Winter is here.
Winter has overtaken Chicagoland in a big way. It’s unusual to experience this much snow and cold, then get a rainstorm and warm temps to wash away almost all of the 10+” of snow on the ground. There were even tornado watches. So as winter makes it hard to fly much, I’ve been working on some projects in the shop. I’m working on a small engine dynamometer. It’s fairly complicated and I’m still gathering parts. I will be able to measure airflow, fuel flow, rpm, torque, cylinder head temperature, exhaust gas temperature, intake temperature, and hopefully combustion chamber pressure. I’m doing an spark ignition conversion of a Magnum XL-91 RFS for a friend. The engine has hundreds of hours on it and is getting new bearings, new piston, and new ring in the process. I have an interesting project involving a Cox .049 in the next month or so. I continue to work on the FS-91 diesel conversion. I’m setting up an airplane for it and hope to fly it in January, if weather allows. The airframe will carry data aquisition equipment to relay in-flight information about the engine.