
lower cowl). Turning the engine over by hand seems really
tight. All the tolerances when building the engine were at the very
tightest limits, so this is going to take some time to break in.
The cowl is functionally
complete, which means all the parts are stuck together, and can be bolted to
the plane and flown. I still have tons of cosmetic work. I haven't
sanded any of the overlapping joints, where I bonded the scoop, or new front
ring. There are drips and runs of epoxy everywhere. Just
disgusting :-) The oil scoop is not rounded on the front edge,
which I know is not good, but I strongly suspect that it's going to be
way oversized, so anything I do to it now will just be a waste of time.
I'm actually hoping that it's too big, because I need to do some cosmetic
surgery to it.
I formed the lower cowl
shape (to clear the oil cooler), and the oil cooler duct separately, which was
a mistake. I just guessed at the shape of the scoop that would look OK
with the lower cowl. Unfortunately, it could use some work on the
cosmetics. No point messing with it until I get a clue about the
necessary scoop inlet size. The water was never a problem, but now
I'm running Evan's NPG-R, so I would expect temps to go up 20 degrees or
so. On the other hand, the cowl exit area has gone up about 50 sq
inches, due to the lowering of the rear edge of the cowl for oil cooler
clearance, so I suspect I'll make up everything I lost on the Evan's.
The oil cooler is a complete unknown. It's BIG, and should be very
efficient. It's far more vertical than the old one was, so the airflow
through it is MUCH improved. The inlet is currently 30 sq inches,
and I'm optimistic that it's going to be too much. I have some
wacky plans to limit airflow through the cowl exit when it's not needed, but I
don't see that happening until I need to (temps too low in
cruise).
So what's needed- Nothing
really. I suppose I could put it all together, tune the engine (or not),
and fly it tomorrow. That's not how it's going to happen though
:-) I plan to add the gear leg stiffeners in the next few days, and I'm
still hoping to come up with a new expansion tank for the coolant that will
house my new level sensors. Still waiting for UPS to bring my supplies,
and I need to do some testing on the sensors. The plumbing of the new
tank is driving me crazy. I just haven't come up with a perfect solution
yet, though I think I know what I'll have to do. After tomorrow, I'm
illegal, but I have my medical and BFR scheduled for Monday. Hopefully,
I'll be ready to start seriously running the engine by then, and start doing
laps over the airport. I'm off next week, but of course the Navy is
flying, so my airport is limited to a 1400 ft ceiling unless I beg Pensacola
to let me climb through Whiting's area.
In a side note, Whiting
won't be flying too many helicopters. We had a huge hail storm Saturday,
with up to 3" hail stones. One of my RV buddies is a helo instructor at
Whiting, and he was off yesterday because they didn't have anything to
fly. By his account, there are about 100 grounded helicopters, almost
all of them. He said all but a few had broken windscreens, and most had
damage to the main rotors. Check out the bike riders helmet in the
Pensacola News Journal online article!
That's way more than
enough for now.
Rusty (not long
now)