Dagnabit

The new sensor failed 20 minutes into the flight, when it hit about 200 degrees.

#!@$%&*(!*!*#(!

Plodding Through It All

This morning I passed the time waiting for FedEx by mowing the lawn. I don't get how it grows so much in this flippin heat.

At 11:30 the FedEx van pulled up. Whoo hoo! I sent a text to Steve and told him I was on the way to the hangar. Thanks to Sandy at GRT for getting the replacement out to me ASAP.

We got right at it. If it wasn't for having to pull the engine, replacing this sensor should take all of 15 or 20 minutes. As the engine hung on the hoist, it took us four tries and 30 minutes to just get the damn thing safety wired.

Steve Clarke, the A&P student was a big help. I just had to show him what I needed done and he ran with it. Steve it taking his summer Powerplant Inspections class, so he was on loan for the afternoon.

After chatting a bit it turns out that Steve is the son of Rich Clarke, a fellow jumper in my skydiving club back in East Troy, WI in the late '70s and early '80s. Us aviators are in a small world, aren't we?

After I wired it into the Dynon connector, I turned the D180 on. The oil temp read 102 degrees, which just happened to be the ambient temperature in the hangar.

By 3:45 we were able to shove it out the hangar and run it. Everything seemed to check out okay. Wasn't that all fun?

I put the plane back and will do another inspection tomorrow, then a test flight, then it's time to start counting pairs of underwear for the big trip.

I hope to rendezvous with Dave Adams somewhere over southern Illinois for the trip to Dayton.

And that my friends, is how I keep plodding along.

What I Go Through to Get in the Big Race.

Right now it's Wednesday evening and I am scheduled to fly to Dayton on Saturday morning to enter the 2011 AirVenture Cup Race. The only problem is, the plane's not quite ready. It never is.

This happens ever year, it seems. Right down to the wire I am screwing around with stuff to make it right. This year's issue is the oil temperature (again). Ever since the major rehab of the Quickie, the oil temp reading have been unreliable. They are "jittery" and bounce around a lot. The Dynon company reps said I had a bad ground for the single wire temp sensor and that was causing the problem. Well, I chased bad grounds until the cows came home and no joy.

They also said I could go to a two wire sensor, made by GRT, and that would eliminate the problem. The problem with the GRT sensor is that I would have to remove the engine to install it.

Well, I finally got tired of screwing around and ordered the GRT sensor. Last week I took a couple of days, pulled the engine off its mounts and installed the part. At the end of day one, the engine was still hanging from the hoist and I figured I would start the re-installation in the morning. Oh, did I mention that we were also having the house painted?

I got lazy and figured I could let the engine hang overnight. I braced the lift's hydraulic cylinder with a block of wood and fastened with cable ties. Good enough.

The next day at the hangar, after promising my wife I would come right back home as soon as the engine was back on, I was dismayed to find the cable ties failed, allowing the block of wood to fall out, and the lift sagged. Take a look at the following sad photos. Click on the photo to see how ugly it really was.

There was some damage, but only a few wires pulled out. Shit. Business as usual for Sammy Boy.

Anyway, I got it back together, engine reinstalled and the new sensor wired into the Dynon D180.

The next day I made the test flight (Honey, I promise I won't be gone long) and flew over to Marion for the pancake breakfast. Pulling the engine involves lots of fuel, electric, and electronic systems , so there is a lot to disturb. Everything seemed to work fine, but to tell the truth I didn't pay much attention to the actual oil temp, but I did know that it seemed very steady.

Yesterday I worked on some elevator trim issues and decided to make another test flight today. Everything seemed great. I knew I was a bit rusty and figured I would make landings at several local airports. I flew over to Perryville, MO, landed, then took off for Sparta.

Looked at the oil temp and it said 210. Not unusual for a 90 degree day. Nice and steady, no jitter.

Two minutes later I looked at it and it now read 15 degrees! Hells bells. Now what? I re-booted the Dynon but that didn't help a bit. So, now what? Guess I'll head back to the barn and see what's up. Sure can't fly a race without knowing what the oil temperature is doing.

Basic troubleshooting determined the problem is in the sensor itself. I put a meter on it and it read dead open.

Three days till the race. What do I do now?

I called GRT and they promised to overnight a new sensor. She also said it was the second call she had that same day about the same failure. I was able to grab a A&P student from AvTech and we pulled the engine and the sensor. This time we temporarily installed it back on the mounts.

FedEx should get here around 11:00 tomorrow morning. When the part gets here, I will call Steve and we'll reinstall the damned thing.

The problem is, I seem to go through this every year. Did I mention that it was 102 deg. in the hangar? I wonder how many other aviators are in the same boat? A lot, I'll bet.

Big Muddy Finish Line

Just had to post this video.

Cozy Girrrls Oil Miser

With all my engine compartment mods, I had to ditch my old bulky oil separator that I installed about a hundred years ago. Somewhat predictably, through all the new test flying without separator, I was shocked, yes shocked, at the amount of oil streaming down the belly of my new paint job. I resolved to find a new one that fit.

Somewhere along the line I purchased an Oil Miser, from the Cozy Girrrls. It was much more compact than my old Aircraft Spruce separator and the price wasn't all that bad. I had the thing for six months and I finally got around to installing it a couple of weeks ago, just before our Big Muddy Air Race.

Unfortunately, the drain nipple was opposite the intake tube, so I had to use some hardware parts to make the U-turn, but as usual, I somehow made it fit.

I have about four hours on it and it seems just dandy. For the Big Muddy race, I topped off the oil and normally the belly would now be full of oil, with some even dripping off the tail wheel. I haven't really scrutinized it, but things seem to be very clean, and there is no oil dripping from the crankcase vent tube.

I give the Oil Miser two thumbs up.

After the Sawsall - Snorkels and Oil Coolers

I thought I'd throw out a few photos so you can see what I'm up to.

I dug out the Sawsall again, this time to chop off my beloved intake snorkels. I put in a lot of hours on those things - oh well. I have been having trouble with oil cooling and I bought a couple of coolers to try and install. But, I thought, the oil cooler will have to divert some air from cooling the cylinders and my #1 cylinder gets hot enough as it is. So, I thought, if I install the oil cooler and the cylinder temps get higher - then what? I 'll tell you what - I would next remove the snorkels.

So going around the whole process, I decided I may as well perform the snorkel circumcision, as it were.

I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Here is what it looked like - pre-Sawsall.

Used some two-part foam to glue a block in place to the intake.

Shaped the block so it looks like something.


Close to finishing carving.


Glass the form, let it cure, then dig out the foam.

Trim to approximate the cowl.

Cut a hole in the cowling.

There was some more trimming and fitting, which I don't have photos of. I also took the Sawsall to the two snorkels in the inlet.

Did it help? I believe it helped a lot.

Whoa! Hold on there Partner

Time to fire up the Sawsall -I have decided to go another route.

Before I made all my mods, the oil temperature was decent. Now, I have a hot #2 cylinder on climb out and high oil temps.

So, why the difference?

• New wing? No.
• New Dynon EFIS? No.
• New paint? No.
• Fuel injection? Probably not
• New oil tank? Maybe, but probably not.
• Longer intake snouts? Maybe, but probably not.
• Inlet snorkels? Most likely candidate.

Why? Well, they can obstruct the amount of air reaching the cylinders, especially on climb out. On the other hand, I did a differential pressure check across the upper and lower deck of the engine compartment, and it seemed to be in line with recommendations.

If I install the coil cooler I will have to divert cowling air for it which would probably make the hot cylinders even worse.

So, I am going to backtrack and remove the snorkels and install a standard type of induction inlet in the lower cowl. Yes, that will mess up the paint job, but so be it.

After I have done this work, I may have to install the cooler, but at least I should have more air available.

Just call me Mr. Glutton F. Punishment

Trying to Cram In An Oil Cooler

Winter is over, the crocuses are blooming, and it's time for me to get my oil temperature under control. In the past race it was somewhat north of 245 deg, which is way too hot.

I found a nifty auto performance part called an "oil cooler sandwich adapter". This is pretty nifty because it includes the 180 degree bypass valve. Here are a couple of photos.

It mounts right on the El Reno style spin-on filter adapter, easy as pie.

That was the easy part, now I have to find a spot for the cooler itself. I got a cooler which is sized for the O-300D engine, which may be overkill, but since it was only 1/2" taller than the O-200 version I figured I may as well go for the extra cooling.
I guess I'll just order some hoses and fittings and plumb it in. The next hard part will be making some kind of ducting to feed it.

I Committed Aviation Yesterday

And it was about time!

How to Decrease Drag

This Year's Field of Dreams

I was happy to be able to attend this years Tandem Wing Field of Dreams, in Beatrice, Nebraska this year. The plane's systems seem to have pretty much stabilized and I just went through the annual condition inspection with no major issues. The weather looked fairly good, with the exception of a 25 kt headwind at 4,000 ft.

The flight was pleasant and uneventful. I invented my own personal SPOT tracker on the way. I just hit the "nearest airport button" on my GPS then texted it to my wife. She could then Google the identifier and see where I was - kind of.

I got to Beatrice about 1:30 local time and I was the first plane there and was greeted by Alan Thayer sporting his traditional green shorts and video camera. I wonder what he does with all that tape.

I had decided it was about time I gave a few rides and there are a few guys who are approaching time to make their first flights. I always worry about this, so I feel it is my obligation to demonstrate my birdie and give them a feel (respect) for what they are getting into.

Rides went to Joseph Snow (2nd ride), and Jerry Brinkerhuff, Sanjay Dhall, Dan Yeager (webmaster for Quickheads.com and the new QBA newsletter editor) and Alan Thayer.

I messed up the last application of my race numbers so this time I enlisted the help of a professional.

It was definitely a low-key event and I'm sure the fewer number of planes and people is the reason. We had a nice dinner at the local American Legion and that was fun. Then came the inevitable group shot.

Doug didn't have a High Time award this year, but I somehow managed to pick up the furthest distance traveled award.

There was talk of moving the venue for next year and I agree. A different place could freshen things up a bit.

Here is Doug Humble carting the Brothers Johnson and Honey Lamb.

The ride home was fun, I was fairly low much of the way due to ceilings, but the visibility was better than 10 miles, so no problem.

Glad I went.

AirVenture Cup Race 2010 - Very long post

I finally got the plane ready enough for the Big Race, or so I hoped. There are so many parts of it all, it's hard to relate. Even though the plane might not be 100% race ready, I thought it should be close enough. I guess I had three main goals; participate in the race, finish it safely, and get my Q-200 to Oshkosh for the 20th time. It had missed the last two years and I sorely missed its presence there.

Amongst all the other troubleshooting and preparations, I finally decided to go with my old Catto prop. It's a 60x70 and has served well. C-Rod helped me dynamically balance it, so at least that part was good to go. Don Bartlett had welded up the cracks in the oil sump and added a bit of a brace. Just to be sure, I wrapped a nylon strap around the sump, to make sure it couldn't depart the engine. My plan was to fly each leg, then pull the cowl to inspect for cracks; and, just for good measure, I brought along my old composite sump. I'm pretty sure I was the only racer carrying a spare oil sump. I wish I had been able to figure out how to fit an oil cooler in my particular installation.

Got to Mitchell, SD and made an arrival pass down the runway, which was pretty fun. The townspeople were very interested in the race and we had over 2,000 spectators come out. Kids carried the event programs around and had the pilots sign autographs. Fun stuff.

I had gotten a hangar reservation ($25.) for Friday night and had the Quickie safely tucked away to guard against the forecasted storms. Man, did it hit hard. 70 mph winds! Hail was forecast, but fortunately it avoided us. Only about 5 planes were stranded outside and by all reports they did just fine.

Had a dinner and race briefing on Saturday night, then I settled into the hotel.

Race day is always different. The racers are all focused and a bit more subdued as we gather our thoughts and mentally prepare. Several handshakes are exchanged with the wish "good luck, be safe." Here is a morning-of photo.

They always launch the fastest planes first, and I was in the third group to go. The procedure is to take off and hold it down till you hit the departure end of the runway, that way we can build up speed a bit before they start the clock. I followed Bob Vasey in his RV-3 and I was off. My big concern has been the oil temperature. I figured if the ambient air temp stayed below 60 degrees or so that I would be able to fly WOT. Above 60 and I would probably have to throttle back.

The engine was smooth and I climbed to 7,500' msl. High pressure dominated the area and it seemed that there wasn't any help with tail winds, so 7,500' seemed as good a place as any. I climbed rather quickly, for a race profile, at 500' per minute.

Once leveled off, the engine wound up to 3,100 RPM and I accelerated to around 208 mph indicated true air speed. So far, so good.

The outside air was about 62F and after a half hour or so, the oil temp steadily crept up to my red line. I have my Dynon D180 connected to my radio, so the Dynon gives a visual alert and there is a loud beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppp through my headset. You have to hit a button on the Dynon to silence it, but it keeps coming back. I was really sorry and pissed to hear that first alert. The ambient air had dropped to 60F and I was hoping that would be enough, but it was not.

Only one solution at this point - raise the red line alarm point on the Dynon. I forget what it was originally set at, but I raised it to 255F and most of the racket and screen alarms went away.

It's kind of funny. I was at 7,500; and didn't see anyone. We have a common race frequency and state our position, something like "Race 22 at 7,500' 322 miles out (from the finish line)." There were guys below me that I knew I was passing, but I never saw them. Never saw anyone until the finish line.

Things seemed to be going okay, but I hated the oil temps. Passed over Rochester, MN, and most of Minnesota, but when I got to Lacrosse, WI the price of poker went up.

I smelled something funny and not funny haha. I looked at the carbon monoxide indicator pasted to the instrument panel and it had almost turned black. Hmm, never did that before. Not a good sign. Crapola. What to do now? Land at Lacrosse? Press on? Pass out from CO poisoning? Realize the seriousness of the indicator? Don't be such a big baby? This is the stuff that makes air racing interesting.

I looked around the cockpit for something that might help get me some fresh air. I have kind of a gap between the canopy and the fuselage, on the left side where air always enters. I tried to fold my sectional chart to direct some clean air toward my face. That didn't work very well, and a piece of my chart wound up getting sucked out of the plane.

I had a roll of paper shop towels and tried that. I found if I held it just so, I could channel some air through the center of the roll, toward my face. My GPS said I would hit (probably a bad choice of words) the finish line in about 32 minutes so I continued on. Here is a photo re-creation:

Naturally, as I'm screwing around with charts and paper towels, I wound up drifting 30 degrees off course and that doesn't exactly get me to the finish in the fastest time.

About 70 miles from Snow Crest Ranch airport I started descending at 250 feet per minute. Of course I do not back off the throttle.

The little airport came into sight and it was pretty easy to distinguish. You usually hear a lot of position reports getting close to the finish line, but the funny thing was it was quiet. I looked at my radio and I was no longer on freq! Turns out I had bumped the radio when I was messing around with the improvised breathing apparatus. I got the radio set up right and called out "Race 22 - 10 miles" "Race 22 - 5 miles," etc.

When I finally hit the finish line I was indicating about 222 mph TAS.

Once past the finish line, it's time to pull up, cool down and calm down. I throttled back to a leisurely 2,600 RPM and set the GPS for Fon duLac.

Fon du Lac seemed to have more planes than Oshkosh. All the spam cans had been denied landing at OSH because of the extremely wet grounds and they were jammed everywhere. Turns out the race planes weren't going anywhere right now either. The regular race plane parking at Oshkosh was too wet, so they loaded everyone into a bus for transport to Whitman Field.

The next day, there was a sudden rush to get the planes from Fon du Lac to Oshkosh. I was still a little unsure and decided to take a pass for the moment. Later in the day, and after most of the race planes had arrived, my buddy Jeff gave me a ride to Fon du Lac with the intention of coming in after the airshow ended. Once I got there, I took another look at my little wheels and decided agianst it. I didn't want them sinking into the mud. I took the bus back up to OSH.

Here we are, almost all alone, at Fon du Lac.

Tuesday was going to be decision day. I had to head home, so would I either take the bus to Fon du Lac and head south, or would I throw caution to the wind and fly to Oshkosh, even if for just a few hours.

When I woke up in my tent, the decision was made. After all, I have flown my Quickie to the EAA convention for 19 years and damn it, I wasn't going to postpone the 20th visit another dad- gummed year.

The Fisk arrival procedure was messed up as usual. The FAA controllers always seem to forget they have a fast lane set up above the 100 mph C-172s and Cherokees. I can't drive 55 and they expect me to follow Cessnas and the like.

It is just about impossible for me to fly the arrival at 100 mph. Then, to boot, when I got to Fisk a controller called for "the Hiperbipe to continue for the downwind to runway two seven." Click here to see what a Hiperbipe looks like. How should I know she was talking to me?

Then, when I'm on the downwind, she says "Experimental - turn right base now!" Experimental? At Oshkosh? Who the heck does she mean?

Anyway, I took matters into my own hands and got it on the runway safely. After the long taxi in, Race 22 finally got back with the rest of my race plane buddies, back where we both belong.

Finally arrived. 20th visit for the Quickie to Oshkosh and our 8th AirVenture Cup race!

I was only going to be here about four hours, so I had to quickly collect my prop tag, commemorative mug, and my perseverance award for restoring/rebuilding my plane.

I wound up taking 2nd place in the Sprint class, with a speed of 202.15 mph. I was about 40 mph behind Klaus and Jenny in their "Delaminator." You can see the full race results here http://www.airventure.org/news/2010/100726_avcup_timesheet.pdf

and here: http://www.airventure.org/news/2010/100726_avcup.html

Note that a new AirVenture Cup speed record was set in the Turbine Class at over 400 mph! Yow!

Terry Crouch stopped by and we pulled the cowling for a quick oil tank and exhaust gasket leak inspection. All seemed well. After thumping away on my electronic fuel injection sensor bracket, and deeming it inadequate, we re-cowled it.

Now, back to that CO indicator turning black. How did the fumes get in? The engine compartment seemed pretty good, no apparent trouble there and the exhaust gaskets looked fine.

We turned to the tail cone. In previous years, I had sealed the tail cone removal joint with silicone. You can see the joint in the photo at the top of this blog. The split is just aft of the rear wing. Out of laziness, when I rebuilt the plane, I neglected the sealant.

It turns out, when I go fast, or at least when the engine spins fast, the exhaust travels along the belly and up into the fuselage split. We proved this out by filling the joint with RTV, then taping it over. Once I got back up in the air, all I could smell was RTV and no fumes. One more problem solved.

Just as I was getting it ready to push out of the spectator area, I heard a voice with a funny accent cry out "Sam Hoskins!" There was a gent reading the prop tag and he saw my name. It was John Cartledge, an Australian who was kind enough to give me a ride in his Q-200 during our visit down under, about 10 years ago. I had received an e-mail from John saying he was coming, but I had pretty much dismissed getting hold of him. Now that he was here, I barely had time to say hi and take a photo or two, then it was time to be off before they closed the airport for the airshow.

So all in all, it was a very successful event. I ran the race safely with an overall speed of 202.15 mph and came in second place in my class. I was just happy to finish the damn thing.

Now it's time to take a deep breath and make things a little more permanent. I need to reexamine the oil tank, oil cooling and those related matters. I would also really like to fly it more and work on it less.

But, it's all fun - kind of.

Waiting for things to start

It's Sunday morning at Mitchell (KMHE). If the oil temps were not a factor, I should be able to true around 205 - 209. Problem is, it's warming up already and i'm bound to be frustrated. Some tail winds, but the center of the high pressure pretty well covers the route.

I think it will be a slow run. We'll see.

Maybe tomorrow

Tonight's weather for Mitchell, SD - the starting line:

"Rain and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 10pm. Some storms could be severe, with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain. Chance of precipitation is 70%."

I don't want to subject my Quickie to all that. Looks like I'll postpone and leave for Mitchell tomorrow.

The Quickie in her race colors

Off to the Races

Oil temp problems still are there, but I'm going anyway. Even if I have to throttle back, I'll still be in it. I leave tomorrow, for Mitchell, SD. You can read all about the race here: http://airventurecup.com

The list just came out of who is in the race, so I thought I'd publish it here. The description of each class is listed at the bottom.

Race# Pilot Name, Crew Member, Aircraft, N#, Hometown

Turbine Class
007 Rene Dugas & Vernon Rogers, Turbine Legend - N95007, Monroe, LA
11 Walter Bestgen, Lancair IV-P Turbine N900WB, Grass Valley, CA
104 Marty Abbott, Turbine Legend, C-GUTT, Calgary, AB, Canada

Unlimited Class
"T" Paul and Pam Tackabury, Lancair IV-P N94PT, Laguna Beach, CA
23 Mark Patey, Lancair Legacy, N913MP, Orem, UT
32 Mike Patey, Lancair Legacy, N36XX, Orem, UT

Sport Class
9 Tony Crawford, Questair Venture, N94Y, Port Orange, FL
10 Keith & Tim Phillips, SX-300, N53SX, Port Orange, FL
24 Rich & Ricardo Guerra, Velocity, N724X, Plano, TX
30 Harry Hinkley, SX-300, N301E, Iowa City, IA
51 Mike Reibling, Seawind 3000, C-FVEL, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
60 Jim & Gwenn Cianci, SX-300, N6L Port Orange, FL
75 Sarah & Bob Bean, Glasair III, N75Y, Port Orange, FL
80 Keith Walljasper, Seawind 3000, N80CC, Normal, IL

Sport LX Class (Lancair Legacy Aircraft)
2 Alan Crawford, Lancair Legacy, N550AC, Buchanan Dam, TX
002 Vince Walker, Lancair Legacy, N41VR, Boulder, CO
5 Lee & Jay Behel, Lancair Legacy, N138A, San Jose, CA
50 Charles Bracken & Colin Hogan, Lancair Legacy, N550BL, Detroit, MI
52 Jim & David Thomas, Lancair Legacy, N252JT, Groveland, CA
77 Scott Alair, Lancair Legacy, N495SL, Pleansanton, CA

Sport FX
4 Paul Siegel, F-1 Rocket Evo, N4XU, Cincinnati, OH
14 Wayne Hadath, F-1 Rocket, C-FAUH, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
42 Kevin Eldredge, Sbach 342, N142WP, San Luis Obsipo, CA
#43 Bob & Cory Mills, RV-6 Rocket N600SS, Reno, NV
109 Tom Martin, F-1 Rocket EVO, C-GEVO, St Thomas, Ontario, Canada

Formula RG Blue
13 James & Sandy Redmon, Berkut, N97TX, McKinney, TX
35 Ernie Chauvin & Ron Holden, Lancair 360, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
38 Mark Quinn & William Benjamin, Lancair 360, Port Orange, FL
44 Rick Argente, Lancair 360, N360ZR, Piscataway, NJ

Formula RG Red
45 Bill Rossman & Mathias Klittich, Lancair 320, Denville, NJ
777 Craig & Jordan Schulze, Lancair 320, Grants Pass, OR

Formula FX Blue
91 Bruce & Steve Hammer, Glasair 1 TD N91LH, Lafayette, LA

Formula FX Red
37 Red Hamilton & Marilyn Boese, Tailwind, NX374WT, Fort Bragg, CA
46 Jeff Mallia & Vern Kokosa, Cozy Mk III, N46WM, Schenectady, NY
61 Tim Bovee, Mustang II, N1861D, Wenatchee, WA
86 Dave Biesemeier, Sidewinder, N3786A, Loveland, CO
93 Rich & Heather Lamb, Long-EZ N893LT, Hobe Sound, FL
99 Kerry Fritz, Long-EZ, N25KF, Lancaster, PA

Formula RV Gold
18 John Huft, RV-8, N184JH, Pagosa Springs, CO
33 Dick Martin, RV-8 N233M, Green Bay, WI
41 Dave & Diane Anders, RV-4, N230A, Cottonwood, CA

Formula RV Blue
8 John Mullaney & Dave Henning, RV-7, N808TB, Port Orange, FL
12 Alan Carroll, RV-8, N12AC, Madison, WI
21 Tom Moore, RV-7A, N621TM, Frisco, TX
27 Jon Ross, RV-8, N207RV, Northport, NY
39 Jean-Pierre Verdier, RV-7A, N37KV Conifer, CO
71 Bob & Jeanine Axsom, RV-6A, N710BJ, Farmington, AR
96 Doug Shoup, RV-4, N596DK, Ludington, MI
97 Perry Burford & Jim Wilson, RV-7, Windsor, Ontario, CA

Formula RV Red
34 Chris Murphy, RV-4, N117CM, Fort Collins, CO
63 Bob Vasey, RV-3, N13BV, Sylvia, KS

Sprint
22 Sam Hoskins, Q-200, N202SH, Murphysboro, IL
83 Dave Adams, Long-EZ, N83DT, Villa Ridge, MO
90 Dennis Collins, Lancair 235, Fountain Hills, AZ
98 John Keich, Midget Mustang, N825J, St Louis, MO
111 Klaus Savier & Jenny Tackabury, Vari-EZ N57LG, Santa Paula, CA

Sprint-LSA
3 Lynn Matteson, Kitfox IV, N369LM, Grass Lake, MI

Sportsman
64 Jeff Lange, Sonerai, N1463J, Waupaca, WI

Sportsman KR
156 Mark Langford, KR-2S, N56ML, Harvest, AL

RACE CLASSES:

The racers will be divided into categories based on engine size and landing gear configuration.

UNLIMITED:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with a Turbo Charged engine with a displacement of 1400 cubic inches or less. Class winners in both Fixed and Retractable gear.

SPORT CLASS:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with a normally aspirated engine with a displacement of 1000 cubic inches or less.

SPORT FX:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with 550 cubic inch displacement normally aspirated with Fixed Landing Gear for RV-10s, F-1 Rocket, Harmon Rocket II etc.

FORMULA RGT:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with retractable landing gear That is Turbo-Charged.

FORMULA RG:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with retractable landing gear. Will be divided into a blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 cubic inch) classes.

FORMULA FX:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with at least two fixed landing gear. Will be divided into a Blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 Cubic inch) classes.

FORMULA SW (STEVE WITTMAN TAILWIND CLASS):

For Whittman Tailwind Aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with at least two fixed landing gear.

FORMULA RV:

Open to Van's aircraft RV-3, RV-4, RV-6, RV-6A, RV-7, RV-7A, RV-8, RV-8A, RV-9, and RV-9A airplanes powered with an engine of 360 cubic inches or less.

Will be split into a Blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 Cubic inch) classes.

SPRINT CLASS

Any experimental having an engine displacement of 240 cubic inches or less.

Sportsman Class :

Any Experimental Category aircraft powered by a Volkswagen or Corvair engine converted for aircraft use.

Sportsman Light Class: Any Experimental Category aircraft meeting the rules of the Light Sport Category.

* NOTE: Formula classes are split into RED or BLUE. The Blue Division is for aircraft with 360 Cubic inch engines and the RED Division is for 320 Cubic Inch engines.

Beating the Heat

The temperature in the hangar has been in the high 90s for quite a while and I'm getting tired of it.

I was trying to fit an oil cooler somewhere into the mix a, but I really didn't have much luck. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. I know it's doable, since others have made it happen.

I always thought that a properly set up and baffled O-200 does not need an oil cooler. Once the ignition started working right, I think the oil temps got a little better.

I found a nifty adapter that will add a couple of oil cooler ports onto a spin-on filter adapter but when I tried it, one port pointed straight up and would interfere with the cooler itself.

For a cooler, I got hold of an Earls Performance, but again, not too much room.

At some point, I just decided "screw it". Fly with what you've got. I am getting tired of all the messing around. I'm just going to fly the race and if I have to throttle back to keep the oil temps below 240F, so be it. Right now I just want to be in it.

I do believe there are a lot of design improvements that could be made with the oil tank. For one, a more aerodynamic shape would help cooling air flow around it. I could also add heat sinks or cooling fins, but all that will be in sump design #2.

Right now, I am doing all the things I can to make the current system as efficient as possible, such as closing gaps in the plenum. Yesterday, I did a little streamlining on the snorkels and today I'm going to add a cooling hose and point it at the sump.

And for a special treat, my new Craig Catto prop will arrive today!

The Missing Miss

Where to begin?

Today started at Bob Carter's day job at Wildlife Materials. I had purchased a bag of diodes from our local Radio Shack and Bob said he could install them in the EC3. I figured I would drop off the unit and he would install them in a day or two. I was happy to see Bob put them in them right off the bat and I was out of there in 15 minutes!

You know on Sesame Street where they play "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other"? Let's see if you can spot the two diodes. You can click on the photos to make them larger. Here is the before photo of the EC3.

And here is the after:

I'll give you a hint. R69 & R72.

The idea behind the switching diode is to condition the signal so it can be better read by the ECU. This is a fix if the signal coming from the sensors isn't behaving. Mine was certainly not behaving. In fact, it was downright rude.

For some reason, which I don't understand, as the RPMs increase, the amplitude of the waveform varies all over the place and that confuses the EC3. We have tried everything we could think of to flatten it out, but no luck. That includes stiffening up the brackets, fooling with the gaps, etc. ad nauseam.

For one final test today, I completely disconnected the backup sensor from all the ship's wiring, just to see how it looked on it's own. Here is the result. Notice how well behaved the wave is in the idle ranges, but it seems to go crazy as the engine speeds up.

While we were fooling around, I stuck another AN3 bolt joining the trigger bracket and the angle iron brace, attempting again to reduce vibration.

Perfect conditions for a flight test. Today is was 98 F in the hangar and the official temp on the ramp was 94 F. Even though it was a long taxi in the heat, I took no chances with the mods to the ECU and used our 5,500' runway. By the time I got to the departure end, the oil was already up to 135 F.

Takeoff is always strong, since the trouble doesn't happen at lower RPMs. Takeoff normal and I shallowed the climb to 800 FPM to keep the cylinder temps down. Because of clouds I only climbed to about 4,000', but the OAT was still 79 F and my density altitude was about 6,500'.

Leveled out, put the pedal to the metal and here we go. The RPMs climbed to about 2,800 and I turned off the mag, electronic ignition only. The engine remained smooth.

Went faster and tried it again. The engine remained smooth. Holy s**t, this might work.

Went faster yet and saw the tach bounce off 3,100 RPM. Haven't see the engine go that fast in a month of Sundays. Switched off the mag. The engine was still smooth!

Talk about elated... I kept flipping the ignition selection switch, trying to get a failure and there was none. We finally got it beat! Unbelievable!

Well actually, the root cause is still there, the misbehaving waveform. Tracy Crook's mod is a fix for a deeper problem and I still want to fix it, but at least I know I can race.

I let Sandy know right away and my second call was to Craig Catto who informed me that he was going to start making my new prop today! Certainly icing on the cake.

And best yet, when I got home, my grandaughter made fish tacos for dinner.

Four Tries, Four Strikes

And I was so optimistic...

Had all intentions of killing the miss today. Started by verifying the spark plug gap was set to .027", which is the range that Klaus recommends for high compression engines.

Wasn't the best day for all this. The outside air temp was about 94F and the winds were gusting to 20 kts.

Flight test #1 - Removed the back up sensor from the bracket and tied it back, to ensure that it was not interfering with the primary, in any way. We theorized there may be some mutual inductance between the two sensors, which are 18 degrees apart, through the trigger wheel and for any inductance in the wires sending the signal to the ECU. Theory and test failed.

Flight test #2 - Set the primary sensor to a very reduced air gap of only .014". We did this since we seemed to have improved results on the ground by tightening up the gap. Test failed.

Flight test #3 - Swapped both sensors. Maybe we just had a bad sensor. Test failed.

Flight test #4 - Did a dynamic propeller balance. Theory being that if the prop were out of balance, it might be messing up the sensors. I know my prop is about of balance right now, so I was willing to give it a try. C-Rod just bought a very professional system and bent over backwards to help. We started with an imbalance of about .47 IPS (inches per second) and when finished we got down to a very respectable .13 IPS. The engine is now nice and smooth, but the Test Failed.

Oh yeah, still have high oil temps.

On the plus side, my lovely wife had a nice dinner waiting for me.

Happy 4th of July but No Joy in Mudville

Over the last few days I have been trying several things and thought I'd catch it up, before going out for a 4th of July picnic.

Air gap - I had the scope out the other day and a couple of people much smarter than me. We were getting the miss, on the ground, at WOT. The Electromotive manual says to have the sensor air gap set to .030 to .060, depending on the trigger wheel style. At various times, I had been running it in the .030 to .040 range. Just for grins we tried setting it to .060 and it ran worse.

Then we went the other way and set it to .020". (Remember, I have a run out of .003" for the mounted trigger wheel.) Unbelievably, the miss disappeared (on the ground). Then we tried setting it to .017" and it was still fine.

Unfortunately, the subsequent test flight failed. Got to altitude and running on the ignition only and the miss was still bad.

Terry Crouch urged me to go the extra mile and "make the sensor support strong enough that you can hang the airplane on it, without it flexing". So, I trundled down to the lumbar yard and bought some 1/8" angle iron. I fashioned a stiffener to the sensor plate and mounted it on the two nose bolts. No lightening holes. This tractor quality part does not flex. (I still have yet to try rebar reinforced concrete, but that may have to be next).

Today's flight test - failure. No change in the miss characteristics. Rats. The engine actually backfired when I was switching from BOTH to IGN.

Talking to Terry some more, we wondered if somehow the backup sensor might be interfering with the primary. The plan is to make a single flight with the backup sensor removed from the system and see if that has any effect.

A couple of you have inquired about variations in the air gap due to wobble in the crank or prop extension. I haven't checked this relationship yet, and promise I will on the next visit.

Happy 4th of July

Sam

I am still getting this frustrating miss, which seems to be emanating from the Electronic Ignition (EI). The miss only seems to happen above 2,500 RPM, which is why I never experience it on the ground. One more time, here is the setup.

I have one Slick mag set to 25 degrees and the EC3 timing was previously set to 25 degrees with the engine running at WOT, on the ground. I have 9:1 pistons, LS1 coils and Magnecor racing plug wires. Electromotive 1/2" sensors.

Yesterday, I replaced all the automotive plugs with NGK 3035 (was Denso Iridium IK27, but no local sources) and cleaned the aviation plugs - no help.

I braced the sensor support bracket - no help.

I checked and adjusted the runout of the trigger wheel to .003" - no help. I have .030" air gap between the sensor and the trigger wheel.

Today's symptoms, in flight. 5,500' msl, 6,500' D.A. OAT 62F

At WOT and ignition set to BOTH, I only get about 2,950 RPM (should be 3,100 with this prop). The engine is fairly smooth but I have seen it smoother.

On MAG only the RPMs drop about 100 RPM, but remains relatively smooth - for running on a single mag.

On EI only, I get a BAD miss. Adjusting the mixture from full rich to lean seems to have no effect.

I think that's about it. How do I fix this?