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Back from Sun & Fun and a great week. We
had five rotary powered aircraft there. Jerry Bass from Virginia was there
with his spouse. Jim Mosur flew his rotary powered RV-6 down from Canada
with a friend and together with Finn Lassen, was Tracy Crook and
myself.
Flew down to stay with Tracy and Laura on Friday
and I need not tell those of you who know them, what wonderful host and hostess
they are. Great engine talk, helped them a bit get ready for S&F and
just generally a very enjoyable stay. Also Laura treated me to a spin in
her snazzy BMW Z-3, what a ride. What a lady.
The most impressive thing I witnessed was not at
Sun & Fun but at Shady Bend airpark, as I awaited to take off behind Tracy
crook with his new gear box and prop. Folks it boggled my mind as Tracy
rolled approx 300 feet then rotated his RV-4 into a 30 deg climb. I
swear I could read his instrument panel over his shoulder when he was 100 ft
up. It was nothing short of Awesome! I thought he would quickly push
it over as he lost airspeed, but he just kelp on going up, up and Up. So I
just radioed him and told him I would see him at Lakeland as I certainly didn't
want him to have to wait for my pedestrian moving vehicle to slow him
down. The match of gear box and prop has certainly got to be close to the
optimum combination for that aircraft. You had to see
it!
Tracy again showed the world what a rotary
powered aircraft could do in a race even with a fixed pitch prop and muffler
hanging in the slip stream with his average speed from start to finish of 216
MPH. His straight speed was obviously higher, but how much higher is for
the rest of us to guess at. Only two slick glass birds Lanairs were faster
in that class, it wasn't really fair to put the Rv and Lanairs in the same
class, but after Tracy trounced the Lycoming Powered RVs last year, there just
wasn't enough coming back to run an RV class.
Large number of folks showing interest in the
rotary. But, they need to see new faces with their rotary powered
aircraft. Most are probably getting tired of seeing my face and Tracy's
standing by the aircraft answering questions.
John Slade showed up still glowing from his first
flight - way to go! John.
We had a great series of Tent Forums on the rotary
engine with seats full most of the time. A lot of interest in the
rotary.
Made it home non-stop despite a 20 MPH headwind
from Tampa to Charlotte in 3 hours and 30 minutes. I had a cruise airspeed
of 167.7 MPH TAS at 9500 MSL burning 7.31 GPH
Adding to the fuse vs Circuit break debate. I
had my alternator field coil circuit breaker pop three times during the flight
home. I reset it and it generally ran another 1 1/2 hours before popping
again. Don't know what the problem is until I dig into it, but it kelp
producing 14 volts while it ran so was plenty good to get me home. Could
not have reset a fuse, so while I do use fuses or non flight critical items
(such as instruments) all my flight critical systems are with circuit
breakers.
It was great to meet a number on the list for the
first time and to see those of you who keep showing up again. Press on
folks and lets get some more rotary aircraft there next year.
Best Regards
Ed
Ed Anderson
RV-6A N494BW Rotary
Powered
Matthews, NC
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