I am really shocked and disappointed on this one. What happened to
the absolute commitment to torture testing the LAEV on the test
stand?
That is the place to find out what it is capable of and what, if any,
UNEXPECTED, problems arise. Certainly not on the front of a flying
airplane. Of course, running on the ground on Ed's plane would be
fine. Jerry
The priority slipped as many people needed manifolds. The lack of
manifolds
was holding up a lot of installations. There is only one of me. If
someone
wants to volunteer to help there is free rent in the hangar
apartment. Must
be an excellent tig welder.
Paul Lamar
Nothing wrong with accepting what is possible. Paul the effort you put
out on behalf of us all is so appreciated. If you don't have time to
do the test stand then you should wait until you do or someone else
steps up. I have not got the time to build the test stand but I will
gladly contribute my fair share to having it professionally built.
Danny could knock it out in short order. Surely we can find ten guys
on this list willing to share the cost. Jerry
It is not so much the test stand. I must complete my intake system
so we have a running engine to test the prop with. Anybody have a running
engine
they care to ship to me for testing? I will pay shipping. The test stand
is
90% complete.
Another alternative is to run it on Tracy's test stand
after Sun & Fun and before we install it on Ed's airplane. We could kluge
up some sort of tilting mechanism. As I recall Tracy has a trailer we
could use for that. Ed and I could do the work as Tracy has plenty to do.
Paul Lamar
That sounds like a workable approach to me. In addition to static balancing
of the prop (could probable to that at Tracys. Also we need some short
bolts to hold the LEVA to the prop flange. I mentioned to Butch that the
prop bushing stood up 0.6" above the surface of the prop flange, but don't
know if he got that informaton.
Perry mentioned running the prop locked in a fixed pitch position
eliminating the need for the electrical connection. we could certainly do
that on the ground and check prop pitch position against engine rpm
generated. I would presume (how about it prop guys?) that if I am able to
spin the prop set at some fixed setting at the same engine rpm I get with
my 68x72 on static runup or close to it then the set pitch must approxmate
my fixed pitch prop. With that as a reference, then we could vary the pitch
(on the ground) and sort of determine what we have. My static is normally
5200-5400 (although this week at 50F OAT) my static has increased to
5700-5800. I presume that my prop has stalled to get that kind of static
rpm, so it will be interesting to see the effects of the LAEV on engine rpm.
It would be nice to measure thrust with my wooden prop on at static rpm. I
would not want to set the LAEV to such fine pitch that I got gobs of RPM but
insufficient thrust for rapid lift off.
While I recognize the value of running the prop on a test stand to test its
strength against gyroscropic forces, I think the risk reasonable if we do
runups on the ground and high speed taxi test and I restrain any urge to do
aerobatic manuvers. Besides, all that stressing on the test stand might
just weaken it enough to cause a problem by the time I bolted it on {:>).
So right now it looks like the tasks are:
1. Static balance of prop
2. Prop bolts/nuts
3. Electrical drive mechanism (if possible)
4. Tie engine to plane with 3/8" cable
5. Get Tracy Crook to agree to all these plans happening at Shady Bend
Ed Anderson
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