----- Original Message -----

From: Russell Duffy

Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 10:38 PM

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Subject: [FlyRotary] Rev-2 flies

 

Greetings,

 

Well, N751RV, rev-2 made it's first flight today. 

 

Good news- The engine ran smooth, and quiet according to ground observers.  There were no leaks, or other problems, with the exception of the fact that I hooked up the pitot and static ports backwards on the EM-2.  That little mistake rewarded me with a TAS of 0 for the flight.  I fixed that already.  The plane now feels like an RV should, with much better handling than the previous nose heavy version.  This alone will be worth the removal of the turbo. 

 

Bad news- power is certainly down from running 5 psi on the turbo.  Once the prop unstalled on takeoff, the rpm was only 4500, and it only went to 4700 or so in climb.  This is about 700 rpm lower than before.  I didn't notice the VSI during my brief climb to 1200 ft, but it felt reasonably good.  I'm sure it wasn't 2700 fpm like before, but there's plenty of rpm left to improve this. 

 

Some numbers- orbiting the airport at 1200 ft, and 4700 rpm, the ASI showed 125 mph, with oil temp of 163 degrees, and water temp of 132 degrees.   I made about a one mile run at full throttle, and saw 150 mph, at 5700 rpm before I backed off.   Max water temp on climb was about 155 degrees. 

 

Sorry, not much real testing done, but I'm ready to proceed to that now that I got the initial flight out of the way.  Stay tuned.

 

Cheers,

Rusty (glad to be flying again)