Happy New Year to you,
Mike
Wow. I’ll bet you
are glad to be in a different year and glad the old one
gone.
I noted your comment on
the lean/rich possible O2 cause. Do you have a heated (3-4 wire) O2 sensor
or an unheated one??
Ed
From:
Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Mike Wills
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 9:43
PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] first flight of the
new year
Hope the holidays are treating you
all well. Things are kind of slow on the list this week. So figured I'd get
things going.
I havent flown for almost 2
months. First my nephew's accident (he's recovering amazingly well). Then travel
for work. Then had to do an annual on the airplane. Finally, had surgery to
remove my appendix and gall bladder. Been a busy couple of
months.
But I'm feeling pretty good now,
the airplane is ready for its first flight after the annual, and today was a
spectacular day here with clear blue sky, unlimited visibility, light breeze,
and temps in the mid 60s. I resolved a number of minor issues during the annual,
including the gas smell that I've been living with for a while now. Found
my left tank vent line was loose where it penetrates the bottom of the fuselage
so was venting into the cockpit. The smell is now completely
gone.
Also found a solution to a problem
I've been noticing since I've started flying further from the airport. I'd noted
on previous flights when returning to the airport with a long low power descent
that the engine runs quite lean as I enter the pattern requiring the mixture
knob to be turned full rich. On a couple of occasions I've had some misfiring as
I turn final - quite an attention getter! Today I realized the problem was a
non-problem, in other words operator error. While descending (and for that
matter, frequently at other times) I tweak the mixture based on the mixture
monitor reading. Today I ignored the monitor and just left the mixture alone
which worked just fine. I think during prolonged low power descents
the O2 sensor cools off and provides an inaccurate reading. The occasional
misfire was the result of running too rich (the mixture monitor indicated mid
range readings).
So todays flight was trouble free
and gets me an hour closer to the end of phase 1. 18 hours down, 22 to
go.
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