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Thanks for the warning on the hose clamps. I am
going to use those in the single rotor installation. Something to pay close
attention to.
It would have been nice to see you at SERFI. We had
lots of air planes, but nothing really exciting.
Richard Sohn
N2071U
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:35
AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Fwd: BBQ in
Llano
Really neat to see rotaries showing up at fly-ins
Mark.
Tried to make the first one in my RV-8 last weekend (SERFI in
Alabama) but about 80 miles out from Shady Bend the autopilot banks the
airplane hard left and stayed there for 180 degrees. I hit the disengage
switch and it let me be PIC again. Then I notice the message "GPS
FAILED" on the Bluemountain screen. I had my Garmin GPS on board for
backup but now I had no confidence in my instrument panel so just stayed on
heading back home. I cycled power on the BM and it booted up OK &
was fine all the way back.
Later, I see several drops of coolant
under the cowl and pop the upper part to see what's up. Source of leak
was the lower hose connection to water pump. I use those Gates PowerGrip
heat shrink clamps which I like a lot. This one was about 6
inches away from the exhaust collector pipe which I thought was far enough but
the radiated heat from the glowing pipe was apparently absorbed very well by
the black clamp. It had melted about 95% of its length at the point
directly faceing the exhaust pipe and was barely holding on. Lesson
learned: These clamps MUST be shielded from radiated exhaust heat if distance
is less than 12 inches.
Now I have to decide if the Bluemountain EFIS
is a write-off or was it smart enought to warn me about the disintegrating
hose clamp and turn me back toward home
:>)
Tracy
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