Flight testing has been proceeding VERY SLOWLY- currently at 10.6 hours.
Why? similar reasons it took almost 9yrs to build. LIFE-work/ weather/moving to a new house and now I can blame the USPS.
This engine that I have is a preproduction engine that doesn't "conform" to any type certificate. It is a "C" model with a few changes- Type Certificate is on FAA Website if your interested. As such, CMI is watching it closely (wouldn't you?) via engine data analysis and oil samples. USPS misplaced two separate Blackstone oil samples from 8 to 16 days before delivering them and each report was needed prior to resuming flight testing- that was the entire month of FEB gone.
March was lost due to work (airline pilots having lots of time off is a MYTH-wanna see my schedule) and resealing BOTH fuel tanks. What? RV-10 builders--The fuel tank stiffeners forward of the spar shouldn't be used as a place to step- if you knew that already, good for you. I had the same three rivets on both tanks start leaking and if you saw my proseal work you too would wonder how that happened.
So, here is what I can tell you about it so far.
It is an air-cooled 304 cubic inch turbocharged diesel cycle engine (no-#2Diesel is not currently an approved fuel like the CD-135 in the Twinstar). 230HP from SL to about 10000 and then drops off to 170HP at 20K. Max TO fuel flow is about 12.5GPH. Working on a more accurate FF measurement system as current aviation version is unable to read it at idle(+/- 9GPH) and significantly off (1-2GPH) at cruise pwr. If you understand the old school Bosch system, you'll understand why. The only real world burn numbers I have right now are one hour at 154 KIAS at 4K below ATL Class B. That flight only took 8 gallons from the JetA truck to top off. I'd been limited to "gliding distance of a runway" for the first few hours so that flight was at max cruise to continue break-in and check CHT and oil temps. Both of which I am happy to report are in a comfortable range for current conditions.
Hot or Cold (engine or OAT), it starts very quickly. The only preflight check is to exercise the prop and wait for the oil to meet min. flight temp.-150F-which doesn't take very long in GA.
Looking forward to roaming my Phase 1 box.
Why? similar reasons it took almost 9yrs to build. LIFE-work/ weather/moving to a new house and now I can blame the USPS.
This engine that I have is a preproduction engine that doesn't "conform" to any type certificate. It is a "C" model with a few changes- Type Certificate is on FAA Website if your interested. As such, CMI is watching it closely (wouldn't you?) via engine data analysis and oil samples. USPS misplaced two separate Blackstone oil samples from 8 to 16 days before delivering them and each report was needed prior to resuming flight testing- that was the entire month of FEB gone.
March was lost due to work (airline pilots having lots of time off is a MYTH-wanna see my schedule) and resealing BOTH fuel tanks. What? RV-10 builders--The fuel tank stiffeners forward of the spar shouldn't be used as a place to step- if you knew that already, good for you. I had the same three rivets on both tanks start leaking and if you saw my proseal work you too would wonder how that happened.
So, here is what I can tell you about it so far.
It is an air-cooled 304 cubic inch turbocharged diesel cycle engine (no-#2Diesel is not currently an approved fuel like the CD-135 in the Twinstar). 230HP from SL to about 10000 and then drops off to 170HP at 20K. Max TO fuel flow is about 12.5GPH. Working on a more accurate FF measurement system as current aviation version is unable to read it at idle(+/- 9GPH) and significantly off (1-2GPH) at cruise pwr. If you understand the old school Bosch system, you'll understand why. The only real world burn numbers I have right now are one hour at 154 KIAS at 4K below ATL Class B. That flight only took 8 gallons from the JetA truck to top off. I'd been limited to "gliding distance of a runway" for the first few hours so that flight was at max cruise to continue break-in and check CHT and oil temps. Both of which I am happy to report are in a comfortable range for current conditions.
Hot or Cold (engine or OAT), it starts very quickly. The only preflight check is to exercise the prop and wait for the oil to meet min. flight temp.-150F-which doesn't take very long in GA.
Looking forward to roaming my Phase 1 box.