Ron Burnett First Flight with Subby H4

Greetings,

Ron Burnett has made the first flight in his RV-6A Subaru H4 MT prop airplane. In fact he has made at least 4 flight as of today, the first occurring this past Wednesday. All is going well with Ross Farnham's ECU and Robert Paisly's electric control system.

Congrats to Ron,a new member to the exclusive club of aviators who built and fly their own airplane. And special congrats for doing it with a somewhat modified EGG H4.

I know it was a long haul for Ron. Glad to see he is in the air. Thanks for the plug David.

We have a number of other Subies about to make first flights in various parts of the world in the next month or so.

Outstanding!

David-aviator said:

......Congrats to Ron, a new member to the exclusive club of aviators who built and fly their own airplane.....

Click to expand...

Ron Burnett is as humble, unassuming and honorable as a man can be. Ron is so honest, you could shoot craps with him over the telephone. If you were not talking airplanes with Ron, descended from the clan Burnett, builders of 16th century Crathes Castle in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland where his family recently gathered, you'd never know the thrifty Scotsman was a Marine A4 Skyhawk pilot before his career as an airline pilot.


I gotta be perfectly frank here. Some people were born to work with their hands, others....well...not so much. Eleven years ago when I first met Ron, I doubted he would ever finish his quickbuild RV-6A. Happily, I was wrong about that and Ron is a living example of sheer tenacity that Pierre Smith's tagline sums up so perfectly:

It's never skill or craftsmanship that completes airplanes, it's the will to do so, Patrick Kenny, EAA 275132

At one point during the build, Ron had to remove the completely installed wings from the fuselage so he could relocate his project to our airport and then had to put it all back together again. We are talking 6A folks. That was in itself no easy task. As assembly on the RV slowly continued, one technical challenge after another presented itself and all had to be met and dealt with. During all those enthusiasm sapping times, it really seemed a two steps forward, one step back process and Van's must have made some serious money on replacement parts over the years, including a second new canopy!

I was not there when the first flight took place but was able to congratulate Ron while he was still airborne thanks to a patch provided by one of his many friends. Later that evening Ron and I discussed the many things that need to be discovered and learned and tweaked over the next flights. Calibrating the AOA immediately comes to mind. There will be time to finish the fairings and wheel pants later.

Congratulations again Ron. I know it was a long and sometimes frustrating haul for you but by golly...YOU DID IT!

My thanks to David D and Rick G not only for posting kind and humorous words but for their help and encouragement over this entire project of 11
plus years. Thank God it was a quickbuild! I want to thank Paul Falcon who helped the entire project and turned 81 in Dec. He is anxious for a ride after the flyoff. Son Mark got me started comuting over from KC on weekends and helped build until his work schedule changed. Son Jeff helped paint hangars and move the project numerous times. My supportive wife needs special
thanks for allowing this project to consume time, money, garage space, basement space, and waiting on most of her honeydo list.

The EAA is invaluable and especially my chapter 32 in St. Charles, MO. Thanks to the RV list, this site as well. It really is a matter of perseverance and getting lots of help from EAA friends. The new prepunched kits would make it even nicer.

I am happy with the Protek Bus manager designed by Robert Paisley and the SDS ECU and Ross Farnams' help. I am enjoying each flight more than the one before. I am happy with the support Jan Eggenfellner gave me during this whole process as well.

Keep working on your projects and once you get it flying you can then tweak and fine tune it. Will post some photos tomorrow after more help from Rick G :>>)

Numbers?

Ron:
When you get a chance can you post some numbers such as:

Empty weight, various speeds, any cooling issues, etc.

Enjoy the testing phase!

Doug Lomheim
RV-9A, Mazda 13B, FWF / Electrical
OK City, OK

Great post Rick! If you keep grinding away it does get done even if at times the whole project seems insurmountable. Good job Ron and congrats!

Weights/etc for N524RB

dlomheim said:

Ron:
When you get a chance can you post some numbers such as:

Empty weight, various speeds, any cooling issues, etc. [Doug Lomheim
RV-9A, Mazda 13B, FWF / Electrical
OK City, OK

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My empty weight is 1127 with 332 on the nose. I have an autopilot, hooker harness, GRT EFIS single screen. With no fairings/wheel pants it goes 140mph @ 3000 ft, 60 degrees @1700 prop rpm and wide open throttle at around 6 gal/hour. No cooling issues at that temp.[/I]Enjoy the testing phase!

Ron Burnett

Congrats Ron!

Ron,
Well done young man, it has been a long road but I think you will really enjoy owning an RV. I think they are the best bang for the buck of anything out there. Can't wait to get in the air this Spring for some formation.
Contracts again,
Oly

Congratulations Ron

Ron..we haven't met, but what an inspiring story.

I can't believe there are many people on this list who are less fit to "build" things than I. Please send more pictures ...

Suresh

Congratulations Ron

You can view all the photos you could ever want by going to kitlog.com, my kitlog, builders, ron burnett and have at it.

Flew her the 6th flight today for 1 hour engine run, 48 mins in the air, climbed to 5000, tooled around mostly at 3000', 140mph and 1700 prop rpm on the MT, landed and dumped a 5 gal can in and it was higher on the stick than when I took off. Can hardly wait to get the pants/fairings on her.

1st flight Congats

Aloha Ron!
great job on gettting her done and in the air!
welcome to the club of building and flying your own airplane
now get out there and fly fly fly!!!
lee

I won't repeat what others have said, because they speak the truth. Ron has perservered more than many to get this project done and it was a pleasure working with him. Congrats on your flights Ron and well done...couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Cheers,
Stein

Fuel Burn on H4

I may have been overly optimistic on the fuel for my H4 Subaru. Refueling from 5 gal cans and measuring with paint sticks is trickier than I imagined. Will post findings as they become clearer. I am still programming the SDS ECU and it still is rich at high rpms and at some lower rpms with the throttle reduced for descent. So much to learn and never enough pictures for us Marine types.

First Subie Flight

Many congrats for getting her finished! Once you lock in the programming you'll have most of the issued worked out, right? How is your cooling doing so far? Okay on climb out? Hope you'll consider bringing it to Paducah, KY in the Fall for the next alternative engine fly in...fun time last year but no Subie's showed up
...

Fly Safe
Doug Lomheim
RV-9A / 13B / FWF / Canopy / electrical, etc, etc

Cooling issues

Am just beginnig to deal with cooling issues as we are getting to that time of the year. I have pulled the cowl and will trim some off the exit area to begin with to improve flow across the radiators. During this process I discovered a crack in one of the inlet pipes in the internal muffler. Hope to have a specialist weld it by early next week. I have 16.5 hours on the test to date.

H-4 building time

I purchased an accurate scale that reads in .1/lbs so am programming floscan on EIS2000. The muffler is repaired and I have over 25 hours on the flyoff. Learning new things every flight and the cooling is doing better with more exit area.

Ron Burnett

Cooling Issues tackled

I have 80 hours now on my H-4 and last summer behind me. I had two original small radiators which were inadequate for 85-95 degree days requiring 1000 foot level offs and step climbs and prohibiting multiple flights. I switched from NPG+ waterless coolant to 50/50 glycol & water wetter and added 110 sq. in. exit vents under the lower cowl, all helping but with less than satisfactory results. I am currently making mockup radiators for custom radiators by Ed at Tech welding at Paducah, KY. He works with Mazda rotaries and has resolved other Subaru owners cooling woes. I am also moving the dual batteries from the firewall to a floor mount behind the cargo wall which should lighten the nose. Wil update my status when complete and we have warmer weather. Happy landings!

Hi Ron,

Congrats on flying your -6.

On the cooling issue, do you still have Egg's flat sided ducts feeding the radiators? If so, that might be a lot of your problem. There are a lot of rotary guys flying with the GM air conditioner cores as radiators, & with even half-decent diffuser style inlets they are cooling 160-180 hp using Van's stock size inlets.

Charlie