Wendell Folks RV-8 - Page 88.

August 22, 2008:  There are always a few things to do when you build an airplane yourself.  This week it was building a cover to keep foreign objects from falling into the area around the rear joy stick.

One of Wendell's friends is a retired airline pilot from Piedmont Airlines, now part of USAir today.  This was the afternoon Wendell took him for a ride in the RV-8.   I was focused on the pilot in the back seat when I snapped this photo, and did not see the expression on Wendell's face until I uploaded this photo to my computer.   Those clouds in the background are some of the outer-most effects of tropical storm Fay, which was centered in the Florida panhandle this Saturday morning.

One thing to note here is the canopy is "locked" in the half open position during engine start.  That was another modification recently made, but I have yet to photograph that latch assembly now that it is installed.

I was about to take a photo from the front of the airplane on the ramp when my low-battery warning came on, and the camera went OFF.  I made a quick change of the batteries. By the time I was ready with fresh batteries in the camera, Wendell was doing the engine run-up at the north end of the runway.  This is taken with my camera lens zoomed out and with the anti-shake mode engaged.

Here is the lift off with both seats filled and half flaps.  Wendell had asked me if I was going to go for a flight as he was pulling his airplane out of the hangar.  I had declined since I had to head out for groceries on the way home.   I called him after loading my groceries in the car.  He indicated that the air was bumpy and the flight only lasted about 15 minutes.  I was glad I had declined to put my airplane in the air.

September 14, 2008:   Wendell has been busy this week mounting a bigger oil cooler for his engine.   I dropped by today to help him finish it off and to take these pictures of course.   Here is the new 10-row oil cooler bolted into postion where the old 7-row cooler was before.

I moved the camera back to give a size comparison view of the old and the new oil coolers.

This frontal view shows how much of the baffle was removed when it was OFF the engine and on the work bench.  Wendell was not pleased with the cut, but it does accent the three extra rows of cooling tubes in this larger oil cooler.  The RED high-temperature RTV compound will fill the gap at the top of the cooler, and will be re-applied to the baffle where it is missing after removing, altering, and replacing the rear baffle.

Here is a minor oil seepage issue Wendell will get fixed soon with the help of our local A&P, Rich Nadig.

Here is the completed installation.  The wires on the fuel pressure sensor had to be re-oriented to clear the new location of the oil hose going to the oil cooler.   We pushed the airplane back in the hangar after testing the engine at 1500 RPM and finding no leaks.  One thing I did notice was how much the engine shakes in the mounts during startup until all four cylinders get running smoothly.  I mentioned that to Wendell and suggested he move the fuel pressure sender from the center of the manifold to the LEFT port to provide more clearance from the upper oil hose.  The upper spark plug wires also needed a new location to clear the hose.