flyrotary@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

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Its amazing how aircraft gain weight as fast (or faster) than us Humans {:>). I say an "ounce here and an ounce there and all of a sudden you are a hundred pounds over". I am in the slow process of trying to slim my bird down (as well as myself), have taken 20 lbs off self but only 10 lbs off bird. Getting ready to remove second battery that will save another 16-18 lbs.

Have you checked with Finn Lassen to see what weight his bird is? Your turbo accounts for approx 35 lbs but not having to haul a muffler system probably saves you about 15lbs.

Hopefully, your rough engine is as simple as a fouled plug. Is it rough at all speeds? Ok at idle rough at higher rpm?

Always some last minute things to get fixed. Good Luck

Ed Anderson

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

From: Russell Duffy

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 11:09 PM

Subject: [FlyRotary] tiny tach works, and my plane is a pig

Greetings,

First, the tiny tach seems to be working fine, but that was the only good news of the day.

The engine is running worse than ever for some reason. I need to check the plugs to see if one is fouled. Hopefully, it's something that simple. Thankfully, there were no witnesses to the ugly run :-) The thing is even quieter now that it's out in the open at the airport. No problem at all with noise with the turbo, and no muffler.

My new Van's aircraft fuel gauge seemed to be very accurate, right up until it died. Grumble, grumble...

Finally, my plane is a big fat pig! Man is it heavy! I'm almost in disbelief of the numbers, but the scales are known to be accurate (dang it). The empty weight is a whopping 924 lb!!!! Van's target figure is 780 (counting oil), and the gross weight limit is 1100, which is pretty unrealistic for most folks. Needless to say, I'm pretty bummed. Preliminary W&B figures show that I either need to gain 35 pounds <G>, or add some weight to the tail. With my current 190 lb weight, and no baggage, I'd need to add 6 pounds to make it just inside the forward limit for CG. I will always have about 10 lb of tools and tie-downs in the baggage compartment (aft), so that will help also. I hate to add even more weight, but at this point, it's probably the lesser of evils since I want to try the turbo. If I decide to ditch the turbo, then I can probably remove the weight. Either way, I sure am glad I have the "B" wings.

Rusty

Turbo 13B RV-3B