Hi,

flew without the cowl today. It helped...but not with the dead sticks. The plane became tail heavier and hence easier to hover but more difficult in a straight line. However, it still cut... and in every flight. We used all the tricks. Ran it rich to the point it smoked very well while level..even dead sticked while at idle for too long. But it continued to cut-off in hover.

Devopam, I am not expert enough to hover indefinately. So I keep correcting with throttle, rudder and aileron all the time... the plane is never still. Thus the throttle keeps going back and forth as suggested by you out of reflex action. I dont have to think about it... happens automatically.

Another thing i noticed...without the cowl I could see the tank...It usually came back deadstick after 50% of the tank is used. The tank is centerline capped and every time after deadstick, the fuel level was just below this. I am going to configure a second 12OZ tank which has the cap more towards the top and try tomorrow.

FKY1000 has a point...I took off my baffle even before running in as it was fokelore at my field that the baffle reduced power ever so slightly. I notice now that the muffler back-pressure port is upstream of the baffle i.e. fitting back the baffle may increase the back-pressure to the tank. I am putting back the baffle right now and will only put in the new tank if the problem continues even tomorrow, thus changing one variable at a time.

For the record, I am still using the 13x6 prop as I couldnt get the 14x4 locally

Ameyam