4 Aug 20 Engine Run

As we have been flying the Spirit of St. Louis by JNE we have had to make a few adjustments to the authenticity. All have been minor adjustments that we can easily change back to full authenticity once all the test flights have been made. The original Spirit of St. Louis was built quickly, with what they had readily available, and with the idea it only needed to make that ONE important flight from New York to Paris! So things we take for granted today ... like the ability to make simple adjustments to things ... are much more difficult to do on an authentic replica of the original aircraft! One such difficult adjustment to make is the oil pressure setting. Each time we have had to adjust it, it requires draining the oil tank of oil. The tank was fitted with a plug ... which sits above much of the copper tube plumbing for the aircraft and a few control wires. That means there is no way to get a funnel securely under the plug to drain the oil into a container to catch it all. Therefore, all those parts under the plug get oil on them ... the jugs get oil all over them ... the drip pans below the engine get filled with oil ... and WE get oil all over us during the draining! What a mess! Once the oil is drained, then John can open the oil pressure bypass valve to get to the ball and spring that control the oil pressure. He then needs to determine if the spring needs to be stronger or weaker, longer or shorter, depending on which way he wants the pressure to go ... but he cannot 'fine tune' the results without doing the whole thing over again once the engine has stopped running. It's a BIG ordeal to go through. SO, John has replaced the drain plug with a valve to which we can attach a hose to get past all the obstacles when we need to drain the oil. AND, he created a new bypass valve cap with an external adjustment bolt that he can turn with a wrench while the engine is running to 'fine tune' the pressure to exactly what he desires. THIS engine run on 4 August 2020 was to get the oil pressure set just where she needs to be.