Yesterday,
the weather was outstanding. A
little cool at 56 degrees, but sunny and no wind. It was very nice to drive only 15
minutes to the airport, to take the plane up for a flight around the
area.
On the
flight bringing it up to NC 2 weeks ago, I thought that the engine was running
a little rich, and after trying option 9 to lean it up, it really didn’t
change too much. Then, in a
moment of sheer brilliance, I decided to lean it a little more using mode
3. Still didn’t change the
mixture much, but I was happy with it, so I left it alone. When I throttled back upon arrival,
the mixture bottomed out, and the engine stumbled pretty bad. After a quick rotation of the mixture
control, and a couple clicks on option 9, it was running good again, until I
throttled back a little more, and started the cycle all over
again.
A
couple of days later, I went to the airport and decided at this point, my best
option was to return to factory default, and start over, which I did. After tuning it for 10 minutes or so,
I figured it was good enough for a flight.
After
preflight and taxi, my oil temperature was at 140 degrees, but my coolant was
still laying on the 100 degree peg.
That is quite different than normal. I waited for a few minutes until it
started to move, just to make sure that it was working. When I took off, I pushed the throttle
forward, and the engine roared to life.
It really roared to life, because it was running at about 8 lbs of
boost. I backed it down a little
to 5 lbs, and it backfired once, but then ran smoothly. After climb out to about 2000
feet, the water and oil were only at 160 degrees, which was really a
surprise. It was a little cooler
than normal, but the temperatures were running about 20 degrees
cooler.
I flew
for about 20 minutes, surveying my new flying area, and just enjoying the
view. I then decided to check out
the tuning and started lowering the power. I found several points where the
mixture was really lean, and I made adjustments (option 9 only) to get it
where it needed to be. I think
that it probably tuned better now, than it ever has been, so I’m not going to
mess with it anymore.
Temperatures
never did get above 160 degrees, which makes me wonder if I had an air bubble
in the cooling system that worked out during, or after the long flight 2 weeks
ago. Whatever it is, I like
it. I slowed up to 100 kits
approaching the downwind, and made a perfect approach and landing. After the decent and landing,
temperatures were at about 140 degrees, and the engine was running very
good.
It’s
very nice to can add fuel and fly, but I think that before my next flight,
I’ll pull the top cowling, and just give everything a once over, to make sure
that everything is still good.
I’ll also re-torque the prop.
Steve
Brooks
Cozy
MKIV N75CZ
Turbo
Rotary – 48 hours and counting.