Ian Beadle wrote:

Hi Paul
Attached is the map with my routes.
I did two flights to Broome, one with Irene, coastal, staying at Coral

Bay.

The other by myself with camping gear the more direct route, which

involved crossing part of the

Great Sandy. How's that for confidence?

The plane performed faultlessly. I found I can plan for
ground speed of 140 knots (X 1.151 or 160 MPH) and fuel burn of 27

litres(7 USG) an hour and arrive sooner and with

extra fuel. If I wind her up to close to max. at 9500 ft. she burns

disproportionately more. At

2000 ft and 120 knots indicated, consumption is less than 20.l/ hour.

Great if the needles are

showing a bit low.

I refueled  a couple of times at roadhouses to avoid call out fees. No

problem

as they were both close to the strips. BP are currently installing 24 hr

swipe card systems at the

country airports which will make life easier.

Note for Ed. Any chance of the circuit of your fuel flow meter? It would

be great to know how much

is left in the tanks.
Ian. RV6A Australia.

Thanks Ian for the report.
That is what Robin and I should do this winter while she is still not

working.

Paul Lamar

Hi Ian,
    Sounds like a fanstastic trip, glad you are back safe and sound.  Just
to compare, I flew back from a regional flyin at 7500 MSL turning 5200 rpm
leaned back to 7.41 GPH and averaged 161 MPH.

  Having a fuel quantity indicator more accurate than the gauges certainly
does make it nicer.  I have my flop tube still hung up in my right tank, so
can not use the last 2 1/2 - 3 gallons.  However, I can wait until the fuel
totalizer is reading around 15 1/2 gallons used before starting to monitor
the fuel pressure gauge and switching when I see it start to fluctuate.
Using the injection pulse to determine fuel burn, in both flow rate and
totalizer appears to give more accurate results than a fuel tranducer in the
fuel lines and you don't have to worry about the returned fuel.

   Yes, I am waiting on my development board for the PIC microchip computer
to come in so I can start trying out the code I wrote.  My first board
continues to works just fine, but very difficult to make any changes to it
as it is all analog components. I had made 2 complete new designs using
analog components before deciding to go with a microchip.   Going to a
microchip considerably reduces the parts count and adds greatly to the
flexibility and features (such as low fuel warning, fuel remaining, used,
etc.).  Paul convinced me it would be worth the effort to convert over to the
microchip, its simply taking me a bit of time to learn to program one of
these things in assembly language.  I estimate that I am about 80% done with
the code as I have fragments of all the major code sections written and
working, so the challenge remaining is to integrate them into one program.

The unit will incorporate an Air/Fuel LED Bargraph indicator, Fuel Flow and
Fuel Totalizer (fuel used or Fuel Remaining), a low level fuel alarm and the
ability to enter your fuel load.

I had hoped to bring the first microchip version to Tracy Crooks Rotary
flyin later this month, but doesn't look like that will happen. But, I hope
to have it working on the bench (at least) by late November and perhaps have
the design checked out in the aircraft by end of the year.  Just takes
longer for an old dog to learn new tricks.   In any case, I will let you
know when I have it working.  I plan to have the foot print so it will fit
in a 2 1/4" instrument case or you can put it in any container that suits
your needs.

Good to have you back on the list.

Best Regards

Ed Anderson

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