Colin wrote- >Does anyone know of a reasonably priced turbocharger system that can be >fitted >to the 1835 VW? I intend to use it strictly to normalize the engine at >altitude >and not for increased performance, so I will manually control the waste >gate, >and monitor manifold pressure.
You might be interested in the following story from John Dilatush of Salida, Colorado. John has a beautiful Pietenpol with a turbo'd Subaru EA-82 and manual wastegate control and flies it out of his home airfield which is at about 8,000 MSL: ================== I went to the Rocky Mountain Regional Fly In this past weekend. Because I was sequenced too closely behind another plane on approach, I made the decision to go around. Due to my own stupidity, when I added full throttle I failed to open the wastegate of the turbo and the engine overboosted. The effect of the overboost was also increased because of the lower elevation of the airport, 5,000' vs 8,000'. As a result, the engine probably produced 500 hp for about 5 seconds before it blew coolant all over the place. I was able to swing around and land safely on the little ultralite strip. After landing, it only appeared the damage had been limited to blowing the exhaust crossover pipe, so on Monday, I rented a car and chased parts in Denver. Tuesday I installed the pipe and decided to fly it again. This time the engine really blew up blowing coolant and oil all over the place. This time I couldn't make a runway, so put it down in a field next to the airport, landing diagonally to the furrows which gave me a little longer length between the fence at one end and the ditch at the other end. Those big old wheels are sure great for off field landings! No damage to the airframe, just a big hole in the crankcase of the engine. A friend flew over from Buena Vista in his RV-4 yesterday and picked me up. So now the plane is sitting in a hangar over there, dripping oil and coolant and waiting for a new engine. I'll tell you Oscar, there is no thrill like having to cope with an emergency landing with coolant blowing all over the windshield and your goggles and having to pee at the same time! ======================== >From my limited time flying anything with a turbo, I know that it's just one more thing to attend to when you're busy in takeoff mode... gotta watch the top of the green when you throttle up, and you have to nurse it along as you climb. Again, just one more thing to watch. Oh, and if anyone is interested, there are pictures of John's Piet (prior to the accident) at http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/John_piet.html Oscar Zuniga San Antonio, TX mailto: taildr...@hotmail.com website at http://www.flysquirrel.net _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
