As I was filling out the Valkyrie's activity log after this afternoon's flight, I realized that as an engineer, I was falling down on the job. I've been writing down every drop of oil and every gallon of gas after every flight since "hour zero", and have never done a thing with any of the data. (I can see the rest of the engineers nodding out there....you're all writing this stuff down as well - right?)
I brought the log home with me, and decided that typing in all of my fuel data was too much of a pain, but oil consumption was another matter. It only took about ten minutes to type in the hours and quarts, and Excel produced the following chart - Oil Consumption (in Hours/Quart) versus hours on the engine. You can easily see how the engine broke in, and has settled on about 8 hours to the quart. That's just about what I had figured - a case of oil every 50 hours. Add six at the oil change, and put in another six before the next change.
It will be interesting to continue tracking it over the next 400 hours....
Paul
I brought the log home with me, and decided that typing in all of my fuel data was too much of a pain, but oil consumption was another matter. It only took about ten minutes to type in the hours and quarts, and Excel produced the following chart - Oil Consumption (in Hours/Quart) versus hours on the engine. You can easily see how the engine broke in, and has settled on about 8 hours to the quart. That's just about what I had figured - a case of oil every 50 hours. Add six at the oil change, and put in another six before the next change.
It will be interesting to continue tracking it over the next 400 hours....
Paul
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