Brief Description: I'll have another, but make this one hot
The picture shows one happy ez :) After landing and having zero problems, I have to pinch myself :) Today's flight was dog fighting cloud layers and trying to verify fuel flow info using UL Power's UL Check software on my laptop in flight. The software fuel flow readings were extremely innacurate, so I may just have to dial in the fuel burn a little at a time over the next 100 hrs. Yipee. The engine ran strong and smooth, though still having a bit of valve train noise that I'm hoping is related to the use of breakin oil. I'll check the valve clearances again at 5 hrs. I also noticed that I'm going through a little bit of oil each flight which tells me the rings are still working their way into a good relationship with the cylinder walls. THAT'S WHY YOU NEED TO BREAK IN YOUR UL POWER ENGINE, despite what UL says. Again, climb rate is fantastic, and this time with 33 gallons on board, she still saw an initial climb out of 2500ft. min. and a solid 1500fpm up to whatever altitude I desire. I took a call today from Dale Martin who will be sending me one of Gary Hertzler's rare race props to try out. This one is a 62.5"x 78" that was engineered for Gary's speed record setting flights. I have a hunch that it's going to go past redline but Dale thinks it will be the sweet spot prop for me. We'll find out soon :) Anyways, I added a little MMO to the sump as I was about 1/4 of a qt. low and I'm hoping to hear the valves quiet down a bit. They get loud under load which says something...I'm just not sure what. Should be up in the air again tomorrow for another hour or so. Fun times :)
