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Message
I'm signed off and ready to fly,
Congrats.
Do you 13B drivers tend to just taxi out at low rpm then launch?
Would your engine overheat if you did a 15 minute medium power runup? I'd
appreciate any general thoughts, or comments on how much ground running I should
expect to get away with before the temps get too high. Anything else I should
check?
I'm not really sure that it takes to shut
off the bypass hole in a 3rd gen housing. Can you just tap it, and screw
in a plug like we do in the 2nd gen housings? It would be nice to end up
with the ability to run a thermostat if you later want to. Perhaps you
could pick up a spare housing, and have one welded, and the other
open. Not the most convenient way to swap a thermostat in and
out though.
If you want to hedge your bets, I would suggest
no thermostat, plain distilled water, and the highest pressure cap
you can find. Getting to the runway without any excess heat
would be a good plan also. Your plane should be very efficient, and should
get you around the pattern at very low throttle once you get some
altitude. Once you have some airspeed, and reduce power,
the cooling system should recover quickly from any excess heat that built
up (if any). I think it's wise to "plan" to make the first flight a
brief trip around the pattern, then continue the flight longer if cooling
is working well. Unfortunately, a quick trip around the pattern is
probably not the best overall first flight test schedule, but it becomes far
better than overheating :-)
As for cooling on the ground, I don't seem
to be in any danger of overheating on the ground, but you're a a severe
disadvantage since your prop is on the wrong end of the plane. I just
can't imagine that you get nearly the same airflow from the prop that tractor
configurations do. Aside from Perry, is there another pusher
flying?
Good luck. My second first flight should
happen this weekend.
Rusty (NOT being laid off now. Philips
gave me the local job I wanted with 45 minutes to spare)
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