Toobuilder
Well Known Member
Just completed a proper test flight on the Rocket one week shy of 3 years since last flight. No major issues. Was most worried about keeping new cylinders cool enough for break in (August, So Cal desert), but it appears my cooling mods are effective. Highest CHT I saw was a relatively benign 377. This is after full throttle, 2600 RPM for an hour. Oil temps slowly kept creeping on me and I was going to "knock it off" at 235, but it topped at 229.
Still have a raw, unfinished induction scoop inlet, but even still I was able to match my (super clean, Reno race Rocket) chase airplanes MP (24.3). This is already better than I saw in the pre mod configuration, and I expect a noticable improvement when the inlet lip is finished.
The SDS EFI was flawless. I was running the manual mixture knob a bit richer than the base program wanted but other than that the system was essentially invisible to me. Throttle response on short final was crisp and instantaneous, and idle quality on taxi out and back was perfect. It's a cliche, but it "runs like a new car".
Landed without incident and pulled the cowl. A few drops of oil from a couple easy to fix spots but overall looks clean and dry.
Good test. Hope to add a few more hours this weekend on top of today's 1.0
Still have a raw, unfinished induction scoop inlet, but even still I was able to match my (super clean, Reno race Rocket) chase airplanes MP (24.3). This is already better than I saw in the pre mod configuration, and I expect a noticable improvement when the inlet lip is finished.
The SDS EFI was flawless. I was running the manual mixture knob a bit richer than the base program wanted but other than that the system was essentially invisible to me. Throttle response on short final was crisp and instantaneous, and idle quality on taxi out and back was perfect. It's a cliche, but it "runs like a new car".
Landed without incident and pulled the cowl. A few drops of oil from a couple easy to fix spots but overall looks clean and dry.
Good test. Hope to add a few more hours this weekend on top of today's 1.0