Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #23151
From: Russell Duffy <13brv3@bellsouth.net>
Subject: fuel transfer update
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 18:39:55 -0500
To: Flyrotary List <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Message
Greetings,
 
Well, another uneventful flight today.  Temps are still a bit too good, and I need to do my 0-10000 ft climb test to see how much more power I can add.  What?  You didn't think I was just going to reduce the cooling did you :-)   There were no leaks of anything, (despite a little negative G's in a botched roll).  I saw no less than 2000 fpm climb at any altitude up to the max of 6500 ft today.  Level at 6500 WOT gave 213 mph on the EM-2, and 200 even on the GPS.  This doesn't mean much, but it sounds good.  
 
I have a little more understanding perhaps on my fuel transfer issues, and there's a possibility that it's really not so bad.  With all the changing of thrust angles on the engine, I've had my trim tab screwed up as well, and it's been on my non-critical list of things to get around to fixing. 
 
Today, I took off with less fuel in the feed tank than what I had in the non-feed, just so I could play with the transfer some more.  Initially, it seemed like nothing was happening, and I only showed about 5 gallons in the feed tank, so I made a turn to head back home.  As I did that, I noticed that the levels were all over the place momentarily (it was about a 3 g turn <g>).  Once I was straight and level heading toward home, I noticed that the ball was quite a bit to the right, so I added some right rudder, and the fuel level jumped from about 5 to 11 gallons.  I spend the next few minutes yawing the airplane slightly one way, then the other, and found that both fuel levels change pretty drastically with just a bit of yaw.  Makes sense of course.  I kept the ball centered for the next few minutes, and noticed a fairly steady rise in fuel level in the right (feed) tank, and drop in the left.  Knowing I had fuel to play with, I went and "played", and actually quit worrying about ending up in a field for a while.  
 
I'll tape a trim tab back on the plane before I go out again, but I'll make sure the ball is centered when checking the fuel level from now on.  
 
Cheers,
Rusty    
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