New prop governor
The new PCU5000 prop governor arrived today! Hmmm… Work, or go to the hangar to install new toys. I’m sensing a short work day today.
Yep, I bailed out of work early to go play. Today I got the prop governor, the new canopy cover from Bruce’s, and a new digital camera (Cannon EOS 40D). Christmas in September! The canopy cover weighs 6lbs. I’ve been weighing everything recently in prep for the trip to LOE.
Once at the airport, I finished up reconnecting the carburetor and triple checking it. Moving on to the governor I began removing the old one. I used the ziploc bag under the drip area to catch the oil that runs out. This has become my favorite trick for changing the oil filter. It works great. No more spending an hour cleaning up oil dripped all over the place. Once I got the old one out I compared it to the new one. The control arm was positioned perfectly on the new governor “300 degrees”. Also, the vans governor cable bracket fit perfectly. No changes in the linkage were required. Wow, old one off, new one on. Just as easy as that.
All I had time for was a thorough run-up to make sure everything worked with no leaks. I pulled the airplane out without the cowl and fired it up. Immediately I could tell that the carb was quite a bit richer. It now has about 60-70 rpm rise at idle when leaned. I need to adjust the idle mixture down a little bit now. Previously I had almost no rpm rise at idle. Otherwise, the carb felt fine in a full run-up. The prop governor cycled fine as well. The governor definitely feels different too. It doesn’t seem nearly as sensitive as the old one. This is good for me. After bringing the engine up to temp and exercising all of the changes, I shut it down and went over it one more time before cowling it back up. It is ready for a test flight on Friday.
