AeroVee Performance (Cold Air Induction)

[Bryan Cotton]

Now I just need to plumb some air into there. I'm working on my inlet. Here it is with a hole in the middle and rough cut on the bandsaw:

inlet sawed.png (591.8 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

Poor man's lathe:

inlet mounted in drill press.png (524.79 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

Sanded into a cone:

Inlet sanded.png (598.09 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

Some more tweaking and a quick fitup:

inlet trial fit.png (458.59 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

[Bryan Cotton]

Inlet glassed up:

glassed inlet.png (284.29 KiB) Viewed 3964 times

With the tube in place:

inlet with tube.png (539.77 KiB) Viewed 3964 times

[Bryan Cotton]

I bonded my inlet in place. I laid some plies from the inside of the inlet to the inside of the cowl.

inlet bonded inside view.png (531.33 KiB) Viewed 3807 times

Next I scuffed up the tube, glued it in place, and added some plies to fasten it securely to the cowl.

tube bonding.png (554.58 KiB) Viewed 3807 times

Front view. I propped the cowl up higher and cleaned up the resin so as to not bond the inlet to the work table.

inlet and tube front view.png (481.46 KiB) Viewed 3807 times

[BobDz]

Looks pretty cool!

I see we have very similar lathes.

[Bryan Cotton]

Ready for test. I'll do the paint and bodywork if it works good.

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[Weatherpilot]

Bryan -

I'm a bit new to this glass thing. Is that insulation foam you are using for the shape and then glassing over?

Thanks,

Greg.

[Bryan Cotton]

Bryan -

I'm a bit new to this glass thing. Is that insulation foam you are using for the shape and then glassing over?

Thanks,

Greg.

Yes, it's what I had laying around. We actually built the hovercraft out of the same foam but with a thicker sheet.

[Bryan Cotton]

Flew 0.6 this morning. On takeoff at full rich the EGT went to 1415F, so I need to tweak the needle rich. It took about 1000' of climb to drop below 1400. It says I am getting more and denser air to the engine, which is a good thing. I didn't really need to lean in the climb until 4000'. I was cruising around at 110kias and it was happy. In a 130kt descent it was happy. It was pretty much happy everywhere. Engine temps were good but it was in the mid-30s. I actually had to turn my cabin heat down a little bit. My oil temperature was about 190F.

[Weatherpilot]

Way to go Bryan -

Keeping the"experiment" in experimental aviation...


Greg.

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks Greg!

A bunch of sanding done, some more to go yet. Will probably fly it again with the tweaked needle position before I complete the aesthetics.

inlet sanding progess.png (556.19 KiB) Viewed 3379 times