We have a technician who maintains the sheriff's department helicopters at 
Deer Valley airport in Phoenix.  He did a fine job
for me on my Lycoming O-320 in my old Beech Musketeer.  I do not
know if he is available for out-of-town trips. ( Will inquire if the
need still exists.)     Don Aadland

Perry was willing to fly it with the current level of vibration.

Perry had cooling problems with the new engine installation. He flew it twice.
One very short flight from Palm Springs to Bermuda Dunes and one this morning. 
We are not sure why but we now think the stop leak product we used last month
coated the inside of the rads and reduced the cooling effectiveness of them.
The temp out there early this morning was not bad at around 70 degrees F.

The plumbing system was still leaking in places. 

Consider the plumbing system a critical part of the installation and 
use the finest AN hose and wiggins couplings money can buy if you want a 
reliable airplane. Also keep it simple with only one rad if that is at 
all possible. Perry has three rads which means far too many plumbing 
connections.

The cold pressure check is proving to be a very excellent away
of preflighting the cooling system. Perry bought a hand tire pump
to do this and it is light weight and works great as long as
you have a cooling system pressure gage on the instrument panel.

I personally will have two pressure gages. One at the input to the
rad and one on the outlet side of the rad. This will help greatly
in evaluating cooling problems. Also, two coolant temp gages.
Same locations. In addition a water manometer to measure the air
pressure across the rad would be extremely useful for trouble
shooting the system in the early stages of development.

We also think the original cooling system design was marginal for 
desert weather.

I voted to get the rads cleaned out at a local rad shop and make some
field modifications to the rad ducting.

Perry vetoed the idea as time was just plain running out for him.

Perry decided to take the wings off and trailer it back to Oregon
as he was running out of time for further trouble shooting and field
modifications. He intends switching to one rad and re-doing the 
rad ducting. He is also installing a through-the-firewall style rubber 
vibration isolation system for the engine and the ducted fan.

Paul Lamar
 
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