From: "Perry Mick" <pjmick@mail.viclink.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Requesting more thoughts on cooling
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 18:34:06 -0800
Message-Id: <20040401022342.M96349@mail.viclink.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-3139548@logan.com>
References: <list-3139548@logan.com>
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I'm not sure I can offer much help John. The ducted fan cools my 
installation on the ground so I can run it indefinitely. I know if I take 
the fanduct off, it will eventually overheat just idling on the ground.

I think I saw on your website you have a cooling fan installed on your rad? 
That should help.

On my first flight the coolant temp was not a problem (never has been) but 
oil temp went to 240. I stayed in the pattern (I was planning to go high and 
feel things out) but I had to go around twice and didn't get it down until 
the 3rd approach. 

Best advise I can offer is "fly the plane" (origin Burt Rutan: don't get 
distracted by some anomaly and forget to fly the airplane).

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 20:22:30 -0600, Russell Duffy wrote
> 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)