September 2020

You’ve probably seen enough photos of the inside of our new shop by now to find your way around within its walls blindfolded! 

SO – we’re happy to expand your horizons a bit by sharing a video of our recent trial fit-up of a newly produced (prototype version) LEES as installed on an O-470 powered Cessna 180. It’s short and it’s rough (Power Flow’s President, Darren Tilman, excels at many things but videography is not among them!) but it DOES document some solid, encouraging, progress:

As we continue down the home stretch towards full production we look forward to documenting and sharing our progress with you via additional and slightly better produced, videos to come.

We continue to work with the FAA towards getting our PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approval) for the PMCF system and have a large package of revised / updated drawings working their way through the process aiming for an October approval.

Calling All Opinionated Pilots:

(Is There Any Other Kind?)

As we discussed last month, we are making steady and accelerating progress towards our goal of resuming full production of the LEES products.

Since we dyno’d our first Tuned Exhaust design way back in 1999 (and measured a 22+ HP gain on an O-320 rated at 160HP), Power Flow has been focused on providing measurable, repeatable, performance gains to our Customers and fellow pilots.

We aim to continue that philosophy with the new LEES designs and so one of the fast approaching tasks on our “punch list” is to conduct a series of carefully planned and stringently flown “before & after” flight tests on aircraft equipped with these promising designs as produced by Power Flow.

This is where you can help: We’d like to make the results of these test flights as meaningful and relevant to our Customers and depositors as possible. So – please respond by clicking on the link below and let us know the performance parameters that you would most like to see us measure, verify, and document over the course of these upcoming test flights:

[Click here to take the Survey]

or go to: https://forms.gle/6Ubzj7pCu8p5SJpH9

We typically conduct a series of three “before” and three “after” flights with each representative airframe / engine combination. We schedule the flights to occur under atmospheric conditions that are as nearly identical as possible. Here in Florida, where the air is fairly stable (unless there’s a hurricane lurking nearby!), that usually means that the flights are flown at the same time in the morning (before convection gets the air roiling) on two successive days.

We are also very careful to ensure that we are in “stable flight”, allowing the aircraft to settle-in for at least four minutes after altitude, power, or heading changes prior to recording any performance numbers.

Although very time and effort intensive, this process has proven to be remarkably accurate and prescient in determining the actual performance gains experienced by thousands of Customers flying Power Flow (and, soon, Leading Edge) equipped aircraft worldwide.

If you’d like to be part of the process this time around, just point & click on the link above!

Pre-Production Program A Pronounced Success:

We are pleased that so many of you were able to take advantage of the pre-production offer that ended last month. A net total of 65 Customers took advantage by placing their orders before the August 31 deadline.

We wound up with confirmed orders for: 20 systems for the C-182 airframe, 12 systems each for the C-185 & C-180 aiframes, 16 systems for the C-205 through C-210 series airframes, 4 systems for the PA18 airframe, & 1 system for the PA12.

Not surprisingly, this also gives a pretty good idea of how we plan to prioritize our production and delivery efforts. 

For those who placed their deposits: please know that your special introductory price AND your spot in the delivery queue are assured. We have had quite a few interesting and enticing offers from depositors seeking to improve their delivery positions. Out of respect for all who have entrusted us with their hard-earned deposit dollars, though, this is something that we will not do.

For those who are still “on the fence” we are, of course, still accepting orders at the current retail prices shown below:

An initial deposit of $750.00 will confirm a new order and reserve a place in the production queue on a first-come / first served basis. Once we have the new production line up & running we will assign a firm ship date for each order on-hand. We will also ask for an additional deposit of $750.00 at that time.

The remaining balance will be due one day before your system is shipped, which (for Cessna airframes) we anticipate will be sometime during the second quarter of 2021. New orders for Piper systems will, in all likelihood, not ship until the third or fourth quarter of 2021.

We will, however, make every effort to work through our existing backlog as efficiently and expeditiously as possible. We will also make sure to keep you posted on our progress with these monthly newsletters.

In the meantime:

Stay Safe / Stay Healthy / & -

All The Best!

View the original newsletter here.