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Message
Greetings,
I lost a bunch of weight
this weekend in the hanger. The thermometer hovered around 102 degrees,
with humidity in the 70% range (between showers, when it was 100%).
Saturday, I went to fly, but instead, spent the day working on the
plane. There was more than the usual couple drips of oil under the
engine, so I pulled the cowl to investigate. It seems that I've run it
enough now to gain about 3/4 quart of oil over the full mark, and when the plane
sits in the 3 pt attitude, it leaks around my redrive oil return plate on the
"front cover". Eventually, I'll change the gasket, but for now, I guess it
will be a reminder not to ignore the high oil level.
I also found another crack
forming in my fiberglass intake plenum. The intake pulses must be VERY
strong, as this is the second crack that I've found. I ended up glassing a
few more layers over the trouble spots, so stiffen this up.
While in the cowl, I added
another layer of heat protection to the inside of the cowl where the exh pipe is
trying to melt through my 321 ss foil.
I also tied the two
manifold pressure hoses together. I use a two barrel TWM TB, and each
barrel has it's own fitting. Previously, I had each controller getting a
hose of it's own from one of the barrels. Someone (maybe Dave?) suggested
that this may have been the reason my B controller wasn't idling well. I
figured it wouldn't hurt to tie them together for now, but didn't thing it would
actually help the problem. I'm happy to say I was wrong. Today, I
accidentally cranked the engine with the B controller on, and realized a couple
minutes later that it was idling. I tested both controllers, and they both
behave well now. Pity I'll screw all that up in a few weeks with the C
drive and new prop.
Today, I flew an hour of
formation with an RV-8 buddy, just like we used to do when I had my RV-8.
Everything was perfect, plenty of power to keep up, and no EM-2 alarms.
I also got to finally try
my Anywhere Map WX in-flight. It's pretty neat, but the Ipaq display
sucks. I've tried everything, and now plan to probably buy a new GPS for
primary use. The Ipaq will have to go off to the side somewhere for WX use
only. Anyone got any experience with the Lorance Airmap 1000
?
Today puts me over 27
hours. I plan to have my 40 flown off by the middle of Sept, with the C
drive. That should make me good to go for the Evergreen fly-in, and
Tracy's get together.
Cheers,
Rusty
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