I'm still determining the performance of the aircraft I built. Below are a couple of screenshots from the EFISs in flight showing the instruments.
At this point, I have the wheel and leg fairings attached. I picked up 18 KIAS with those fairings (a welcome surprise). When flying without those fairings, I did not require rudder input during cruise. However, as can seen below, with the fairings I now need left rudder to maintain coordination. I will need to pull each wheel/leg fairing off in succession to find out which is/are pulling me to the side and investigate reorienting the offenders. Maybe I'll pick up a knot or two if I fix it.
- 158 KIAS, 177 TAS
- At 58°F OAT, 24.1" MAP, 2500 RPM, 11.7 GPH (around 50° ROP EGT), density altitude 7,752', solo (I'm 165 lbs) with 34 gallons avgas on board and about 5 pounds of tools in the baggage area. My airplane is fat, with a BEW of 1,312 lbs.
- I don't know if I built a fast or slow plane or how it compares to other builders. It would be interesting to see other numbers and consider reasons for variations.
- Without fail, at cruise I see a 60°F spread between cylinders 2 and 3. Cylinders 1 and 2 (the front pair), are always hotter than 3 and 4 (the back pair). I think this is because the rear cylinders get airflow over their tops and rear.
- I've tried several and, in my opinion, hot starts are easily managed using this technique: Throttle cracked, mixture full lean, don't hit the pump, crank starter and slowly richen the mixture until the engine catches (reach full rich within 10 seconds, which is the max rated on time for the starter), then move slightly more rich, then pull back throttle to where you want to idle. Every time I've done this, the engine starts on the first try.
I will post more performance data as I accumulate them and have confidence in their validity.
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