From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Russell Duffy
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006
9:59 AM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Take your
time Tracy :-)
Just a non-rotary note to announce that my latest RV-8 is
now flying. I flew it twice yesterday, and the only issue was the
rubber channel coming loose at the left wing root seal. Makes a lot of
flapping noise when that happens, but it doesn't hurt
anything :-)
Total construction time was 1100 hours, over 9 calendar
months (7.5 really, since I was out of town for about 6 weeks). As
much as I like rotary engines, you can't help but appreciate being able to just
bolt on a Lyclone, crank it up, and go flying. It's sure a time
saver, but not quite as interesting.
The most notable feature of the plane are the Bill
Dube' LED position lights. Everyone who sees the plane stops
and stares at them. I'm not sure how many times I've been asked to turn
them on for someone, so it's a good thing they don't draw too much
current. Everyone stares right at them while I turn them on, which
can be interesting, since they're pretty darn bright. On occasion, when
someone makes negative comments about all the little LED's, I
"accidentally" turn on the strobes while they're watching for the
LED's to come on :-)
There are a few pics of first flight day, and a very short
video of the first takeoff on my web site. I might actually have some
time to finish the web site now that the plane is flying. Gotta get back
to the ducted fan single rotor gyrocopter planning.
Rusty (survived 4 "first" flights now)