Greetings to one and all and a happy new year to you all,
Our bird G-CCUL (mono XS, 912S, with Warp Drive circa 22 deg) has now completed
something around 100 hours flying and we really only have a couple of gripes
and I would appreciate input from the forum.
Firstly we have a roll to the right, not bad and the test pilot was certainly
not
at all concerned but we want hands off flying and are fitting various sized
trim tabs to the underside of the left aileron to trim out the effect (having
started on the left flap). We believe the flaps are perhaps not quite level but
without adjustment this is proving very difficult to measure. The trials and
errors continue, but I wonder what other pilots are experiencing - your
thoughts?
Secondly, and to be honest this is the real annoying one, we are suffering with
very low oil and coolant temperatures. I brought this up some time ago but had
very few responses. As the temperature outside are lower now, we wondered if
anyone else has the same problems and what your solutions were.
We get the coolant and oil up to temperature - 100deg before take-off (we fitted
Evans coolant, this increased CHT by circa 10 degrees, and makes for a very
much more stable cooling system than water based, and pretty much impossible to
boil, having boiled the water coolant during a lengthy hold in the summer, I
can say that without fear of contradiction it is a very worth while
modification)
climb out maintains temps but leveling out sees the oil temp drop with a
corresponding drop in oil pressure. If we decend or reduce power below 5000rpm
the temps fall away to 60 - 70 oil, 70 -80 coolant and are almost impossible
to recover in flight. We have tried blanking off the main inlet, and closing the
oil tank inlet. Unless you almost completely blank off the main inlet their
is little effect (this cures cruise but effects ground handling).
We are investigating a flap behind the radiators which will be operated from
within
the cockpit, but obviously nothing is approved so this needs to be attempted
with care and thought. During the build we went to great lengths to optimize
the air inlets, ramp the air into the rads instead of around etc, and it would
appear we have done too good a job !!
we are fairly sure the guages are in the right ball park and even during the
summer
we experienced over cooling, with the current temps its an absolute night
mare !! Any thoughts good people ?
As an aside to all you builders reading the comments about problems, don't
despare,
our Europa is no doubt like everybody elses, a delight to fly, handles
beautifully
and uses next to no fuel. Just take a pragmatic approach to all the
views expressed (IMHO ofcourse).
Best wishes
Tony.
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