I’m afraid I haven’t been very good at updating my blog now that I’m flying. Phase I flight testing was completed on Thanksgiving Day, 2012. I just needed 0.2hrs to complete it, so I went up around the pattern a few times just to dot I the and cross the T. The next day, I […]
Finishing Phase I flight testing
I was out this morning and put in an hour. That makes it 38.2hr in Phase I, so a couple more hours and I’m free from my box. Everything has been going well. The only minor issue I was battling over the last couple weeks is the camber of the pilot-side main gear wheel. After […]
20th test flight
We’ll I’m just over 20hrs now, half way. I have most of the major issues taken care off. The engine is running cool, no oil leaks, oil vent ported to exhaust. This flight I took off the sparrow strainer and trim at high speed was much better. Before, at 160kts, I ran out of trim […]
13th test flight
In attempt to correct high CHT in #3 cylinder, I went at the cooling plenum again. This time, opening up the area fore of cylinder 3 trying to make the turn down from the runner from the NACA to cylinder #3 a little more gradual. Before going at it, the plenum was up tight along […]
$300 video
Wouldn’t it be cool, I thought, to mount the GoPro camera on the nose gear. That way, it would retract and deploy with the gear…great idea, right? Unfortunately, it seems the GoPro camera case wasn’t designed for the impact of nose touchdown. You’ll see on one of the videos of a touch-and-go, that the camera […]
8/9/10th test flights
On the 7th flight, I continued to see high CHT’s this time #2, so I thought I might have a fuel distribution problem. I took all the injectors out and cleaned them, then switched them around until I measured equal fuel flow thru all cylinders (injectors out of the cylinders and attached to the lines […]
7th test flight
With a better roll trim and improved engine cooling plenums to provide better airflow to cylinders 3/4, I took her for another flight. There were broken clouds down to ~4000′, so I climbed up to 10,000′ to get on top. First off, I noticed the improved roll trim out of the gate. I could now […]
6th test flight
In attempt to figure out the plane’s left roll tendency, I picked up a digital level at Harbor Freight this morning, leveled the plane and started comparing angles between the wings. No matter where I measured, they were very close, within 0.3deg. I put the level parallel to the longitudinal axis of the plane and […]
5th test flight
Today I spent the morning taking care of a list of squawks. First, I found an oil leak in the engine. One of the cylinder drain tubes was leaking from where it joins to the cylinder. I took off the tube and discovered that it was cracking right at the base of the flare for the […]
4th test flight
On the third test flight, once I climbed to 5000′ and brought it up to speed, I noticed a definite roll tendency. To see if I could correct this, I drooped the ailerons so their trailing edges were 1/8″ below the wing at rest/level. During this test flight, tho, it still wanted to roll left […]