Hi All,
A couple of days ago,
I actually went for a couple of more test flights. This time to prove
the cooling mods, new pitch setting, and the aux fuel tank now residing in the
back of the beast.
OAT was 67F in
Pensacola, (eat your heart out
Perry). After start and taxi, I had to wait about 7-8minutes at the
runway for oil temp to get up to 135F. Take off temps never got above
175 for coolant and 165 for oil. This is reassuring after the earlier
attempts.
Like Bill Eslick, I
got the most cooling benefit by enlarging the area of the cowl outlet flap and
sealing around the rads.
We stayed at pattern
altitude and reduced power to about 3600 or 80 kts. On landing the
temps came down to about 160 and showed the same max temps on repeated
takeoffs.
The Ivo pitch was
reduced by ~6” to 60” in an effort to get more RPM/ power developed without
reducing pitch too much and losing thrust. Acceleration was better and
we lifted of in less than 1000ft and climbed out at 1200 fpm. RPM never
got above 4900 at WOT, but this is an improvement of ~400 rpm from the
previous setting. Should I reduce pitch more?
This thing is almost
fun now!!
Tommy
James<><
Great to hear the
good news, Tommy.
Sounds like
you have your cooling situation well under control. I would suggest
seeing what your cruise speed is before making another pitch adjustment.
At 1200 fpm it sounds like you have a "climb" prop setting, so depending on
your preference (climb or cruise) you may have a good setting as is. I
don't think you will know until you try it out at altitude and cruise
airspeed.
Ed
Anderson