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We got up early this morning and were airborne from Green Bay at 0730 on our way to Oshkosh. We really beat the rush, as it was very, very quiet on the Fisk arrival frequency. Normally, that frequency is a one way operation, with the controllers transmitting, and pilots responding by rocking the aircraft's wings to acknowledge the controller's instructions. But, this morning it was so quiet that the Fisk and tower controllers were asking questions that required a response, such as "where are you from?" and "beautiful RV-8 - did you build it yourself?"

We landed at 0805 and had a fairly long taxi to the Homebuilt Aircraft Camping area. After getting the aircraft tied down and the camp site set up, we had lunch then walked to the campground store to pick up essentials such as a styrofoam cooler and beer. We're in row 311, if anyone is looking for us.

This afternoon we spent hours sitting in our chairs out by the flight line watching the arrivals. Terry was fascinated by the variety of aircraft.

I've run into quite a few people that I had met before, or only knew from e-mail. I stumbled across Lower East Pubnico, NS RV-10 builder Ron B, who has a beautiful grass airstrip a few miles from where I grew up.

Monday morning we'll go to a gathering of RV-8 builders, and do some shopping for aircraft stuff.

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I flew to Green Bay, WI on Friday, with a stop to clear Customs and have lunch in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. A strong cold front had gone through the day before, and the head winds north of the front were very strong. I was fighting 30 kt for the first half the leg to Sault Ste. Marie, decreasing to about 20 kt for the last part of the trip. Even with that, it only took 2:50 to fly the 380 nm (437 sm or 704 km), for an average speed (including climb, manoevring on arrival, etc) of 134 kt (154 mph or 248 km/h). The winds were slightly better for the leg down to Green Bay, but not by much. It would have been a great day to be flying from Green Bay to Smiths Falls, as I could have done the trip non-stop in about 3:15, rather than the 4:23 (over two flights) it took going the other way.

Here is the load of camping gear, etc that I stuffed in the aircraft. I still have to get Terry's luggage in, as she flew down to Green Bay with the airlines a few days ahead of me to visit with her sisters. Hopefully she didn't do much shopping :)

 

I parked at Executive Air in Green Bay - I've used them every time I've flown to Green Bay, and have always received wonderful service. They go out of their way to take care of you.

 

This morning Terry and I zipped out the airport early, to get the aircraft ready to give rides to a long list of family members. Six short flights in all, and lots of time looking for people's houses. We found all the houses, but some of them took a bit of patience, as things look different from the air which meant I wasn't getting much navigational assistance from some of the house owners. It was pretty hot, so I was ready to stop after the sixth and final flight was finished.

This evening I'll review the arrival procedures in the Oshkosh NOTAM. We'll get up early Sunday morning and try to beat the rush into Oshkosh for the huge Experiment Aircraft Association Fly-In. We'll be parked in Homebuilt Camping if anyone is looking for us.

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We’re gradually getting ready for Oshkosh. Thursday evening I inspected all the camping gear, just in case something needed replacing or had gone missing. Everything looks ready to go.

We’ve sampled a bunch of Ontario craft beers, looking for the perfect offering to take to Chuck Swain’s beer coffin. We settled on Hoptical Illusion from the Flying Monkeys Brewery.

I had hoped to wax the aircraft this weekend, but I dropped that plan once I realized how hot it was forecast to be. Terry offered to help me, but I didn’t relish all that work in the predicted stifling temperatures and humidity. The aircraft actually looks pretty good after the wash I gave it last weekend, and that’ll have to do for now. I’ll try to wax it some time later this summer, and next spring I’ll do it again before things get too hot.

The tailwheel steering has been acting up quite a bit lately - it is very prone to disconnect from the rudder control and go into full swivel mode. It worked perfectly with the original double-sided control arm supplied by Van’s. I started having problems after I switched to the JD Air Parts tail link. I discovered manufacturing issues with their original control arm that probably explained why it wasn’t working very well. I reported the problems to them, they acknowledged other problem reports, and a manufacturing issue with the early control arms. They sent me a new arm, which looked somewhat better, and it worked well for a little while. But, it seems to need very frequent maintenance, so I need to find a better solution. I note that JD Air Parts has switched to a different design control arm from the one they originally sold me. I’m assuming they made this change because of issues with the original design. I’ll see what I can learn at Oshkosh.

This morning I disassembled the tailwheel lock/unlock mechanism, inspected and lubricated it and put it all back together. I couldn’t go flying to check it out, as the airfield was closed for the annual Ottawa Valley Radio Control Aircraft Fun Fly weekend. The Smiths Falls Flying Club, which runs the airport, makes quite a bit of money from this event, so they are willing to close the airfield for a weekend every summer. This year I helped out selling food for the morning. It gave me a chance to see what the model aircraft folks were up to, and I was quite amazed to see the huge variety of aircraft. There was everything from small aerobatic aircraft to large multi-engine aircraft to large jets. You can see some pictures from a previous event at this photo gallery.

I’ll go back to the airport very early tomorrow morning to do a test flight before the airport closes for day. If the tailwheel steering is still acting up I’ll switch from the single-sided control arm to a modification of the double-sided control arm that was originally used before I switched from chains and springs to the JD Air Parts tail link.

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There will be an informal meeting of RV-8 and 8A builders, flyers and wannabees at Oshkosh. The meeting will be at the Theatre in the Woods at 9 AM on Monday, July 25th. We’ll be easy to find - just look for a bunch of exceptionally handsome guys hanging around near the edge of the chairs, away from the stage.

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I had noted over a few recent cross country flights that the indicated airspeeds during cruise seemed to be a few knots slower than I had noted when doing cruise performance testing shortly after the aircraft came out of the paint shop. I attributed the observation to the effect of higher temperatures now, and higher weights with passenger. But, I was still curious, so on the last leg into Smiths Falls on the way back from Wisconsin I recorded one test point of cruise performance speed vs power data, and then reduced the data to standard conditions (sea level, 15 deg C temperature, 1800 lb gross weight) so I could compare it to the results from that earlier testing. I found that the current performance was 4 to 5 kt slower than the average of all the earlier testing. Hmm.

After landing, Terry helped me clean the bugs off the leading edges, cowling and windshield. I had been religiously cleaning off the bugs after every flight, as they come off easily when they are fresh, but stick like glue if you let them dry for a few days. But, I hadn’t ever cleaned any other parts of the aircraft, as they never looked dirty. But, Terry ran the cleaning cloth over the top of the wing, and she noted that the surface was a bit sticky and covered in fine grit. This was only on the upper surfaces, so it must be stuff that settled from the air. We wiped down the upper surfaces of the wings, tail, fuselage and cowling to remove the accumulated grit.

Friday afternoon I took a half day off and did a bunch of little maintenance, including leak checks of the pitot and static system - both were completely leak-free, which means that this wasn’t an explanation for the apparent low indicated airspeed.

Saturday I changed the oil and filter, but I had to go flying first to warm the oil up. Still puzzled by the low cruise speeds, I observed the manifold pressure during takeoff (it was exactly where it should be, which rules out a dirty air filter as a cause of low engine power). I recorded speed vs power at three different power settings, did two climb performance tests (rate of climb is good measure of power) and one test point of airspeed error. After landing I changed the oil and filter, checked the cylinder compression and checked the ignition timing. The compressions are slightly lower than I would hope, but they are well within the normal range. The electronic ignition timing was perfect, and the magneto timing was slightly off, which I corrected, but this would not have affected engine power as the electronic ignition would be firing well before the mag at typical cruise conditions.

I cut open the removed oil filter, and found nothing of concern inside. There were a very few extremely tiny specks of metal, but nothing like you would see if something was wearing quickly inside the engine (like a camshaft, which would explain low power).

Saturday evening I crunched all the data. One cruise test came in at 2.0 kt slower than the tests from last year, one was 0.4 kt faster and the last was 1.6 kt faster, for an average difference from last year of 0.0 kt (these test point to test point variations are in the scatter band from the previous testing). So, now the aircraft is just as fast as it was a year ago and the only thing I did was wash off the accumulated grit. That grit is powerful stuff! I obviously need to wash the aircraft more often. Sunday afternoon, after getting back from the Arnprior Fly-In Breakfast I did a complete aircraft wash.

I also compared the climb performance against earlier data. Once I accounted for the different weight and temperature the latest results match reasonably closely to the earlier results.

The airspeed error (+0.9 kt at 139 kt IAS) fits exactly on the line of the three other airspeed error tests I did in May 2010 after the aircraft was painted. It is interesting that this point confirms the earlier indications that the static system error was slightly affected by the thickness of the paint.

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Terry and I managed to juggle our schedules to get a few extra days off over the last weekend, and the weather forecasts were good, so we blasted off to Manitowoc, WI to visit one of her many sisters. We were airborne at 09:04 Friday morning, stopped in Sault Ste. Marie, MI for Customs and lunch and were on the ground in Manitowoc at 14:03. Sure beats a 16 hour drive, or spending most of the day with the airlines.

I did several flights over the weekend, taking various family members flying. We flew back home on Tuesday, airborne at 08:25 and on the ground in Smiths Falls at 13:58, with an hour stop for lunch in Port Huron, MI. This sure is a great way to travel.