Today's Message Index:
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1. 07:48 PM - Rotec TBI Update - It's on and waiting for a test flight (Bill Strahan)
2. 07:58 PM - Re: Lightning Construction Manual (Bill Strahan)
Message 1
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Subject: | Rotec TBI Update - It's on and waiting for a test flight |
Wow, that was a lot to piece together. Yesterday I was getting anxious to see
if the dang thing even worked, and a pilot buddy dropped by the airport so I just
installed the TBI and hooked up the fuel and air intake intending to work
the throttle standing next to the engine.
He sat in the plane and cranked the engine, and even without hitting the regulator
override (equivalent of primer) the engine fired right up. It idled smoothly,
and I moved the throttle by hand and it sounded great and response was good.
We shutdown and started the engine 8 or 9 times and it fired up immediately
every time.
I also used the mixture control to shut off the engine, and it took a few seconds
but at idle cutoff the engine did shut down.
Ah...gave me motivation to get back to work.
So today I finished fabricating all the brackets to hold the ends of the mixture
cable and regulator override (primer) cable and got the entire assembly ready
to install. Then I installed the new throttle cable, the new mixture cable,
and re-purposed (grin) my choke cable to be my primer control. I put my mixture
control next to the throttle where my choke was, and put the primer down on
the console between fuel valves.
It all took about 5 hours, but by late tonight I had it all hooked up and even
got another pilot friend to come by and lend a second set of eyes to check for
anything out of place.
It was very nice to see that bright red knob next to my throttle control. Ah,
the way it's supposed to be. Wish there was a blue knob as well, but I guess
that would be overkill. :)
I turned on the master and then the fuel pump and let it run for 30 seconds and
checked for leaks. Bone dry. Let it run another 30 seconds, and checked again.
Everything checked out okay. Then I hit the regulator override and fuel
came spraying out the back of the TBI!!
I had not connected the scat tubing to the back of the unit, as I did not intend
to start it yet, and the mixture was full lean. If you look at the design of
the TBI you'll know that means the holes that let fuel come out were pointing
straight backwards. So when the regulator was overriden, the fuel pump just
pumped the fuel out the back of the intake in a fine spray!
I don't think I'll have to use the override often, especially since it fired right
up without it in 45 degree weather, but lack of fuel will never be the problem.
If it needs to be primed, I'm thinking that 1 second will do it in the
coldest weather you'd want to run the thing in. I considered just not installing
a control to the override, in fact, but decided that if I ever had some air
in the lines from running a tank dry I'd want the override just to be on the
safe side.
And that's my long winded update. Next update will be a flight report. And then
I'll grab my O2 bottle and who's up for a time to climb contest? :)
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=285166#285166
Message 2
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Subject: | Re: Lightning Construction Manual |
Man! Where IS the love? Sheesh!
:)
I have two partners in the Grumman. You know when you have a perfect partner in
an airplane? When they call after the plane has been sitting a few states away
for several months and say "Hey, did you ever get the Grumman?"
When you tell them you haven't they say "Well, let's go get it soon. I might want
to do some flying."
Part of my delay this time was my business partner and I had a big push to finish
our moving map software and started shipping units! Oh yeah!
Now that that's done, I guess I don't have a good excuse. But if someone would
just accidentally drive a truck into that thing I could collect insurance and
not have to fly it back. Fingers crossed.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=285168#285168
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