Subject: plugs up
From: ACRE NL
Date: 8/21/2001, 4:58 PM


<< Yes but sustained inverted flight will cause severe oil foaming no matter
 what you do. The proper cooling and oil circulation in the rotor
 depends on the gravity vector pointing straight down most of the time.
 In a coordinated high G turn the vector is pointed in the right direction. >>

The oil cooling and circulation *within* the rotor has little to do with the
direction of the gravity vector. The motion of the rotor imparts radially
inward and outward accelerations to the oil depending on the postion of the
oil in the rotor and depending on the crank angle. At some point,
acceleration of the entire engine would dominate the acceleration field
within the rotor, but I think that outside acceleration would have to be
enormously high to be significant.

No argument that the direction of the gravity vector affects oil drainback to
the sump, and for this reason I am skeptical of the plugs up orientation
(perhaps not so much as Paul, however). If the oil doesn't effectively drain
back to the sump, too much oil could potentially reside in the rotor, and
that would have a deleterious effect on cooling.

Jon Lauter
Rotary Power Marine Corporation


 
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