I am shooting to take the leap early Saturday morning. Of course it depends on my being able to get a ground crew together and hopefully someone in the air who knows the area, just in case something happens that I have to put it down. Being in downtown Columbia, there are not many such spots. And, it depends on having a light or no wind from the south as my restrictions require that I depart on 13. You would know that I would be at this point when everyone is taking off for OSH. So, we will see what we will see.
Having had an engine quit suddenly, even when on the ground, changes your perspective. I am so paranoid about it, that I went out this morning and ran the engine wide open, almost to destruction. I figured that if it would run wide open for 3 minutes, then I would have enough altitude to turn back. When I got to 2.5, the temps were getting pretty high, and really took off from there. The engine started slowing down a little and the OP was getting very low, so I backed off early. It still ran smoothly, but was really hot, so I shut her down. I will go out again in the morning and run it just for a short time to be sure that I did not do any damage. I hope that proved, that, it will run even when under stress, but you never know. I never even gave any thought to having an engine quit when I was getting ready to fly the first one. Now, it is all I can think about. See N64KR at http://KRBuilder.org - Then click on the pics See you in Mt. Vernon - 2006 - KR Gathering There is a time for building and a time for FLYING and the time for building is OVER. Daniel R. Heath - Lexington, SC
