So I have had my first flight in my Enstrom since taking delivery. 1977 280C. I have lots of questions, but first I want to share my near disaster first flight. The seller wanted to be benevolent and give me his left over fuel in his truck mounted tank. So an 85 degree afternoon with 20 gallons fuel and me and my instructor about 400 lbs. As I begin to lift off I get an overboost light so I settle back down and try again after leaning mixture a bit. I did this a couple times, but it seemed it was getting more and more difficult to stay out of overboost. By the time I taxied away from the hangar I noticed really high CHT and oil temperature was approaching redline. I set down to allow it to cool off a bit before continuing. First off I am not familiar with this or any Enstrom so I didn't know what was normal. I did think to myself surely there is more performance than an R22. After cooling off a bit I began to lift off and about 2' off the ground I lost a lot of power and got lots of vibration and backfiring. Fortunately I was able to settle without too much speed, thanks to high inertia. We checked the sumps once again and found lots of black sand like particles in the tank where the benevolent fuel was pumped. Needless to say I took a complete tear down and now it seems to be OK as far as I know. Much less manifold pressure needed, but I still don't know what I should expect. So now the questions:
The book says to bring engine RPM to 2900, but it seems a lot smoother and a better performer at top redline. I notice my rotor RPM is at the bottom of the green when I am at 2900 so what is your technique and how critical is the redline on the engine speed? It seems I enter overboost and lose rotor RPM rapidly if I stay at 2900 in a hover.
Regarding the tires for the ground handling. The tires on mine have cracked sidewalls and the brackets that attach the deployment mechanism is slightly tilted so the wheels angle outward. Is the tilt normal? How can tires with 475 lb capacity each carry 2000 lbs? They are Kenda tires 4.10/3.50-4 made in Taiwan. Are those the correct tires and has anyone found any better tires? Desser has those tires for $33 each so should I just replace these? As it is now it is very difficult to move it on the ground and the tires flatten a lot. Is that because the sidewalls are cracked? Can I install tubes to stiffen them?
Last edited by lvflyer; 10th Oct 2013 at 05:22.