Last Saturday morning I took up a 210 lb passenger for my first dual
flight with a new Catto 3 bladed fix pitch 64 x 62 prop. This prop has a
large amount of twist, starting with about 45 degrees at the root. I only
had 8 gal total in the tank and pumped up the monowheel to 25 lbs. DA was
6600 ft and OAT about 80F with no wind. We were at full gross. The takeoff
roll was up to about 1000 ft, could have been shorter, but I held it on the
runway probably longer than necessary for safety. My engine is a 130 hp Ram
Performance modified Soob EA81 NA. This was also a first flight after
installing the Europa speed fairing kit. Climb rate was mostly 800 fpm,
sometimes 1000. I wanted to see if the speed fairings had helped any and
did a one way speed run at 7500 ft straight and level at 170 mph GPS. There
was no bumps and no wind. I had
done a solo speed run 2 weeks prior and had shown a similiar 170 mph with no
speed kit. I'm
not sure the speed fairing kit is adding any extra speed but need to do some
solo tests.
My buddy flies a O-360 powered Lancair and was not used to the high engine
rpm of a geared engine and preferred to slow down to 4000 rpm to closer
approximate the 2700 rpm or so of
his engine. We noticed the Matronics fuel flow meter keep dropping and
dropping at 4000 rpm, settling on 2.6 gph. We flew a big 10 mile circle
around the airport to offset any wind, and
GPS speeds averaged right at 110 mph. Then we tried a circle at 3500 rpm.
This worked out
to 95 mph. Fuel burn was down to 2.1! This works out to 45 mpg!
Fuel burn basically doubles from 4000 rpm to 5000 rpm. This is very handy
information to know if you have to stretch that tank! The Europa is an
amazingly efficient little plane!
Glenn Crowder
Golden, Colorado USA
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