Greetings All,
With the latest rash of 20B news, it would
be great to get some updates on the performance of the flying 20B’s.
In particular, HP at full and cruise, fuel consumption at cruise and finished weight
are of interest to me along with any mods like peripheral porting or turbo.
I think I’ve found everything there is to find on the 20B scouring the
web, so any fresh data would be greatly appreciated. I’m trying
really hard to convince myself that the rotary will be worth all the extra
effort so ANY info would be wonderful. Also, if anyone has a flying 20B they’d
like to show off anywhere near Wisconsin, please let me know.
Thanks very much everyone,
From: Rotary motors in
aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Al Gietzen
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 2:31
PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Latest
Rotary in the air!!
That’s great news, Mark.
Congratulations!!
Nice to have another 20B flying.
Maybe we’ll have some notes to compare. Yeah; they are
smooth. I’ve given rides to 2 other pilots, both remarked on the
smoothness of the engine. I’ve got over 45 hours in the air on my
Velocity 20B. Just got my EC2 and EM2 with latest updates.
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 4:31
PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Latest
Rotary in the air!!
Wow, news sure travels fast on this list. I just
got home from the airport and the news is already posted.
Yes, I flew my Lancair ES - 20B today and
she flies beautifully! My first flight took place Sunday at 9:30
a.m. I was close to doing it the previous day, but the winds were
directly across the runway at 10-15, and there was lots of traffic in the
pattern, so I waited. This morning was much better, except for the fog,
which burned off about 9:00 revealing a beautiful August morning. I guess
I just got tired of doing fast taxis. She flew like I was hoping she
would, actually better than I had hoped. I only did one lap around the
pattern, but the only thing I had to adjust was elevator trim. I landed
with 20* flaps and did the best landing of my life (I'm going to love this
airplane). It was very difficult not to go for another lap, but I wanted
to get the cowl off and look things over real well. Three sets of
eyes didn't find anything amiss.
The engine has plenty of power for sure. I was
especially impressed by the smoothness of the rotary engine. Really
amazing after flying the certified stuff for years. It was a little loud,
but that is partially due to not having a door seal, and the ANR headsets took
care of most of that.
I'll know more about how well my cooling system is
working after a few more flights. It appears that oil cooling may need a
little tweaking, but then it was 90* at 9:30 a.m. H2O seemed to be within
limits, from what I could tell from my brief flight.
First flight also revealed some tuning issues, but
I'm confident that we will get that sorted out shortly as well.
Head still in the clouds and looking forward to the
next flight.
On 8/26/07, Kelly Troyer <keltro@att.net> wrote:
I am going to jump the gun here and
report what I just copied from
Tracy and Laura's site........Congrats Mark !!! Oh envy
envy........
Sunday,
August 26, 2007 FIRST FLIGHT of Mark Steitle's Rotary Lancair ES
We JUST received a phone call from Mark Steitle of Austin, TX.
He had his FIRST FLIGHT Of his Lancair ES with a CS prop. He said
there were no surprises; the plane handled great; he had plenty of power and it
was VERY exciting! He promised to send me a report and a photo
soon. Mark flies the RWS EC2, EM2 and RD-1C. CONGRATULATIONS MARK!!
--
Kelly Troyer
"Dyke Delta"_13B ROTARY Engine
"RWS"_RD1C/EC2/EM2
"Mistral"_Backplate/Oil Manifold