Flyer

March 2001

 

"Wilksch diesel flies"

"'Plenty of smooth power' - test pilot

The first official test flight of an aircraft powered by the new experimental Wilksch diesel took place on January 2.The aircraft was a Europa fitted with the WAM-120 engine and flown by test pilot John Brownlow, former PFA National Coach and Europa specialist.

John reported: "The engine certainly produced plenty of smoothly delivered power, cockpit noise level and vibration were low, response to throttle movement was good, and coolant and oil temperatures were easily manageable, although some engine cooling development will be needed to optimise this invariably difficult area which is always a bit of a black art.

"A look at the level cruising speed at what seemed to be a sensibly moderate throttle/propeller pitch combination (2l00rpm about 90% throttle opening giving some 70% power output - about 56bhp) produced 125 knots IAS. This was at 1600ft agl. At these engine settings the temperatures and pressures stayed comfortably within limits.

“On landing after the first two flights, which included a lot of taxying, the tank was dipped and Mark Wilksch declared that we'd used £5.00 worth of fuel.”

The full text of John's report can be found in the news archive of the FLYER website.

 

Hinton-in-the-Hedges is to be the home of the first Wilksch diesel powered aircraft syndicate. A Thorp T211 will be converted to Wilksch power as a joint project between three Thorp kit builders and the Hinton syndicate.

The Thorp will be fitted with a production version of the three cylinder engine and should be flying shortly after the PFA Rally. There are places left for mid-week flyers and interested parties can e-mail syndicate leader Paul Shenton on: pauljshenton@pfanet.co.uk"