Turbo Subies in Formation

[rv6ejguy]

Today, before weather rolled in, we managed to squeeze in a formation flight with the two turbo Subaru powered RVs based at Springbank Airport (CYBW) and a Lycoming powered RV7A acting as photo ship. I shot stills and video. Here are a few shots.

The Yellow 6A has the 2.2 engine and the blistering fast silver 7 has the 2.5 engine.

Ralph Inkster piloted the photo ship (he also built the silver 7). My Dad was flying my yellow 6A and Ted Sorensen piloted the mighty 7 owned by Shane Getson. Shane is anxious to have his aircraft delivered up north to its new home as the restrictions have been lifted and all the paperwork is now in order. We'll miss hearing its distinctive sound and blinding speed around Springbank.







Lots of fun doing this shoot even though the air was a bit bumpy.

The 7 with MT prop and cleaned up aerodynamics is vastly superior in performance to my tired 6A with the smaller engine and IVO prop. In fact, with MAP limited to 33 inches on the 6A, Ted was running about 10 inches less to stay in formation. My Dad could not catch the the O-360 FP 7A photo ship on climb out- time to get that -10 done.

[Mike S]

That is really cooool ------- thanks for sharing with us.

[David-aviator]

Neat images, Ross.

Congrats to you and your friends in getting the Subbies to work.

Good luck with the 10.

[rv6ejguy]

Thanks guys. We are having lots of fun with these two aircraft as you can see. I'll try to get the video edited and up next week sometime.

[jetmech]

Big Thumbs up guys!..Time to open up that STI!

[rv6ejguy]

Ted opened it up "a bit" during testing. It takes something less than 40 inches to exceed Vne in level flight at under 8000 feet. The engine runs about 58 inches in stock form so you can see the huge power potential of this engine. For sanity and safety sake, MAP is limited to 40 inches for Shane, the airplane's owner.

[rv6ejguy]

Here is the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B940-zuZI3k

[djvdb63]

Ross....

Unless i missed it...what are the details on the RV-7 STi setup? Is it a one-off design? Retooled Egg set-up? Other? What redrive is used? engine mount? Where is the radiator? Is there a web link with these details?

The 2.5 STi turbo setup always seemed to me like an ideal starting point for aircraft application. I never fully understood why Jan abandoned it so quickly a few years ago in favor of the heavier H6. But then there were any number of things about the whole Egg phenomenon that left me scratching my head...

And...thead-drift alert...my own 2007 STi car just required a new block and turbo at 81K miles...under the extended warranty I purchased (thank God) when the car was new. Very strange. While I am probably not the most gentle of drivers, the engine had regular oil changes, always ran Mobil One, and had regular service. I was led to understand there was a crack in the tube that draws oil up from the oil pan that may have been a manufacturing defect. I could never have imagined something like this given the Subaru reputation for long-lived engine life.

Dan
Chicago
RV-9A tail kit still in the box...

[Ralph Inkster]

This project started as one of Eggenfellners packages. We had concerns with some of the component & their setup, so came up with our own solutions. Items retained from the original are longblock, mount, & redrive (although the Gen2 did get replaced with a Gen3). Our solutions involved solving the cooling issue by upgrading the 2 small rads with units approx twice the size ot the originals, we also added an equivilant sized third rad on the firewall that could be controlled by separate water valve (as yet we haven't had to use it). The third rad gets it's own air supply by the naca duct you see on the side of the cowling & air is exhausted thru it's own dedicated exh ducting below, this is to not degrade the airflow thru the main radiators. The next issue were ignition & throttle body as both were original car components, a manual throttle body was fitted and one of Ross's SDS injection/ignition systems was installed. The original Supercharger presented a number of issues that we didn't like, so a custom turbocharger was mounted, with reworked exhaust, oil supply, and reworked charge air circuit... and... reworked intercooler with devoted air/exh plumbing similar to the third rad setup. Even alternator mounting got attention with custom pulley sizing, alt upsizing & robust mounting system. These are the major points, there were MANY minor points that also were addressed. We knew we would get the power, the bigger goal was to get a reliable setup. Time will tell if we were successful.
This package was installed on a stock 7 quickbuild airframe, so we are very reluctant to see 'what it'll do'.

[clarkefarm]

Great Video Ross. Congrats on achieving a real milestone in the alternative engine debate.

I should probably know this but what oil temperatures are you happy with and where do you measure. I have the NSI package which uses a sandwich block between the engine and oil filter to direct oil to and from an oil/coolant heat exchanger. The oil temp sender is in this block and may be affected by the cooled oil - probably need to check its exact position.

My engine is only an atmo SOHC EJ25 but I plan to start experimenting to see if I can reduce the cowl outlet substantially from its current 130 square inches.

Many thanks

Rupert