romott

VELOCITY ELITE RG • Beautiful Standard Fuselage, Long Wing, Retractable Gear, Gull Wing Doors, 360 Hrs AF and Engine, Lycoming IO360 200 HP, Catto 3 blade prop, Garmin 430 WAAS GPS, Navaid Autopilot coupled to CDI and GPS. PS 4000 Intercom/Audio Panel, Leather seats, nice Interior, 2005 Awlgrip Paint. • $99,000 See http://home.mi-connection.com/romott for more info and pictures. Ron Brown 704-301-4262

By the way, the Velocity Demo plane wasn't stolen, it was borrowed. A prospective buyer talked the owner into letting him take it from Sebastian over to Tampa to show it to his two partners. The plane disappeared into the fog at Lakeland South on an early Monday Morning. Big suspicion that the borrower "stole' the plane but no proof. $20,000 reward available. See http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/jkprodco/stolen-aircraft/N457M-det.htm for more info.

Re Velocity lower winglets: They have been used since the earliest of the Velocity kits, some people have left them off. My 1999 plans include them. However, I purchased Alan Shaw's fast build wings, and he doesn't install them (lazy?) I had to go back to the factory to get a set of lower winglets which I understand improves low speed yaw stability. Mine flies short final great with them, I haven't flown without them. Instrument panel access is far superior to spam cans that I have worked on. I have the removable canard cover so access is very good - although not as good as a Cozy. Re the plans, I felt my Velocity plans were very good for a kit plane. They have been upgraded and are even better now. I have worked on RV's, GlasStars, and Lancairs. The Velocity instructions are as good or better than any of these. I have also seen the Cozy plans and I wasn't particularly impressed with them. All of these plans are good enough to get the plane built, but they all could be much improved. Low cost and superior plans don't go too well together.

Oh, and by the way, a picture of the cylinder wraps is at http://home.sprintmail.com/~romott/page55.html . Also, be sure you close up the opening at the left front cylinder. The Velocity supplied plenum leaves this area open for some reason - or perhaps the newer plenums fixed this problem. Several keys to successful NACA cooling: 1. Tightly fitting plenum 2. cylinder wraps under bottom of plenum 3. my cowl is within 1" of the front edge of the prop (helps pull hot air out of the cowl). 4. Shape of the Velocity fuselage (?) - see my previous post.

I did use the Velocity engine plenum. See photos at http://home.sprintmail.com/~romott/page45.html The NACA inlets on top of the fuselage are approximately 3 x 9" each. I believe there is a high pressure area on top of the fuselage caused by air going over the windshield trying to reattach to the fuselage, similar to what happens to a NASCAR race car - the top of the car would appear to blank out the spoiler attached to the rear of the car. However, with the air coming back down after being lifted by the windshield shape, there is plenty of downforce (pressure) at the spoiler, and like wise for the NACA inlet scoop on a Velocity. Different shaped fuselages may have a different result.

I have been flying my 173 Elite RG Velocity for a year and a half, 150 hours. I'll be happy to answer any questions. By the way, the Velocity is great kit, great design, fantastic factory support, bigger than a Cozy IV but sleeker - especially the RG. And yes, more expensive but build times are less. I have 3100 hours in mine which had fast build wings and fuselage but the RG adds about 600-800 hours back. The 3100 hours includes my wiring and instrument panel construction as well as installing the engine and building and installing my own interior. But I'm flying in primer. And it flies GREAT!!!

I have been flying my Velocity (173 Elite RG) for 1.5 years and have 150 hours on it. I have the downdraft cooling and have been very pleased with it. CHT with extended ground idling generally stays under 300 degrees. My CHT's with a 4000 ft climb from take off stay under 360 degrees if I use 110 knots cruise climb. I have had a couple of hot take offs due to waiting on other traffic, 90 degrees outside, where CHT's have approached 380 after takeoff. I just lower the nose and temps come right down. The rear cylinders will run about 10 degrees warmer at low speeds, and about 10 degrees cooler at higher speeds. Temperature spreads across the 4 cylinders (IO360 - 200HP) stay within 20 degrees or usually less. I made cylinder wraps to force the cooling air to go all the way around he cylinders - the opening at the bottom of the wraps are only 1.5" or so. This helps a bunch. Bottom line, the Velocity downdraft NACA system WORKS GREAT!!!