steve
   good to here you are back in the air. the system sounds like it is working a little better than the old one. have a safe flight.
                     paul


--- On Sun, 8/3/08, Steve Brooks <cozy4pilot@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Steve Brooks <cozy4pilot@gmail.com>
> Subject: [FlyRotary] Back in the air
> To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
> Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 9:33 AM
> I’ve had my plane torn apart for about 3 ½ months
> rebuilding the cooling
> system, in between vacation, wife’s projects, and
> problems fitting in the
> radiator.  I installed a custom made radiator, replacing
> two evaporator
> cores that I was using.  The evaporator cores provided only
> marginal cooling
> for the turbo 13B, in a pusher aircraft
>
> In order to install the new radiator, I also had to
> relocate almost all of
> the fuel system components, and I replaced the aluminum
> lines connecting the
> fuel pumps to filters to regulator with SS braided AN
> hose/fittings.
> Due to the extensive changes, I had at least an hour, maybe
> hour and a half
> of ground testing, including four high speed taxi’s up to
> rotate speed.
>
> The new cooling system also has a cooling fan which I was
> able to integrate
> into the plenum holding the radiator.  At 95 F degrees OAT,
> and turning the
> fan on at about 190 F degrees coolant temperature, The fan
> maintained 180 F
> for 20 minutes of ground operation, including some high
> power testing.
>
> This morning OAT was about 78 F, which is very good for
> North Carolina in
> August,  I wanted something less than 95 F for the first
> test of the new
> cooling system.  I did not use the cooling fan for taxi or
> takeoff, as I
> wanted to see what the cooling was without the fan.  I took
> of and climbed
> up to about 1200’ AGL.  The coolant was up to about 205,
> and oil at 185.  I
> leveled off and reduced the throttle to normal cruise
> power.  I watched the
> coolant temperature for a little while (maybe 15-20
> seconds), and it seemed
> to stay at the 205 F reading.  I wish now that I’d been a
> little more
> patient, but I kicked on the cooling fan, and the
> temperature came down
> pretty quickly to slightly above 180 F.  I turned the fan
> off again and the
> temperature stayed right there.  I did power up and climb
> another 300 feet
> or so, but really didn’t push it too hard on the first
> flight.  The
> temperature didn’t really move too much during the brief
> climb.  All other
> systems ran perfectly and it was a very nice flight.  I did
> stay within
> gliding distance of the runway the whole flight, but based
> on zero squawks
> on this flight, the next one will be longer.
>
> While I would like to have seen a little better
> performance, I was happy
> with the improved cooling over the old system.  Climbing to
> pattern altitude
> old the old system at today’s temperature would have been
> 215 – 220F.  On
> the next flight, I’ll take off using the cooling fan, and
> see what kind of
> numbers I get with it.  I hope to see something more in the
> 185-190 range,
> but I’ll have to see what the real number are.
>
>
> Steve Brooks
> Cozy MKIV N75CZ
> Turbo rotary