After 15 months of not piloting an aircraft, I finally got a flight in on the KR last night.
I have to say, out of the 50 or so different aircraft models I have flown, this thing is my favorite. Very responsive yet very stable. A hard balance to strike! To recap, I had been having oil pressure issues being caused by high oil temps. At 65% power, the oil pressure would drop below the 10psi per 1000rpm rule of thumb. At that power, the oil temp was hitting about 225F in cruise. I first properly baffled the existing el-cheapo plate style oil cooler. It had been sitting above the engine with no ducting to get air flow through it. That did pretty much nothing for the temps. I installed a Mocal oil cooler last year but never got to test it before winter. Yesterday?s conditions were a bit cooler and the flight was short, but I held it in a 75% power cruise for about 20 min and the oil temps were down to 165F. I hope to get a longer flight in tonight to see where they finally stabilize, but it?s cooling dramatically better. I saw the same thing with my Soneai in early flight testing. With the plate cooler, I would see oil temps of 240 in cruise. I tried everything to get more air through the thing but it did not help. I switched to a Mocal and full flowed the oil system and I rarely see oil temps over 200, even during a 500 mile full throttle race. I can?t say how much the full flow mod helped, but the ?real? oil cooler on the KR made a huge difference. At least I have something to fly while I finish up the Sonerai ; ) Jeff Lange Race 64 - Skye Racer Blog: http://schmleff.blogspot.com Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/schmleff
