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My Comanche has finally hit 400 hours since installed. I typically do not repair items until they turn red just to see how far I can push things - would not dream of doing the same in the real world!


The majority of these hours have been racked up during a round the world trip, a bit of work is needed but I am still tempted to keep pushing my luck despite a couple of long legs coming up soon....


The trip so far starting in Shorham UK heading east. I may well extend the trip down into Africa via looping more or less anti clockwise before heading up through Italy, France etc. before finally completing my journey back at Shoreham.

Hello Blitzer,

That's the evidence of one dedicated flyer. Congrats on the hours and this trip!

Cheerz,
Will

Looks like fun!

I'd like to get a closer look at that map.

Wow, this is really cool! My Comanche has been sitting in Bar Harbor, Maine for 2 months now. I am curious to see what condition it is in.

Did you post more information on your trip somewhere? Looks very interesting. I have been doing a RTW trip in FSX some time ago, and now I am in the middle of a tour of the Lower 48 states with the Comanche.

Good luck for the Atlantic crossing! Which route will you be taking?

That's a real cool map and looks like fun trips!

Do you fly LOP, full throttle, low rpm ?

Congrats!

Nice work but this does beg the question, how low can you let your cylinder head pressure across all of them get before it's totally unsafe to fly? It looks like it's basically running on two cylinders and that doesn't include catastrophic failure.

Be safe.

jeepinforfun wrote:Nice work but this does beg the question, how low can you let your cylinder head pressure across all of them get before it's totally unsafe to fly? It looks like it's basically running on two cylinders and that doesn't include catastrophic failure.

Be safe.

I would think anything under 60 psi needs an overhaul/replaced cylinder. Checking valve guides, cylinder bore size, new piston rings to the next oversize allowed, piston condition ect. Either way though at 400 hours we shouldn't be seeing this bad of compression.

A-26Invader wrote:Either way though at 400 hours we shouldn't be seeing this bad of compression.

True if you've got the aircraft set for 1800 hours between overhauls. He's probably got it set for 300 hours.

I've never flown an Accusim plane that many hours so I don't know exactly how bad it gets.

Hook

Bruce66 wrote:Looks like fun!

I'd like to get a closer look at that map.

Hi Bruce,

I will probably post the route once I have completed the whole trip. PM me though if you would like more detail.

Salud wrote:Wow, this is really cool! My Comanche has been sitting in Bar Harbor, Maine for 2 months now. I am curious to see what condition it is in.

Did you post more information on your trip somewhere? Looks very interesting. I have been doing a RTW trip in FSX some time ago, and now I am in the middle of a tour of the Lower 48 states with the Comanche.

Good luck for the Atlantic crossing! Which route will you be taking?

As it happens I just passed through Bar Harbor - I must have missed your Comanche parked up!
I have not posted the trip as yet, I was never intending to post about it at all until it was completed, however the 400 hours felt like a milestone. I was planning to post the full trip details once I had completed the tour.

The plan is to fly up through Newfoundland, up to Goose Bay before a long crossing to Narsarsuaq Greenland, then a similar long crossing to Iceland. From there to the Faroe Islands, Shetland and then down through Scotland. Chances are I may extend the route thereafter and continue to do a loop around Africa - guess that may get me to 500 hours!

Caldemeyn wrote:Do you fly LOP, full throttle, low rpm ?

Despite there being no intention of completing this trip in the shortest time possible, when I am in the air I like to cover ground quickly and also try to be frugal with fuel. The upshot is that I am probably pushing the Comanche harder than I should, typically the following would be the norm for most legs...

• Cruise Altitude: 13,000 feet

• RPM: 2,400

• Throttle: Full

• Mixture: Lean - just above where the engine starts to run a little rough, I believe fuel-flow is normally just under 11 gph

Worth noting that there have been times where I have not flow for weeks possibly longer so there may have been occasions where dirty oil may have been having a detrimental effect and there were occasions where I had extended the oil change as my perception was that I had been flying daily.

jeepinforfun wrote:Nice work but this does beg the question, how low can you let your cylinder head pressure across all of them get before it's totally unsafe to fly? It looks like it's basically running on two cylinders and that doesn't include catastrophic failure.

Be safe.

Well I think this is the beauty of simulated flight and more specifically Accusim where you can push beyond the boundaries of what you would be comfortable with in the real world.

Despite the maintenance report the engine is still running smoothly. I have noticed start-up is a little "slower" perhaps and a little rough initially, this could also be down to not applying quite enough throttle - I recently changed to a Warthog HOTAS so I may not be opening the throttle as much as I used to. Otherwise I have put this down to a combination of engine wear and filters that could do with replacing.

As you may expect, there has been a drop-off in performance. Cruise speeds are definitely not quite up where they used to be, where I would often attain 160, it is more common to be around 140 these days! I always fly in real weather so this is obviously a factor, but overall it is evident performance has dropped off.

If nothing else this is a good test of Accusim and the related effort that has gone into producing the Comanche and related systems!

With a few longer legs coming up I am in two minds whether I should carry out the repairs before or push my luck... I am leaning towards the later but I do want to complete the trip! lol

Hook wrote:

A-26Invader wrote:Either way though at 400 hours we shouldn't be seeing this bad of compression.

True if you've got the aircraft set for 1800 hours between overhauls. He's probably got it set for 300 hours.

I've never flown an Accusim plane that many hours so I don't know exactly how bad it gets.

Hook

Although I have not checked to confirm, it is almost certain that I would opt for the 300 hour setting. As good as the Comanche is I don't think I could dedicate enough time to just one aircraft to reach 1,800 hours! I feel I am neglecting to fly other aircraft in my hanger as it is, most of my flight-sim time is dedicated to pushing on with this trip.