Hey Al, CONGRATULATIONS! = That’s a MAJOR milestone in the development of = N755V.

On the oil cooling – = you’ve probably checked this – but after my experience – make sure = you have oil flowing through the cooler (i.e. thermostat working properly, = Input on the lowest hole, output on the highest hole). I don’t want you to = repeat my folly!

Keep us = posted!

Joe = Hull

Cozy Mk-IV N31CZ (65 hrs - Rotary = 13B NA)

Redmond (Seattle), Washington

From: = Rotary motors in aircraft = [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Al = Gietzen
Sent: Saturday, August = 05, 2006 7:45 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: ***SPAM*** = [FlyRotary] It's officially an airplane

A high speed nose lift; a high speed crow hop; and = finally off and away around the pattern; the 20B powered Velocity, N755V maid = its maiden flight yesterday, 8/04/06. What an exciting milestone = – even though in this case I was watching from the ground as the test pilot did = his thing.

The engine performed well, and the pilot reported = that all handling characteristics were good. The flight was short, however; because the oil temp was 10-15F higher than the limit I had set, and the = pilot did the right thing in abbreviating the flight so that can be evaluated and = changes made as necessary. All in all, with that as the only issue of note = at this point; it was a good day.

It’s such a common thing, isn’t it = – these cooling issues. The oil temp (downstream from the cooler) = peaked at 230F, somewhat after the end of the climb (OAT about 80F); I guess it = takes a little while for the hot oil to get to the bottom of the 8 qt sump and = back through the cooler. The main concern was that the temp = didn’t drop more that 3-4 degrees as he went around the pattern, and after landing = and rolling out it was still 225F. Coolant temps peaked about = 190F.

I had a video camera mounted reading the engine = monitor display which is great for review later. Unfortunately, even = though I have all sorts of instrumentation for doing diagnostics, in his focusing = on flight characteristics, and the concern about the high oil temp the = pilot forgot to push the ‘page up’ button; so the only data I have = is page 1. Regardless of further data, it seems clear that there is insufficient air flow through the wing root oil cooler – a = condition that was not entirely unexpected.

Another major step in an on-going = process.