Who
knows, 30 years from now,
when the next new engine
is put into production,
you can turn around and
ask how many remember
Hillary and Bill, Garth
Brooks and the fading 55
mph speed limit, to
determine who was around
when the Continental
10-240 was introduced.
The
10-240 is not only a new
engine, but it introduces
a new concept to the lower
end of the power spectrum
. . . fuel injection. More
important, it puts out
just enough more ponies
that it fits into a
totally vacant power
niche, having just a
little more punch than the
trusty old 0-235 but not
as much as the equally
trusty, but not quite as
old, 0-320.
Practically no one at
Oshkosh '93 had actually
laid eyes on one of the
new, more efficient little
engines, when Rich Trickel,
president of Tri-R
Technologies in Oxnard, CA
motored over the horizon
with an 10-240 bolted to
the firewall of the
factory testbed KIS. Rich
was wildly enthusiastic
about the combination for
a number of reasons, one
of which was the 169 mph
block to block time they
had just recorded with an
average fuel burn of under
six gallons per hour.
The
truest part of what you've
just read is, (a) Rich
Trickel is absolutely
addicted to composite
aircraft building and is
quickly becoming a
composite junkie, and (b)
he was, and still is,
wildly enthusiastic about
the new Continental 10-240
and what it offers
builders of his KIS line
of aircraft.
The
compo-junkie part of
Trickel is easy to prove.
Among other things, in
1983 he moved to
California especially to
get into the composite
airplane business. First
he tried the Rutan
Commune, but was turned
away because it was full,
and he eventually found
himself paddling around in
buckets of resin at Task
Research at Santa Paula,
CA. He had found a
vocation, if not a home,
and was happy as a pig in
polyester.
While
at Task he was heavily
involved in plug and mold
production for a number of
pre-molded aircraft
designs.
Trickel
quickly found the business
to his liking and, with a
partner, set up his own
company, High Tech
Industries, to produce
tooling and parts for
other kit manufacturers,
as well as companies
performing STC mods on
certified aircraft (C-404
turboprop cowlings, etc.).
High
Tech was quickly
recognized as being a
reliable supplier of
composite parts and
tooling, something not
lost on Lancair. To date
Trickel and his employees
have cranked out over 500
lots of Lancair kit parts,
ranging from the 235 and
320s to the IV and ES.
Along the way they also
did tooling for a number
of companies which have
not enjoyed the success of
Lancair.
By 1988
Trickel began to realize
he wanted to be building
parts for his own designs
as well as for others, so
he and his people set
about designing their own
airplane. Since they had
intimate knowledge of what
went into a number of the
other leading designs,
Trickel set about to make
the airplane a reasonably
high performance aircraft
with a minimum of parts
and ponies. His goal was,
use the smallest engine
and the smallest number of
parts.
The
initial KIS rolled out of
the shop and onto the
runway in April of 1991
with a Limbach in the
nose. Since California is
the home of the hot rod,
as well as compositemania,
it wasn't long before
larger engines were bolted
to the airplane's glass
firewall. Eventually the
standard KIS engine became
the 0235, 108 hp Lycoming.
Incidentally, some quick
research shows the 0-235
first debuted as a 100 hp
model in the Piper J-5
around 1941... 52 years
ago!
Always
on the look out for newer,
more powerful ways of
making his product
perform, Trickel was
attracted to the new
little engine offered by
Continental. Essentially
210 hp 10-360 cylinders
bolted on a case similar
to the 0-200, it is as
close as new technology
gets, when dealing with
certified, four-cylinder,
air-cooled engines.
Besides
having an additional 50
cu-bic inches
(approximately) over the
0-200, the engine offers a
new head design which is
aimed at better breathing.
To take advantage of the
newer nasal cavities a new
breathing apparatus in the
form of a fuel injection
unit is installed. The
injection is not of the
port-injection we're used
to seeing, but mounts a
central injection unit on
a manifold with cast
runners almost as if it
was a carburetor, since
the plumbing is similar.
The
engine installation on the
KIS increases the empty
weight by approximately 30
pounds over the similar
sized 0-235 Lycoming, but
offers a measurable
horsepower increase. The
10-240 is base rated at
125 hp with a + 5%, -0%
variation. This is why it
is said the engine has
125-131 horsepower at 2800
rpm.
The net
effect of increasing the
weight 30 pounds is the
gain of 17-26 horsepower,
or a minimum of 16%
in-crease in power. This
is a significant power
increase considering the
weight increase is only 2%
of the gross weight. This
drops the power loading
from 13.4 lbs./hp to
11.6-11.0 lbs./hp while
the wing loading only
changes a small amount.
However, the additional 30
pounds comes out of the
useful load since the
gross weight isn't
increased.
Continental is showing an
understandable willingness
to work with kit
manufacturers such as
Tri-R. Since the kit
manufacturers are building
a lot of airplanes and
using a lot of engines, it
makes sense they would do
what they can to assist in
that growth.
Since
the Tri-R KIS at Oshkosh
was one of the only
aircraft flying with the
10-240 on board, it didn't
take a lot of arm twisting
by Trickel to get me into
the right seat for a first
hand test of what the new
engine does for his
airplane.
This
was my first flight of the
KIS, therefore, I couldn't
evaluate the new engine
installation against the
earlier ones, but I felt I
could, at the very least,
get an idea of how the
airplane performs and how
the engine reacts and
feels.
It is
interesting how blase
we've become to high
performance, all-glass
airplanes today and how
fast that complacency set
in. The year Trickel moved
to California (1983) was,
for all intents and
purposes just about the
last year Cessna or anyone
else built single engine
airplanes in quantity and
especially two-place
aircraft. Starting shortly
before that (the first
VariEze showed up at
Oshkosh in 1975),
composite airplanes began
to grow like weeds. In the
last decade the
pre-moulded composite
birds have made such
phenomenal leaps in
performance, handling and
construction that we
almost never walk up to
something like the KIS
with anywhere near the
amount of awe we should
actually have.
Here is
a nicely proportioned,
well done two-place
airplane that we know does
165 + mph on the same
engine that drags a C-152
110 mph and an AA-1 Yankee
at 115 mph. But, we've
come to take that kind of
performance for granted.
We always expect
homebuilt, composite
airplanes to blow the
doors off factory
airplanes. And they always
do!
It was
with this train of thought
running around inside my
head that I approached the
KIS. I was trying to
appreciate it for what it
is . . . a simple approach
to a complex problem.
Going fast while
maintaining good handling
for the average pilot
isn't as simple as it
sounds. Could the KIS cut
it?
It is
becoming redundant to talk
about the finish and fit
on composite airplanes of
any kind, since even the
most mediocre are well
done. The particular
airplane I was flying was
their original prototype
which had been powered by
a Limbach until about 80
hours before I flew it. It
had nearly 500 hours on it
by a wide variety of
pi-lots, from typewriter
jockeys to prospective
buyers. It has been
handled, touched, mauled
and flown far more than
the average airplane would
be in a five year period
of time. Still, it looked
good. The gaps were even,
the finish was smooth and
the cracks were almost
non-existent.
The
nicest thing about the
door is that the airplane
can be taxied with it
open, although the best
way to taxi is to wrap an
arm around the front
corner of the door and
hold it part way closed to
protect against wind
gusts. If I was building
one of these things, I'd
figure out a mechanism
that would let me lock it
4-5 inches open and
for-get about it until
ready to go flying. The
summer heat out here in
sand-city makes us more
conscious of ground
ventilation than a lot of
the rest of the country.
The
seating position was
cushion-adjustable and,
like every one of the rest
of the kit demonstrators,
was set up for the biggest
guy on the field at
Oshkosh. I'm your FAA-average
5' 10", 170 pound pilot
and it took a bunch of
cushions to get me up to
where I could both see and
have enough leg left to
use the rudders. Once I
was cushioned up, all of
the controls fit me
exactly. I'm glad they had
me in mind when they
designed their systems.
Fired
up and taxiing, I played
with the rudder a bit to
see if it could steer the
airplane, since it has a
swivelling nose wheel.
With a little power, the
rudder could handle
straight ahead taxiing,
but it didn't take much
wind to overpower the
rudder and bring the
brakes into play. As would
be expected, the air-plane
practically drives itself
and it wasn't but a few
minutes before we were
told to "..... position
and hold. ." on Oshkosh's
runway 27.
I
wanted to avoid using
braking on takeoff, so I
brought the power up
slowly and smoothly and
still found it took a lot
of leg to keep it
straight, if I didn't want
to tap the brake
initially. I accelerated
quite rapidly and once the
airplane was rolling,
probably 30 mph, the
rudder requirements drop
to practically zero, but I
would have found it a
little easier if I had
tapped the right brake at
least once.
When
flying a new airplane, I
tend to fly them all
exactly the same: get it
rolling and apply just
enough back pressure to
pick up the nose wheel
just clear of the ground
and hold that attitude
until the airplane finds a
speed it is happy with and
flies itself off. I was in
the midst of doing just
that, which means the nose
wheel comes up before the
airplane is ready to fly,
when I caught Rich's hands
coming off his lap out of
the corner of my eye. I
stopped the nose's
movement and held the
attitude and saw his hands
retreat to their rested,
but nervous, position. In
an airplane that reacts as
quickly as the KIS, I'll
bet he's had his share of
experiences during demo
flights.
As soon
as the nose wheel started
off the ground, I could
see the airplane had lots
of elevator authority and
was fairly light in pitch.
Almost the second the nose
wheel lifted, I had to
unload the stick quite a
bit to hold the attitude.
I'll bet Rich prefers to
see his pilots leave the
nose down and rotate it
off at a higher speed,
while being careful not to
over rotate and get a PlO
going in pitch.
As the
rest of the flight was to
confirm, the airplane has
a lot of handling
characteristics similar to
the early AA-lA American
Yankees. It is just quick
enough that a set of ham
hands combined with a slow
brain could get a pilot
zigging when he should be
zagging until he gets used
to it. In all regimes the
airplane is very positive
and responds best to a
subtle touch.
Rich
had said to climb out at
100 mph, but at that speed
our nose was at
a ridiculous angle and we
were showing something
like 1,300 fpm on the VSI.
I flattened it out to
110-115 mph for more
visibility in the pattern
and was still getting a
solid 900 fpm.
During
climb the airplane showed
it liked to be trimmed for
a given condition and,
when trimmed, would sit
there until I asked it to
move. Since I wanted to
poke into a few corners of
the airplane's
personality, I wanted some
air under us and just let
it keep grooving up until
we touched 4,000 feet,
which at that rate wasn't
long.
I
separated the rudder and
ailerons, testing each to
see how much author-ity
they had and whether they
absolutely needed one
another. It has plenty of
authority in the ailerons,
while the rudder has
adequate, but not
overpowering, authority.
In doing aileron-only
turns I could detect only
the slightest amount of
adverse yaw, which was
cured with just a touch of
rudder. It's not a
feet-on-the-floor
airplane, but it's close.
I
brought the power back and
started searching for my
belt buckle with the stick
while leaving the flaps
up. First time out, the
airplane broke just very
slightly at something just
under 58 mph and rolled a
little to-wards the wing
with the most fuel. Then I
ran out one notch (12
degrees) of flaps and
repeated the exercise.
This time the break
disappeared as the stick
sank into my lap and the
airplane mushed. That's
slightly unusual, since
flaps will often aggravate
any break while lowering
the actual speed. In this
case, we were down in the
low SOs and pulling like
crazy and couldn't make it
do anything stupid.
On the
way back to the airport, I
played with various power
settings and found it
indicated about 162 mph,
which at that temperature
and altitude works out to
about 168 mph at 2500 rpm.
This is almost exactly as
advertised.
home
sport &
experimental aircraft
Aeronca C3
