Very nice looking workmanship, Al! I
am envious!
Those temps look somewhat high for the
power level you reported, but flight tests will be the key indicator of cooling
success. J
Tommy<><
From: Rotary motors in
aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Al Gietzen
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004
1:45 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] cowl on
I did the first “post-cure” of the custom cowl
todayJ, that is, first runs with cowl
on; and the faired spinner. The big high for the day was finding that the
negative pressure created by the prop, even at low rpm, drew significant cooling
air through the radiator in the cowl and out the back. Previous runs
without the cowl had me convinced that I would need an auxiliary fan for idle
and taxi time. First indication I had was with the prop only at 700 rpm,
I put my hand in front of the rad intake scoop and was surprised at the amount
of air flow going in.
I did simulated taxi and stop running; a bit over 2000 on
the engine for a while, then some 1600, then some 2000; for about 10
minutes. Temps got up to 200 on the oil and 195 on the coolant, and were
pretty steady there. It was a 70 degree day, so it may not work on a 90 degree
day; but I was very pleased. I also think it is going to give me clean
airflow into the prop.
(and I liked the way it looked, the third photo is the
stock cowl for a Lyc).
It’s these bright spots that keep us going on these
projects.
Al (stock Lyc – Nyet! Rotory
– Da!)