Details
Hits: 2821
Saturday 07 Mar 2009
1.5 air time
1.6 flt time

Inter-flight activities:

  1. None.

Events:

  1. Fuel gauge calibration point - Prior to landing, in level flight, the R fuel gauge indicated 10 to 11 USG of fuel remaining. The landing was conducted on the L tank, so no fuel was used from the R tank after noting this gauge reading. When refueling prior to this flight, 48.57 l (12.83 USG) of fuel were required to fill the tank. Assuming the total tank capacity is 21.5 USG (as measured on the L tank), and assuming that the fuel pump quantity reading is accurate, the actual fuel remaining was about 8.7 USG.
  2. Level flight performance tests at 7500 ft at various conditions from 65 kt to max power. No EFIS data was available, so hand recorded data was taken. The initial impression is that speeds are slightly slower with the MT prop than they were with the Hartzell. Data analysis has not yet been conducted to confirm this suspicion.
  3. Trialed music input into the intercom, using an iPod and a connector cable. The intercom mutes the music if any signal is heard on the radio, and then ramps it back up a short time after radio reception ceases. Further testing is required to determine whether this function adversely affects the ability to identify radio transmissions that are directed at my call sign.
  4. Oil pressure check. The oil pressure is now about 81 to 82 psi if the oil temperature is around 185 deg F to 195 deg F. The oil pressure drops to 75 psi if the oil temperature rises to 200 deg F.
  5. Three touch and go landings, one with zero flap, using a 75 kt approach speed.

New Snags:

  1. Pitch trim speed of movement is very slow during a touch and go. Full nose up trim is used on approach, and the trim must be moved to about 3/4 nose down during the "go". The current trim speed is optimized for cruise conditions, when very small adjustments are needed. The trim speed should be increased to attempt to find an acceptable compromise. Alternatively, some other means to control trim speed should be found that provides fast trim movement at slow speed, and slow trim movement at high speed.

Existing Snags:

  1. RPM still low in level flight with max rpm selected. An e-mail was sent to Aero Technologies support asking for advice.
  2. EFIS does not power up. It is in a continual reboot cycle at about 1 Hz. Thus no EFIS data is recorded. The EFIS was removed to send back to Dynon.
  3. SD-8 Alternator does not seem to be working. Will defer troubleshooting until engine break-in is completed, as it would be useful to check for AC output from alternator during an engine ground run.
  4. Loud buzz at high speed from aft part of canopy skirt. Try some stick-on Velcro or felt.
  5. Turn needle in turn and bank not working. The OFF flag is removed when power is applied, so power is getting to the instrument.

Notes:

  1. The aircraft now has 25 hours of flight time. However, the 25 hour "clock" to release the aircraft from the flight test phase restarted when the engine was removed for inspection and new prop was installed. The aircraft has 7.6 hours of flight time since that event occurred.
  2. I was in Montreal all week, conducting avionics testing in a full flight training simulator. Unfortunately, the paying customers got the civilised slot times, so our testing was conducted in the late evening, and early morning. We would typically finish testing around 3 AM. I managed to claw my way back to a semi-normal body clock for the weekend, but will be doing several more days of testing with a similar horrible schedule starting Monday evening. Ugh.

Results of Data Review:

  1. The RPM during the initial take-off was about 2685 at the start of the take-off roll, decreasing to about 2675 by the time the aircraft lifted off. The oil temperature was about 145 deg F, with 95 psi oil pressure. I did three touch and go landings at the end of the flight, and the rpm on each of them was about 2600. The oil temperature was about 182 deg F, with 85 psi oil pressure. There certainly appears to be an effect of either oil temperature or oil pressure on the governed rpm.
  2. The manifold pressure prior to start was 29.8 in HG. The manifold pressure during the take-off roll was 30.0, which suggests that there is some pressure increase due to prop wash, and that this pressure increase is greater than the losses in the induction tract.

Details
Hits: 2601
Saturday 07 Mar 2009
2.6 air time
2.5 flt time

Inter-flight activities:

  1. The oil pressure adjuster was turned one turn clockwise.
  2. Two quarts of oil were added to bring the quantity up to about 9.5 USG.
  3. The wheel pants were installed.
  4. The forward baggage bay door was successfully opened using the original key, which was much thicker than the locally cut key I had been using. The door latching pins were lubricated with Boelube, on the advice of another builder who had suffered a similar key breakage (thanks Dan). Additional key blanks were roder
  5. The EFIS power on snag was troubleshot. I had hoped that the problem was caused by a high resistance in a power or ground line, which would limit the current that could be supplied. Or maybe a connector pin that was partially pushed out. However, all pins were found to be fully inserted. The resistance between the ground pin and ground was extremely low, as was the resistance between the power pin and the main bus. A temporary wire harness was fabricated to bypass the existing wiring, but the EFIS still showed the same 1 Hz power on cycling. The EFIS connector was removed, and this flight was flown with the EFIS unpowered.
  6. Additional weather stripping was installed at the lower left side of the canopy bow.
  7. Reviewed data recording of fuel pressure.

Events:

  1. Engine break-in. One hour at 75% power at 7500 ft, followed by one hour with power alternating between 65% and 75%. This was followed by 30 minutes at max power at 2500 ft.
  2. Air leak check. No air appears to leaking at the canopy bow.
  3. Oil pressure check. The oil pressure is now about 81 to 82 psi if the oil temperature is around 185 deg F to 195 deg F.
  4. Fuel pressure data recording check. The fuel pressure appears to be recorded correctly on EIS channel AUX3.

New Snags:

  1. None

Existing Snags:

  1. RPM still low in level flight with max rpm selected.
  2. EFIS does not power up. It is in a continual reboot cycle at about 1 Hz. Thus no EFIS data is recorded.
  3. SD-8 Alternator does not seem to be working. Will defer troubleshooting until engine break-in is completed, as it would be useful to check for AC output from alternator during an engine ground run.
  4. Loud buzz at high speed from aft part of canopy skirt. Try some stick-on Velcro or felt.
  5. Turn needle in turn and bank not working. The OFF flag is removed when power is applied, so power is getting to the instrument.

Details
Hits: 2637

Today was the 20th annual Ottawa River fly-in, organized by Maurice Prud’homme, who lives on the shore of the Ottawa River, NW of the city. Every winter he plows a runway on the ice, and he hosts a fly-in the last Saturday in February. I had heard of this fly-in, but have never gone. His strip is outside my 25 nm circle, so I couldn’t go this year. Hopefully I will make it in 2010.

Several local RVers did make it, and Andrew Phillips provided a write-up with photos on the VAF WWW Forums.

There is a long series of photos on Flickr from last years event. [Slideshow]

Details
Hits: 2212

I’m in the midst of a horrible travel phase of five weeks on the road out of seven weeks. I was in Germany last week, and will be in Montreal all next week, doing some avionics testing in the simulator, finishing at 5 AM most days. The paying customers get the civilised sim slots. So my only hope to do any flying for much of the next few weeks is on the weekends.

I headed out to the hangar mid-morning, intending to do a bit of maintenance, and then go flying. I pulled the cowling, screwed the oil pressure adjustment screw in one turn, and looked for oil leaks or other issues. Everything looked good, so I started to put the cowling back on. But, my master plan fell apart when I tried to open the forward baggage bay door, so I could push the upper right side of the firewall a bit forward, so that hinge pin would slip in place (that part of the firewall has no fore and aft support, so it tends to move around a bit, until it is held in place by the upper cowling). The door latching mechanism has always been a bit tight - I left it as it was, expecting that the holes in the latch blocks would wear a bit, loosening things up. Well, it was hard enough to turn that today I broke the key off in the lock. Drat.

I eventually managed to get the lock in the closed position again, and extracted the remains of the key. But, I needed to get that door open to reinstall the cowling, and to chase down a wiring snag behind the instrument panel, but my spare keys were at home. Blast. I gave up in disgust and went home. No flying today. Drat and double drat.

Looking at my collection of baggage bay door keys - I see that the original key blank is about 20% thicker than the blanks used to make my spare keys. It was one of the spare keys that I broke off today. I suspect I would not have broken off the original key. I went to Home Depot, to see if they had any thicker key blanks, but no luck. I’ll need to try a locksmith, or maybe order some key blanks from Aircraft Spruce.

Details
Hits: 2707
21 Feb 2009
1.0 air time
1.1 flt time

Inter-flight activities:

  1. Weather striping was added at the canopy bow, to attempt to seal air leaks.
  2. Unusable and usable fuel measurements for left tank. Tank had been run dry on the last flight. 0.2 lb (0.03 USG) of unusable fuel was drained from the tank. With the tank empty, 21.50 USG were later required to fill the tank, so the usable fuel for the left tank is 21.47 USG.
  3. Modified the data recording script to record both AUX2 and AUX3 from the EIS4000, in the hope that one of the them was the fuel pressure. But, neither value seems to match the displayed fuel pressure readings. More investigation is required. Need to dig into the EIS4000 wiring diagram, which unfortunately is at the hangar.
  4. Conducted new weight and balance. Weighed two configs, wheel pants OFF but gear leg fairings ON, and with gear leg fairings and wheel pants ON.
Gear leg fairingsONON
wheel pantsOFFON
Right wheel545548
Left wheel558561
Tail wheel5555
Total weight (lb)11581164
Arm (in)77.6277.58

This new weight is about 10 lb lighter than I expected. I'm sure the aircraft was in the correct configuration, as I inspected to confirm the ELT, fire extinguisher and first aid kit were installed. All seat cushions were installed. I installed the cockpit sidewall insulation. I confirmed the oil level was at 8 qts. I zeroed the scales, with the chocks already on them. I can only come to two conclusions - either the scales have a large sensitivity to temperature, or there was some extra weight hiding in the aircraft the first time. I'm baffled. I may weigh the aircraft again to try to resolve the questions.

Events:

  1. Engine break-in
  2. Two slow leaning events at 2400 rpm, 23.3" HG MP, 5500 ft (75% power). All cylinders reached peak EGT within about 0.2 to 0.4 USG/hr of each other. This wasn't quite as good as with the two leaning tests on the previous flight, which were conducted at full throttle. Perhaps the air distribution is better at full throttle than it is at partial throttle.
  3. Transponder check with Ottawa Terminal. Ottawa Terminal was contacted on 127.7, with the aircraft at 3500 ft overhead the town of Smiths Falls. Terminal did not see the transponder return until it was cycled OFF - ALT. Then they reported seeing the return, and provided a barometric altitude of 3400 ft. But, no "R" indications were seen on the GTX-327 display.

Snags:

  1. RPM still low in level flight with max rpm selected. I'll try increasing the oil pressure before the next flight, to see if that makes any difference.
  2. EFIS does not power up. It is in a continual reboot cycle at about 1 Hz. Thus no EFIS data is recorded.
  3. Minor air leaks at left side of canopy bow, just above bottom. Much better than on the last flight. Try adding some more stick-on foam there.
  4. Data system is not recording fuel pressure.
  5. Oil pressure a bit low. Around 70 psi in cruise once the oil is up to temperature.

Details
Hits: 2216
Monday 16 Feb 2009
1.5 air time
1.7 flt time

Events:

  1. Engine break-in
  2. Two slow leaning events at 2300 rpm, full throttle. Data review shows that all cylinders reach peak EGT within 0.1 to 0.2 USG/h fuel flow. This is about as perfect as could be hoped for.
  3. Ran left tank dry. The fuel pressure, with boost pump OFF, was 22 psi. As the tank ran dry, the pressure slowly decreased to 15 psi, then the engine began to run rough. The fuel selector was switched to the right tank, and the boost pump was selected ON. The engine recovered almost immediately.

Snags:

  1. RPM was 2660 during the take-off roll, but was lower at max rpm later in the flight, in the range of 2590 to 2610. Oil temperature was 120 deg F and oil pressure was 95 psi during the take-off roll. Later, with oil temperature of 184, and oil pressure of 82, the max rpm was 2610.
  2. EIS 4000 warning light was not working at the start of the flight, but started working part way through. Need to confirm connectors on the back of the EIS 4000 are secure. Also should check the connector behind the annunciator light group.
  3. SD-8 Alternator does not seem to be working. Will defer troubleshooting until engine break-in is completed, as it would be useful to check for AC output from alternator during an engine ground run.
  4. EFIS does not power up. It is in a continual reboot cycle at about 1 Hz. Thus no EFIS data is recorded.
  5. Air leaks at canopy bow. Try adding some stick-on foam there.
  6. Loud buzz at high speed from aft part of canopy skirt. Try some stick-on Velcro or felt.
  7. Data system is not recording fuel pressure. Need to confirm whether fuel pressure is on Aux 2 or Aux 3. Both have been enabled for now.
  8. Turn needle in turn and bank not working. The OFF flag is removed when power is applied, so power is getting to the instrument.