It has been an exciting year for VPS as we just completed our 6th test engine. At this time all 6 Beta test engines are flying and we are getting very positive reports back from the field.

Following is a note from Andrew to the Beta Testers:

Guys,
Beta test engine six has been delivered and is up and running. This engine has my latest map and Raymond reports it is starting easier than the stock engine he had. I know that some of you have had a challenge in the beginning with engine starting. I'm waiting to here from Dave Williams to see if the new map that I just installed on his computers and shipped to him is helping his engine starting.

Mike Doles reports after his first 50 hour valve check that the valve adjustment was on the tight side.
This news was really good. I set the first engines on the tight side because I figured the engine was new and the valve train will wear some as it breaks in. Well it seems the valve train is doing better than I had figured and the wear is very minimal. Both Mike and Russ have sent me some of the best test data I could ask for, thanks very much Mike and Russ.
Russ I'm waiting to here from you to see were your valve clearance will be at your 50 hour adjustment. I figure your valve clearance will be different due to breaking in your engine on the dyno longer than the other engines before you received it.

The only bad event to date was a blown head gasket on Ronald's engine. The cause was a pulled head bolt. Ronald has a set of the newest water jacket castings to come out of RW. Unfortunately they are also the poorest I have had to deal with. His engine is fixed with the water jackets updated and up and running and he shouldn't have any more blown head gaskets. All of the other engines have my bolt thread modification installed so this will not be an issue.

I have in the works a data acquisition computer that I hope to send to Mike Doles first to collect data in the field. Mike by far is in the most hostile environment for a RW. Also in the works is a display to replace the stock RW display and a better oil pump.

We continue to receive requests for our engine but we feel that we need more time on them and subsequent reports from you, our beta testers, before we begin building more engines. The way these engines are performing it looks like we will be building engines for the public sooner than later.

I hope you all had a Good Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thanks for all the input keep up the good work and fly safe!!

Andrew E Burr XIV
Vertical performance LLc
Po Box 213
Cassville MO 65625

VPHelo, LLc has paid for the design and engineering for every component and holds ownership of all intellectual property for each component.

Here is just one report from one of our latest Beta Testers who is flying his VPS powered Rotorway in the Houston Tx area.

Hey Andrew and Orv,
Just a note to let you both know that the VPS engine is running great! I had a problem with my starter, and also hooked up the main wiring harness ground to the WRONG battery terminal!....but all was OK surprisingly! Thanks to Andrew's quick thinking, I robbed the starter from the new stock engine I bought from him. The bendix spring had broken on mine and stopped the starter from rotating. The VPS engine starts easier than the RWI engine ever did, and I can tell there is much more power! It runs much smoother too, I think! I hover taxied on the strip for a while and let the engine run on the ramp for about an hour total. Oil pressure when hovering is around 55-60 pounds. Water Temps are around 170 in the hover and hold steady in flight. Had to make several main drive belt tightenings today also, but all is settling in. I notice that the Maxstar belts do not slip or squeal like the serrated main drive belts did.
I made two patterns around the strip right at dark today. All was PERFECT! What a smooth running machine! I will put some time on the engine tomorrow. It feels so great to be back in the air with a MUCH MORE RELIABLE machine now! Thank you!

See attached photo taken after dark tonight. The date stamp is wrong.
Your Friend,
Raymond

Made a couple of 10 minute local flights and one auto, then took the helicopter up for a 2 hour flight today. No problems at all! Water temps stayed steady at 170. Cruise Manifold Pressure at 23 inches. I think fuel burn was approx 6.5 to 7.0 GPH at this setting, but not positive. Outside air temps were approx 55 degrees Farenheit. All running very smoothly so far. No starting problems at all. Engine runs a little rough until warmed up well, but not a problem.
Great work on this engine! I am so glad to be flying a RELIABLE machine now!
Thanks so much,
Raymond

1/8/2011:

Guys,

Mike Doles reports he is at 90 hours and plans to get to 100 hours in no time. He also stated the cog tensioner has just hit 150 hours for those of you that have the tensioner. Mike if you feel up to it maybe you can share your thoughts on the engine so far with the guys.

I believe Russ Platt is close to hitting 50 hours. He reports his engine is running strong with no issues.

Thanks

Andrew E Burr XIV
Vertical performance LLc
Po Box 213
Cassville MO 65625

VPHelo, LLc has paid for the design and engineering for every component and holds ownership of all intellectual property for each component.

1/9/2011:

Hey Andrew, Mike, Russ, Dave, Ron, and Orv,
I just made my second long flight with the engine today. 1 1/2 hours total with absolutely NO problems! I now have about 6 hours on my engine with no issues. It takes about 10 minutes for the engine to smooth out after initial cold start, but afterward, all is fine. I retightened all hose clamps, exhaust header bolts, and retensioned belts this evening. No water pump leaks or other issues at all! I think I'm burning about 7 GPH at 22 inches during cruise, but not certain yet. I added a can of AvBlend to my oil, since I forgot to put it in at the oil change. I could not be more pleased! What a GREAT machine!
Raymond

On 1/22/2011 Beta Tester Mike Doles sent in the following report:

As you are aware, I did some extensive testing during the warm months here in the Phoenix area last summer when I took delivery of my VPS engine,

My purpose was to try to see what this engine could do when it was hot and in high DA situations.

The temps here (at DVT) were quite often over 100 deg F (108 when I first started). 5000 ft DA in front of my hangar! The norm seemed to be about 105 deg F.

Because I wanted to be able to comfortably fly with myself and say a 150 lb pass. at the Central Sierra Helicopter Meet in Groveland CA, I set 1460 as a desirable weight to fly at 3800 msl at up to 80 deg F. It just so happens that 20 miles from DVT is New River Mesa that ranges from 3700 to 4300 msl. So, a lot of my testing was done at that location.

In 2009, I attended this meet and it was wet and rainy and usually around 60 deg or a little less! At that time with the stock engine, my helicopter could just barely hover with myself and full fuel! ( 1338 lbs). I was full throttle and any wind change could make it settle and/or lose rpm!

Anyway, I found that the DA where I was testing was ranging from about 5800 to 6200 ft. At those DA's and weight of 1456. I found the performance to be much like I experienced previously at Groveland when I was solo, but I had sandbags to bring the weight up to about 1456 lbs. I was able to break ground and hold a very low hover, however, there were bushes and other obstacles to hinder a long shallow take off. So, I usually ended up rolling a 60 lb sandbag overboard which would give me another full inch of available manifold pressure and extra throttle which allowed for a normal take of over the bushes. It should be noted, that the rotorway could very easily get into these spots with the power available, even if weight was beyond hover capability without a run on! Love those discardable sandbags! Had a number of them on the Mesa which I picked up once the temps cooled down!

In all instances, the engine ran flawless...even up to maximum throttle. I felt however, that I was not getting the horsepower I would have thought based on the dyno figures. I used a formula that Andrew provided to try and figure the amount of useable horsepower available at certain altitudes, temps and Man pressures etc. I have had a number of conversations with Andrew about that, and we have pretty much come to the conclusion that the rotorway drive train eats up a lot of it, the blades themselves may be a definite limiting factor also! One time when another hangar tenant managed to cover my helicopter with over spray, I super cleaned it and especially the blades and did not realize any real discernable improvement of lifting capacity at high DA.

Another very noticeable, and desirable trait, is the throttle is usually at a low open position, leaving much more response available as opposed to stock. Under most conditions, drooping rotor rpm is greatly reduced because the engine has the extra response...even when you are getting close (but not at) max available power.

Because I do not have a totally disengaging clutch like some others, I have had problems starting...but have recently discovered that if I start with ecu-2 and only pulse the fuel pump until running, it starts much like the original did. I also do not turn on ecu-1 until water temp has reached 140. (it will almost die if turned on before that). I asked Andrew if ecu-2 was a little retarded as opposed to #1 and he said yes but did not think it would make that big a difference. Oh well...it makes a difference in mine!

The only other problems have been persistent oil seeps from some of the bolts that go through the head between the water jacket and the push rod tubes...also several of the push rod tubes seep from either the head seal or the block seal ring! I have been cleaning them and putting some gray sealant Andrew recommends and have most of them stopped now.

I have just performed compression tests and a leak down test of each cylinder. The results were head and shoulders above what the original engine did at 100 hrs. This engine is better at 100 hrs than the original was out of the box, and the plugs, looked near new. I also have a cheap borescope, and what I could see inside the cylinders also looked very clean! My original had layers of oily chunky carbon all over the pistons!

The valves were good and the roller rockers show no grooves, only a polish where they rotate on the valve stem...they were also very close in adjustment! This engine also noticeably runs smoother than stock.

Overall, I find that my confidence in my rotorway is way up with this engine, Andrew's cog and tensioner, and Al B's secondary drive shaft! People here are amazed at the times I am putting in!

Orv, the engine is definitely demonstrating that reliability and retention of power that it starts with may well be the key factors to buy this engine! In fact, it may actually get better...one cylinder was a touch low on the leak down test and Andrew feared there might be a glaze on the wall. But, I found with the bore scope, that there did not appear to be a glaze but very visible hone marks in all cylinders with possibly a touch more of them in # 3 (low one). So, it may be possible that it will break in even better! He suggested making some longer higher power runs.

Another interesting point is that after I had some discussions with Darren at RWI about performance (he was touting their capability based on their glass panel figures on DA). He had said they hovered at the factory at over 6000ft DA...I told him he had better do some real calculations as Stellar Airpark is lower than DVT which gets to 5000. Anyway, he must have, and they have now revised their brochure to show 6000 HIGE and 4000 HOGE @ gross vs 7000 and 5000 respectively. Much closer to truth, but I think still a stretch based on what I did at the Mesa! If they did, what they claim, it had to be on a fresh and carefully built engine and totally ideal conditions!

1/25/2011 Raymond Butler updates us on his engine progress:

Hello Orv and Andrew,
Thank you for including me on these updates! Although I have not done any detailed data collection yet on my engine, I can tell you that it is definitely outperforming the stock engine! I still have much more throttle left when I lift off into a hover than I ever did before. The engine runs much smoother and starts easier in my opinion. As you know, I have the EZ Start Clutch, which lets me start somewhat unloaded. I have made four each, 1.7 hour trips down to my cabin on Matagorda Bay and back to Friendswood in my ship so far, along with several shorter local trips.
I had an oil seep on the pilot's side head which may have been a loose valve cover. I tightened it up and the leak may have stopped. A little more time will tell. The leak may have also been similar to Mike Dole's report below of push rod tube gaskets leaking at the head? I have about 10 hours on my engine so far, and I could not be more pleased. Just the peace-of-mind of knowing that I have a reliably built engine keeping me airborne is worth the price!
The weather has been cool here, around 55 to 65 degrees F most of the time since I've been back in the air. As you know I am flying at altitudes of 500 to 1000 MSL down here on the Texas Gulf Coast. I am fairly sure that my engine is buring about 7 gph at 22 inches MP, which is exactly where my stock engine was....(but with much less power than the VPS engine is producing!).
Thanks for the Great Work!
Raymond