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Message
Rusty - as airplane builders we all must
be eternal optimists. It is great to hear you get back the spirit. I
commend you on sharing both your accomplishments and follies with us all.
I hope you realize that we are all behind you and want nothing other than total
success for your project. It is easy to throw out terms such as "guinea
pig", but truthfully we view you as "the professor". I hope our
encouragement and interest will help you get through these trials. All of
this is so symbolic of life, no? So we all pick to follow the lemmings,
the sheep, or the eagles( we always say eagles even though the buzzards are
incredible fliers, not to mention the blue herons and pelicans :-))
please note that my -6A uses a large loop
from the gear leg to the caliper, which reduces the fatigue on this joint.
It has worked fine for 1000 hrs. Avoid a single tight bend, these don't
take the flexing without breaking.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 5:55
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Life is better at 5
psi
Greetings,
I took the plane out
again today, and found it to be MUCH more satisfying at 5 psi of boost.
I ordered another excellent used 89-91 turbo off Ebay today, and I'm going to
pick up a crack free exhaust manifold to go with it. Before I install
the new turbo, I'll port the crap out of the wastegate, to see if I can get
down to something more reasonable, like 5 psi, rather than 10+ like I get
now. If that works, I can actually use full throttle, which will make
me, and Lynn happy (see Lynn, I do pay attention). I'm
also trying to pick up an 87-88 turbo actuator, which was only 5.5 psi I
think.
As I mentioned before,
the new cowl is on order, and I'm starting to work out the details to get
this all inside the stock cowl. I can't imagine how nice it might
fly without all the cowl and tire drag. Realistically, it will probably
be around the first of the year before this all happens, but at least I'm
back on track, and excited about doing it all. Thanks for putting
up with my earlier depression. This IS going to work, and it IS going to
be the hotrod I hoped for.
Cheers,
Rusty (psyched
again)
9-27-03 .7 hrs / 2.7 total
Started my climb
out at 4 psi of boost, then modified to 5 psi around a thousand feet or
so. I couldn’t get any rational
VSI readings from the Anywhere map, but it sure did climb better than
ever. The oil and water both
stayed right at 180 degrees, so no problems there. I had the usual ceiling of about 2500
ft, so I couldn’t go higher for any real testing. Here are the numbers for 14 degrees of
pitch:
Boost (over
ambient) / MAP / RPM / MPH
Climb
4 psi / 38” / 5600
/ 100
5 psi / 40” / 5800
/ 100
Cruise at 2000
ft
0 psi / 28” / 5600
/ 130
3 psi / 34” / 6000
/ 145
5 psi / 38” / 6300
/ 155
Once I returned
(with another beautiful landing I might add), I planned to fill the tanks, and
increase the pitch of the prop to 16 degrees.
Unfortunately, I
found that my left brake line is leaking again. The line was made of slightly softer
aluminum than Van may have had in mind, but I can’t figure out what was
actually in the RV-8, and he doesn’t spec the material for the RV-3 either, so
I thought I’d give it a try. I
left a loop of brake line at the caliper, and I believe that vibration is
causing this to break at the flare.
After one of the early leaks, the brake on the left has been
“chattering”, rather than smoothly braking, so I figured it must have been
soaked with fluid. To make sure
this never happens again, I will replace the pads (which are 22 years old) on
both brakes, and replace the lines with stronger aluminum. I will also get rid of the loop of
line, since it could be part of the problem. It’ll be nice weather tomorrow, but I
won’t be flying.
I found one other
problem today, my air vent sucks, and I mean literally. Rather than blowing air on me like
it’s supposed to, it has a pretty large suction on it. One way or another, air is coming in,
so I guess it’s still ventilation.
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