The Engine Runs

Draw a big red circle around today on the calendar. For the first time, I ran the engine on my Bede BD-4C airplane for several minutes! Everything worked pretty well. Here is a photo of the engine instruments.

From left to right, you are seeing:

• EGT = exhaust gas temperature. #1 cylinder is 1,060° F. Other cylinders are near the same temp.
• CHT = cylinder head temperature. #1 cylinder is 211° F. Other cylinders are near the same temp.
• OT = oil temperature. 121° F.
• OP = oil pressure. 75.4 PSI.
• MP = manifold pressure. 11.27 inches of mercury. This is a normal reading at idle.
• RPM = 1,265 RPM.

Along the top are three timers: MNT is a maintenance timer. Hobbs is the total time that the airplane has been turned on. Tach is the total time that the engine has been running.

I had to shoot a short video, too, as I tested the propellor control.

There were a couple of glitches to debug: two small oil leaks and the throttle was not as smooth to control as I think it should be. Neither one seems like a big deal to me.