Oil issues

[Vitus]

I think I found the problem. Or better: I found a problem with the lubrication system.

The fix will be in 0.90 and hopefully resolve some related overheating issues of the engine as well. More testing is needed though.

[timmee62]

Great! Hope getting the feedback from us helped..

[mthrift]

Not to "pile on", but just to give a sense of how prevalent this might be, I also have the same issue with oil pressure.

Hasn't stopped me flying, though!


Michael

[Vitus]

Guys, I couldn't do any of this without your help! Please keep reporting anything you see not working, even if I don't respond for some days I make notes of everything you post!

If you're interested:
the issue seems to be that when any line of the lubrication system runs dry, the mass of the oil is "0". And zeros screw up formulas
That's part of the reason why I am calculating absolute pressures rather than relative pressures - I try to prevent zeros from happening.

[timmee62]

That makes sense now! I just watched Peter Matthess YouTube live stream of the Vega 5 and noticed he had the same oil issue during that flight, namely warning light on and pressure gauge very high. If I notice any other indicators during flights, I will post here.

[Vitus]

...Thinking about this, maybe a solution lies in switching to Kelvin rather than Celsius to perform all those temperature calculations, thus avoiding the "0" altogether....

[timmee62]

I guess it's always better to have a consistent form of measurement... Today I've been doing some circuits around LKHV where it's a warm day (18 deg c) and before the flight I refilled with SAE30 instead of just any oil (as I had done before reading properly which to use). No oil issues at all. Could using the wrong oil for the temp conditions outside be a factor?

[ricfishner]

Hi timmee62,
how did you switch / refill with a new oil grade. It seems I did the same, initially filling it up with just some oil without proper reading which one to use (apperently I have a winter oil now). As I'm currently flying in warmer conditions, I do think the SAE30 would be a far better match. But can't find an option to drain the oil, nor can I just refill with a new one, since my oil tank is still full. Do I need to delete the data.dat file?

[timmee62]

When I started my flight, I selected the Cold and Dark option from the sidebar menu. This seemed to empty the oil as it had been full on the previous flight and this had been a short flight. Not sure if it's meant to do this or not...

[ricfishner]

Hi timmee62,

thanks, I'll try that. As I always left the Vega all nice and tidy, with all systems shut down and asked Heinrich to install wheel chocks and ropes, I didn't use the Cold&Dark option recently.