Peter Ashwood-Smith wrote:
>Lessons learned:

>
>
> All good advice. One thing though is that I have lately been keeping
> the cowl flaps closed. My oil and CHT are both quite low with the flaps
> open even during hard acro. I was rarely getting more than 190F on the
> oil, even after 30 minutes of full power acro so I am keeping them
> closed to get it in the 200F range. I suspect up here in the Great
> White North, the cowl flaps won't be used much except during the peak
> of summer. Also, the plane flies about 5MPH faster with them closed
> and there are less bugs to whipe off the plane.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter
> --

Keep an eye on the gauges. In Argentina we were flying Pete Anderson's old
S-1T in a master's contest. The first pilot of the day, Christian Schweizer
(since deceased in a P-51 accident) taxied in and waved me over. "Look at
the oil temp gauge, I think it's broken" he said, with the engine still
running. I noted that it was pegged against the high range (300?). "Why do
you think its broken?" I asked. "Because it should not be possible to have
any oil pressure with the temperature so high" he said. Well, there was
still some oil pressure. Turned out the mechanics hadn't connected the cowl
flap lever when they had reinstalled the cowling the night before. It
looked open on the walkaround, but with any airspeed it just blew shut. We
changed the oil and kept flying it, and Christian made amends by re-welding
the landing gear with a coat-hanger after Diana Britten twisted it off.
Poor little plane just wasn't the same after that though.

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