Paul,

 Good to see you at Borrego this weekend. My flight back
was uneventful.  I've done a bit of testing and was unable
to reproduce the problem I had prior to departing Brown
Field.  If I wasn't clear about the problem, what happened
is that I discovered that my B controller in the EC2 had
completely dumped memory.  When I did my preflight runup
and switched to B the engine quit.  Copying A to B restored
the program.

I had experienced this problem frequently
last summer which led to my grounding the airplane for
almost 6 months while I completely reviewed my electrical
system wire by wire.  I ultimately found that the B chip
was not fully seated in its socket.  After reseating it the
problem was gone and hadnt been back for the past 6 months
- until sunday.  I'm hoping it was an anomaly.

I'd be
interested in your subjective opinion on the relative sound
levels of the three airplanes as we departed (my guess is
I'm the loudest).  If you put any video up on You Tube
could you drop me an email and let me know?  I've been
tempted to rejoin your forum on numerous occasions, but
between other forums my in box already gets swamped daily.


Mike Wills
RV-4 N144MW

Thanks Mike. I really enjoyed that flyin. We should make it an annual
event.
Chuck Dunlap and Tom Parkes could fly over from Arizona.
Nice place to have a flyin.

I am working on the video as we speak. Your airplane is not noticeably
louder than Dave's. Surprisingly Al's 3 rotor is the quietest of the
three.
When I get the video edited I'll put it up on youtube and let everybody
know
the address so they can hear the airplanes.

I suspect some of the those aluminum panels on the bottom of the airplane
are vibrating. If it were mine I would get some 1/4 inch thick PVC foam
and bond them to the floor panels with a layer of .025 aluminum on top.
That makes a stiff sandwich panel which would not vibrate and transmit
the noise into the cockpit. You might find PVC foam in  yacht stores.
Etch the aluminum with this kit, also available in yacht stores, or the
epoxy won't stick.

BTW I would uses some clear RTV and glue those CPU's into the sockets.
It is soft enough so you can still get them out if necessary.
I am surprised Tracy did not use a positive lock on the socket
as they are available but not retro fittiable.

Here are some pictures that Robin took.

Paul Lamar


Paul,

Not surprised that Al is quieter given his engineered installation and use
of 2 mufflers compared to my setup with turbo housings (no splitters) and
very little if any muffling from my "muffler". I am surprised that Dave's
airplane isnt quieter - a turbo is typically a decent muffler.

My airplane as I'm sure you noticed has no soundproofing or insulation. I've
been hesitant to add it since the airplane is already fat for an RV-4. But
I'm thinking about it.

Although the chip sockets don't latch, I doubt the chips could come out on
their own. They are very tight in the sockets. I verified that on monday. I
believe the problem last summer was an install problem either when the EC
was originally built or after an upgrade.

I don't know about Tom Parkes, but Borrego would be a pretty good haul for
Chuck Dunlap. But it would be cool to try to arrange some sort of annual get
together for us west coast guys that is central to whoever would consider
going. Once the phase 1 is flown off I'd be willing to fly up to 500 miles
for such an event.

Looking forward to seeing that video. Thanks Paul.

Mike Wills

When I owned a computer store starting in 1975 I lost count of how
many computers we "fixed" by pressing the chips back in the sockets :)
I think it had something to do with heat cycling. The chips just crept
out of the sockets. Gold plated pins and gold plated sockets have less
problems. Corrosion could be a factor.

The winter is a good time to have it as people are air show starved :)
California City or Mojave might attract some people from Oregon
or Northern California. California City has no tower so some
high jinks are possible :)

I think we would have had more people show up if Dave had given me a couple
of weeks notice.

-------------------------------------------------------

OK guys here is the Youtube address. Give it five stars so a lot of people
will watch it. It is not that great of course. I may have to buy a
new camera because of the clicks. I would like one with higher rez.
Maybe a better video editor. This one is mainly so people can hear
what rotary engines sound like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dibuqenWcOk

Paul Lamar