NetHeads, A few weeks ago we talked about windmilling or idling propellers having more drag than a stopped one. A few days ago I flew to 10,000' and timed a glide down to about 2000', and the best I could manage was about 650 fpm decent at 83 mph IAS (any slower and things started getting wishy-washy). Today I went to 10,000' and switched it off, and got exactly the same results, best I could tell. It sure is smooth and quiet that way though! Restart was instant, since the wind through the prop really makes it easy on the starter. This is about 11.3: 1 glide ratio. This will improve with stuff like wheel pants and spinner. I planned to test gap seals today, but got preoccupied with my radio, which apparently sounds fine to me, but is totally unreadable to everybody else. I pulled it out this afternoon, and I plan to breadboard it up to prove that it's not the installation that's suddenly started causing the problem (I sincerely doubt it, given the symptoms), and I also wanted to troubleshoot the built-in intercom also.
I hit 199 hours today... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
