> <mailto:
rv-4mike@cox.net>> wrote:
>
> Glad I woke you guys up! :-)
> While it may appear from my post that I was trying to
> discourage this guy and am not happy with my rotary powered
> airplane that is not the case. I'm very happy with it. Will be
> even happier once I get all of the little glitches fixed so I
> can just fly it.
> I simply wanted to make sure William understands what he's
> getting into. What appears to be a fairly straight forward mod
> is a lot more complicated than it appears and there are
> potential pitfalls that are not necessarily obvious.
> My bad on the misread regarding fuel efficiency - he was
> talking about homebuilt aircraft versus factory built planes,
> not rotaries versus certified engines. I think he's still way
> off base here which was why I replied to his post.
> Al, I dont know anyone who actually KNOWS what BSFC they
> acheive with their Lyc/Cont. I know that low .40s is a
> published number that is stuck in my head. I know what kind of
> fuel consumption I got with my Lyc powered RV-6A at cruise and
> I know there are certainly enough flying Lyc powered RVs to
> pretty firmly establish a cruise performance baseline. Since
> there are more flying rotary powered RVs than other types,
> seems like we should be able to get at least an idea of how
> they compare. Lets challenge the rotary RV fliers here to post
> real cruise performance (altitude, TAS, fuel consumption) and
> answer the question. Or give me a year and 100 hours and I'll
> let you know how my RV-4 stacks up against the -6A for a data
> point.
> As for your performance against conventional powered
> Velocities, thats great news. I think thats one of the
> significant short comings of our little group here. Common
> perception is that rotaries are gas hogs and we dont do
> anything to accurately document and advertise our performance.
> Mark, I agree that burning Mogas definitely makes a big
> difference economy-wise. But that's a red herring. You could
> legally burn Mogas in a Lyc/Cont also - just that most guys
> who are too conservative to choose an auto conversion are also
> too conservative to burn Mogas. Burning Mogas isnt the
> exclusive territory of the rotary. I personally know a guy
> with a 200HP Lyc in an RV-8 who has burned Mogas exclusively
> for years. Really what it comes down to is convenience and
> comfort. Lets be fair, compare apples to apples, and while
> we're at it throw in the additional cost and hassle of having
> to pour in 2 stroke oil for your rotary (assuming you do that
> as most seem to do).
> I do totally agree with you on the price of parts. And that
> was one of my huge motivations for going this route. But
> really the biggest motivation was to do something a little
> different. When my RV-4 finally makes it's appearance at a
> fly-in (hopefully this year) it's not going to be lost in the
> sea of belly button RVs that show up.
> Mike Wills
> RV-4 N144MW
>
> ----- Original Message -----