Odyssey Battery-Jerry Springer

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I've used an Odyssey PC 925 in my RV-4 for 1 1/2 years and it sits on
its SIDE, in the same place the worthless Gel-Cel fit,and cranks with
seemingly no end. It survived me learning hot-starts last summer just
fine.
NO MORE Gel-Cels for me !! I put the one from the RV-4 in my antique
Farmall runway mower. Most expensive mower battery in the
neighborhood!

Bob Olds RV-4 , N1191X
Charleston,Arkansas



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Alright. I agree. There is nothing like a fine quality piece of
equipment that you can rely upon.

I had a 35 Amp-hr Gel-cell in my RV-6. It was expensive, it weighed a
lot and it crapped out on me when it got cold. I have no idea why Van
recommends it. I still have access to that airplane and I flew it
this last weekend. I was in Utah this morning at 37 degrees F and
worried as hell about it cranking. But, after I put the Lightspeed
ignition system in that thing and went to a mult-vis oil for the cold,
it cranks fine.

An old timer told me how to start that thing about three years ago.
His name is Paul Muskat and he's an old examiner who retired many
years ago, plus he's an A & P. He passed this on to me and I swear to
God it's the answer to the starting problems I had on the RV-6. In
fact I'm not so sure I needed to buy and instal that Lightspeed
ignition after I changed the way I started--due to Paul. Here's what
he said:

Prime this thing with about 4 pumps of the prime plunger. Of course
wait until it stops wheezing each time so you know you are getting a
good shot of fuel.

MAKE SURE YOUR MAG SWITCHES ARE OFF.

Go around and pull that O-320 through all four cylinders

Then get in and crank it.

I did that this morning and it hit on the first cylinder. Of course
Claus's plasma ignition system is about like starting an electric
motor. If you do the ABOVE, then crack the throttle and hit the
starter, with the retardation and advancement of timing that the
Lightspeed ignition gives you, the prop just starts turning, you drop
out the starter and it continues to turn like an electric motor. I've
never seen anything like it in a Lycoming.

What a NOVEL idea, change the timing as needed just like you do in a
car. How innovative. How modern. Christ, sometimes I think we are
in the stone age with Lycoming and Continental. They should have done
this years ago. It works great guys. Hell, 4 D-Cell batteries would
start that RV-6 now.

BWB

I was aware of that battery also Bob but the other guy posting here does
not have a clue what he is talking about. They ARE NOT the same battery.
The Odyssey is a dry cell battery and the Panasonic is a lead acid
battery. For the purpose that BWB is using his the Panasonic would never
stand up to the charge/discharge he is doing. I did a lot of research
before buying the Odyssey battery. I Also looked at the LC-X1220 from
Digikey. Not bursting any bubbles here maybe if would do some more
research his bubble may burst. The guys using the Panasonic in their RVs
are finding that the cranking power gets weaker rapidly while the
Odyssey keeps right on ticken. I have the spec sheets for both batteries.
Jerry


What Odysey do you use in your RV-6 Jerry? Which one?

Bill

Badwater Bill wrote:
I was aware of that battery also Bob but the other guy posting here does
not have a clue what he is talking about. They ARE NOT the same battery.
The Odyssey is a dry cell battery and the Panasonic is a lead acid
battery. For the purpose that BWB is using his the Panasonic would never
stand up to the charge/discharge he is doing. I did a lot of research
before buying the Odyssey battery. I Also looked at the LC-X1220 from
Digikey. Not bursting any bubbles here maybe if would do some more
research his bubble may burst. The guys using the Panasonic in their RVs
are finding that the cranking power gets weaker rapidly while the
Odyssey keeps right on ticken. I have the spec sheets for both batteries.
Jerry



What Odysey do you use in your RV-6 Jerry? Which one?

Bill

Odyssey 680

Jerry

An old timer told me how to start that thing about three years ago.
His name is Paul Muskat and he's an old examiner who retired many
years ago, plus he's an A & P. He passed this on to me and I swear to
God it's the answer to the starting problems I had on the RV-6. In
fact I'm not so sure I needed to buy and instal that Lightspeed
ignition after I changed the way I started--due to Paul. Here's what
he said:

Lightspeed ignition, NOT required, *IF* you follow the steps
that were recommended to you below.

Prime this thing with about 4 pumps of the prime plunger. Of course
wait until it stops wheezing each time so you know you are getting a
good shot of fuel.

MAKE SURE YOUR MAG SWITCHES ARE OFF.

Yep - absolutely key part of the process.

Go around and pull that O-320 through all four cylinders

Not necessary, *IF* you can crank with... MAGS OFF.

Then get in and crank it.

I did that this morning and it hit on the first cylinder.

BWB

Yep.
What was happening...
you were *FROSTING* the sparkplugs.

Once ICED...
Ya either wait for the ice to melt or remove it.

If you don't believe it....
pull a plug when the engine absolutely won't start.
Check for ICE shorting across the electrodes!
It will be there in mass quantities !!!!!!

I learned this the hard way, as a 16 year old teenager.
I had a car that would not start below 32 degrees.
Ditto for a Cessna 175.
Above 32, both would always start on the first lick.

Below 32 degrees...
Both engines required FUEL to be in the cylinders BEFORE
turning on the ignition or the hot spark would cause ICE
to form across the sparkplug electrodes.

In SOME, but not all engines...
The hot spark causes the cold moist air WITHOUT FUEL
in the cylinder to CONDENSE across the electrodes as
ice... if it's 32 or colder. Once shorted in this manner,
your screwed until it warms up or you remove the ice.

Trust me on this one. g


Barnyard BOb -- believe it or not

Badwater Bill wrote:

That's an interesting application. The 680 is only 15 pounds and it's
small in volume, that's why I like it. I got a hold of a couple 35
Amp-hr Gel Cell batteries today from a buddy (brand new out of the box
and he just gave them to me since his application disappeared). I'm
going to make an APU out of them and use them to hook up in parallel
during my starts. That way I'll have plenty for the flying day.

My real problem here, and I haven't talked about it, is that my blades
aren't tracked properly. I've painted one tip red and one black. You
can't track them without flying the damn thing. In flight, you look
at the tips and see what blade is above the other. Then you land and
reduce AOA on the high blade, spool up again and go for another try.
It's an empirical thing until you get it dialed in. The problem with
a Walmart motorcycle battery is that I get about three starts from it
with a 30 minute charging time between each start and the battery is
toast since it deep cycles to full discharge. That battery is simply
not designed for what I need to do.

Ah, now things are clearer. Why not setup your electrical system so that you carry one gel cell battery (no
Odessey at this point) in a quick-change manner? Leave the other gel cells (how many did you get from your
friend?) on the ground on a fast charger. On each landing, swap the gel cell with the most charged one on
the ground. When you've finally got the blade tracking problem solved, go back and install the Odessy 680
as your permanent lightweight battery.

Russell Kent

Ah, now things are clearer. Why not setup your electrical system so that you carry one gel cell battery (no
Odessey at this point) in a quick-change manner? Leave the other gel cells (how many did you get from your
friend?) on the ground on a fast charger. On each landing, swap the gel cell with the most charged one on
the ground. When you've finally got the blade tracking problem solved, go back and install the Odessy 680
as your permanent lightweight battery.

Russell Kent


I don't need to switch out a gel cell each time. I can do exactly
what you indicate here by simply hooking up to the APU each time and
leaving it on the fast charger. Then I don't have to carry the weight
along with my big gut each time.

BWB

wrote in message ...
In article , Barnyard
BOb -- says...
but, who am I to bust anyone's bubble? g

I've got a whole pre-rotator solution that costs less than $50,
weighs about 3
pounds, spins up the blades 3 times on a charge, easily recharges
in flight and
lets you keep an extra battery in your flight suit pocket.


Just why you would want to keep you hands in your pockets, beats
me.:-)
--

..
--
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe
modelflyer at antispam dot net

Antispam trap in place



If Bill apologizes to Sydney, I might tell him what it is.

What Odysey do you use in your RV-6 Jerry? Which one?

Bill

Odyssey 680

Jerry

I'll be damned. That little baby does it eh? Amazing.

Bill

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 03:21:18 -0500, Barnyard BOb --
wrote:



An old timer told me how to start that thing about three years ago.
His name is Paul Muskat and he's an old examiner who retired many
years ago, plus he's an A & P. He passed this on to me and I swear to
God it's the answer to the starting problems I had on the RV-6. In
fact I'm not so sure I needed to buy and instal that Lightspeed
ignition after I changed the way I started--due to Paul. Here's what
he said:

Lightspeed ignition, NOT required, *IF* you follow the steps
that were recommended to you below.

I know that now and agree. I jumped the gun on that one. I should
have known how to start that engine without spending a grand on that
fancy ignition. But I didn't.


Yep.
What was happening...
you were *FROSTING* the sparkplugs.

Once ICED...
Ya either wait for the ice to melt or remove it.

If you don't believe it....
pull a plug when the engine absolutely won't start.
Check for ICE shorting across the electrodes!
It will be there in mass quantities !!!!!!

Interesting. I don't quite see the physics of that. Must have
something to do with the adiabatic expansion of air in the cylinder
causing the temp to drop way down.


I learned this the hard way, as a 16 year old teenager.
I had a car that would not start below 32 degrees.
Ditto for a Cessna 175.
Above 32, both would always start on the first lick.

Below 32 degrees...
Both engines required FUEL to be in the cylinders BEFORE
turning on the ignition or the hot spark would cause ICE
to form across the sparkplug electrodes.

What's the difference between pulling it through by hand or cranking
it? The same thing is happening except that you don't get a spark?


In SOME, but not all engines...
The hot spark causes the cold moist air WITHOUT FUEL
in the cylinder to CONDENSE across the electrodes as
ice... if it's 32 or colder.

Why? How?

Once shorted in this manner,
your screwed until it warms up or you remove the ice.

Trust me on this one. g

Nature is amazing in it's own right. Being a physicist I know that
the truth is much stranger than fiction, but I don't see this one for
some reason. I'm not saying I don't believe it. I'm just saying I
can't see the mechanism.

Bill


Barnyard BOb -- believe it or not

What Odysey do you use in your RV-6 Jerry? Which one?

Bill

Odyssey 680

Jerry

I'll be damned. That little baby does it eh? Amazing.

Bill
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sales tax on your battery could
just about pay for half of mine.

My 0-320 has been cranking reliably with
an $18 Wal-Mart garden tractor battery...
down to 20 degrees in western Missouri.

Hope I'm NOT damned.


Barnyard BOb --