Sounds good Bob.  Glad to hear that another EC2 ran more or less OK out of the box.

The natural resonance of the drive train is around 800 - 1000 rpm so don't be surprised if you can't get things perfectly smooth there.  An idle of 1200 - 1500 is perfectly acceptable in most aircraft (including mine).  That's about 460 rpm at the prop which is less than most Lycs idle at.

Tracy (finally out of Soob SVX controller hell)
  ----- Original Message -----   From: Bob White<mailto:rlwhite@comcast.net>   To: Rotary motors in aircraft<mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>   Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 8:44 PM
  Subject: [FlyRotary] First Engine Start



  I'm happy to report that I actually started my engine today.  The only
  terrifying event was due to a momentary brain fade on my part.  For
  some reason I was thinking the throttle had to be all the way in to be
  off.  Not sure why I got that into my head.  Maybe because I've kept it
  in that position just so it was out of the way while I worked on the
  electrical for the last month.  Any way, I cranked it over, it sort of
  fired a little but did't start.  I hit the cold start switch and BAM,
  it took off at WOT.  Sorry to say I don't know what the RPM reading was
  as I was flipping every switch I could get my hands on to get it
  stopped.  Glad I had primed the oil pump with the starter the other
  day.  So the first 10 seconds or so of my first start was at WOT.  Also
  glad I had a prop on it.

  I got that all sorted out and restarted the engine.  I ran it for 10-20
  minutes and noted some random parameters.  Today's goal was to start the
  engine, not take data.  I ran till the oil temp read 156 and water 182
  before I shut it down.  Oil pressure at first start indicated 97 psi.
  I didn't check at shutdown.

  The gear box seemed to rattle around 1000 rpm, but it idles pretty good
  above 1200 or so.  (I need to start reading some of the EC2 and EM2
  instructions.)  I made no attempt to set mixture or anything, and all of
  the sensors are using the default settings.  The actual values may
  change as I get calibration data.  I do have Tracy's latest self
  adjusting mixture feature, and it did seem like the engine smoothed out
  as it ran.

   tried to take some video of the first start, but for some reason it
  didn't work. The tape moved but nothing was recorded.  Later I recorded
  running the engine again.  As soon as I relearn how to get it onto the
  computer, I will post a short clip on my web site.

  *Jerry Hey's Cool Tube Exhaust system.

  The best I can tell, this exhaust is doing a great job.  I took one
  quick reading from the wing tip on the exhaust side of the plane.  I
  saw 97 db on mode C and about 3000 rpm (Radio Shack sound meter).  I
  will get more complete data in days to come.  There were a half dozen
  people standing around watching all this, and no one mentioned anything
  about the exhaust noise.

  All I can say is I'm thrilled to reach this milestone.

  Bob W.

  --   http://www.bob-white.com<http://www.bob-white.com/>
  N93BD - Rotary Powered BD-4 (The engine is running)
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