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RV-7A performance

ALMARTON

Well Known Member
Hi folks!

I have a RV7A Lycoming 180 HP - YIO-360-M1B, Hartzell C2YR-1BFP/F7497? 72?'

It is still doing engine break-in with only 11 hours from new.

I am getting 151kts TAS at 5.500ft on the G3X PFD . Is it normal performance?

Can I expect some increase after the engine break-in ?

I would appreciate your numbers to compare.

Many thanks.
 
A bit more info would be helpful. As Bob stated, gear leg fairings and wheel pants generally add up to 15kts to top speed. We need to know if the ball is centered, your power settings, mixture (EGT's relative to peak) and fuel flow as well to give you a ball park. I know that in mine, I gained 15 kts with fairings. I was stunned at that but it seems to be common and I later learned how draggy 3 long rods of gear legs can be! I also flew with no gear leg fairings but with the wheel pants and established that the wheel pants alone gain you 5 kts and adding the gear leg fairings get you an additional 10kts. I get around 150kts in my economy cruise configuration of 23" squared at 8000', on the rich side of peak and I lose about 3kts on the lean side of peak, burning around 7.5 gallons per hour. Mine is a parallel valve IO-360 with 9.2:1 pistons, electronic ignition, vertical fuel injection and a WhirlWind 200RV constant speed prop. Mattituck estimated about 195hp with that configuration.

If you're still breaking in your engine I got the recommendation to fly without wheel pants and fairings to keep it draggy and use 75% or greater power to seat the rings, balancing that with keeping the temperatures under control. Once the cylinder temperatures drop and stabilize you will know that it's broken in. It may already be at 11 hrs. If the G3X data logs you will be able to see it in the logs. Doing it without fairings you will also be able to verify that the ball is centered and the plane flies straight. Then, when you add the fairings, if the ball is out, it's the fairings that need adjusting and not something more complicated.
 
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