In a message dated 5/10/2006 10:11:09 A.M. Central Standard Time,
eanderson@carolina.rr.com writes:
Great to hear the good news, Al, a major milestone for
certain.
Regarding your wing root cooler. I can only think
of four options, 1. The water spray as used by Tracy - as you know
very effective - but of course requires you to carry the water 2.
Possibility of a permanent fan to pull air through - but I would be a bit
concerned about it windmilling at cruise. 3. Possibly use
of an external fan to push air through during static ground operations
(such as tuning your engine) - but would require a considerable ability to
move air. 4. Alternative position - I would assume that would probably be the
least desirable solution.
Al,
I too am thinking about solving this problem. I have some Ideas, none of
which I have tried. I have a cabin heater and fan, a multi pass device. If I use
oil in it, instead of dumping the heat into the cabin, I can dump it overboard
lowering the oil temp. If I do water heating, I can do the same thing to lower
the water temp, however that will do little for the oil temp. The second thing
that I thought about is a dedicated oil cooler fan which could hinge down, seal
the output part of the oil cooler duct and pull the air through when on the
ground. When in flight, the fan would be out of the way and not be in the
airstream. It would thus not wild mill when flying.
Adequate Ground cooling is obviously vital. Think of it in "worst case"
terms. I remember being in a long line for takeoff at OSH in 2003, with my
Midwest rotary, praying that things would speed up as my temperature gauge got
closer and closer to redline. I had to pull out of line, let the engine cool and
get back into line in order to keep from glowing. I wonder if extending the
exhaust tube, from the oil cooler, to nearer to the prop would help.
Other thoughts????