NetHeads, Well, I finally flew it today. Took off from Hazel Green, circled up to 4000', flew over to MDQ, climbed to 7000', did some stalls, and put 2 hours on it before landing at MDQ. Filled it up with some very expensive 100LL, and did 20 touch and goes. Some were embarrasing, but most were adequate. All were "excellent", in that the plane was still reusable! Then I was going to head to Moontown and try their 2300' long grass strip, but I'd developed an embarassing oil leak, so thought I'd just go back to Hazel Green's 40' wide strip and fix it. This narrow strip has scared me for years, so I figured I'd do a couple of "missed approaches" and then land, but I was set up so good I just went ahead and landed it on the first try. I'll bet I didn't use half the length, or half the width! I hope that's not the best one I ever do there, but it wasn't bad.
The engine is very smooth. Static it would only do 2870 rpm in the driveway. But after four hours of flying, it'll now do over 3000, and unwinds to 3200 rpm at 165 mph at about 7000'. It should get better as it gets broken in. Oil temp got up to 265F after all the touch and goes (85F ambient), but it stabilizes at about 240F at 2800 rpm or so, with highest CHT about 350. All cylinders are reasonably close. Before I flew it I had three cylinders (no pattern) that were 250F or so lower than the other three. I figured breaking it in would fix that, and it has. Now they're mostly within a hundred degrees of each other, which is better than the old 3100cc engine would ever do. Bottom line is that this 2700cc engine and prop combination is better than my old 3100cc! This engine is 9.3:1 compression ratio, whereas the other one was about 8.5. I haven't run it on auto fuel other than tests in the driveway, but I think it'll run that too. I'll let you know when I find out. We have a 1000 gal of 100LL at M38 that's costs $3.50 a gallon, which is only slightly more than I paid for 93 octane at the Raceway today, so I'm in no hurry to switch. The plane sat in my basement with 39 hours on the meter for two months. Today I got in almost all of my 5 testing hours, and unquestionably put the 40 hour test period behind me. Tonight I'm going to fix that oil leak, change the oil again, and tomorrow head to my father's 3600' long grass strip in LA (lower Alabama). Time to have some fun, and put this time machine into service. I'll see y'all at the KR Gathering on Thursday... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net --------------------------------------------------------------
