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I arrived at the hangar this morning at 0730, and got right at removing the prop. I couldn’t borrow the engine hoist I had used for this task in the past, so instead I supported the sling from one of the rafters in the hangar. Once the prop was off, I found that the 7355 V-belt was a very, very tight fit to get over the pulleys. I cheated and removed the flywheel, which allowed me to get the belt over both pulleys, and then I slipped the flywheel back in place.

 

I also secured a second belt over the crankshaft, using two Adel clamps to ensure that it could not touch the flywheel. This will allow me to replace a broken belt in the future without removing the prop, but I will almost certainly have to remove the alternator pivot bolt to allow enough alternator movement to get the belt over the pulley, as I won’t be able to remove the flywheel if I haven’t removed the prop.

 

I put a heat shield between the exhaust system and the throttle cable.

 

All that took until lunch time. After lunch I put the plenum chamber cover back on, then attacked the cowling. I put some UMHW rub strips on the areas where the cowling showed signs of rubbing on the plenum chamber screws or oil cooler mount.

I had a very tough time getting the cowl hinge pins in place. Somehow I had bent one of the hinge eyes, and it took a lot of work to get it properly straightened. I am going to have to focus some attention on this aspect of the cowling, as I can’t afford to spend over an hour each time I want to put the cowling back on.

I then flew a 25 minute flight, pretty much a carbon copy of the first flight. After landing I pulled the cowlings again, and confirmed that the alternator pulley had not touched it, and the throttle cable seemed no more damaged than before. I will order a new throttle cable, and replace it at the first convenient opportunity, to avoid the risk of a problem in the future.

I recorded data from the engine monitor, EFIS and GNS430 (I tried to do that on the first flight, but I screwed it up). I confirmed the data is good, but for some reason the program I wrote to automatically create plots of the data isn’t working. Something has changed since I last tested this program two years ago, and I need to spend some time figuring it out. I’ll look at this in my spare time when I am on the road over the next month.

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Well, today didn't turn out as I had hoped.

I went to the hangar mid-day, to pull the cowlings and do a good inspection ahead of the firewall before going flying to do some more engine break-in. But, I discovered two significant issues that needed dealing with ASAP, and another issue that will need correcting eventually.

  1. The alternator pulley had been touching the lower cowling, and put a pretty good gouge into it.

  2. The throttle cable showed signs of heat stress where it passed close to the exhaust system. I had thought that there was enough clearance, but obviously not.

  3. There were signs of a bit of rubbing on the upper cowl from part of the oil cooler mount. Also, four of the screw heads that hold the plenum chamber cover on showed signs of rubbing on the cowling - three of these were very minor rubs, but one was more significant.

When I first saw the gouge in the cowling from the alternator pulley I was pretty bummed out. But, I quickly recognized that I had expected there to be some issues that needed fixing, and moping around wasn't going to help me get them fixed. All the issues are resolvable - it will just take a bit of time and effort. Once I snapped out of my funk, I put together a plan of action, and started to implement it.

I did a lot of running around this afternoon, but eventually found two Gates 7355 alternator belts 7/8" shorter than the Gates 7365 I have, which will move the pulley 7/16" closer to the engine. It'll be a bit of a bear to get the shorter belt onto the pulleys, but I found one posting from a builder with the same alternator who said he was able to do it.

Tomorrow, I'll pull the prop and change the alternator belt. I'll put a piece of tape over the gouge in the cowl to act as a witness for future clearance issues. If I still have a clearance problem with the 7355 belt, I'll have to fabricate some sort of pad on an arm to prevent the lower cowl from being pushed closer to the engine by the ram air pressure. Once I am sure the clearance problem is resolved, I'll fill in the gouge.

I'll put a heat shield on the exhaust where the throttle cable passes by. That'll be a quick, easy fix.

As for the oil cooler mount, today I removed a bit of metal from the mount in the affected area. I'll put a piece of UHMW tape on the cowling, and see how it does. I can remove more metal if needed. As for the screws that touched, eventually I'll replace those four with flush head screws. For now, I'll remove those screws, as there should be enough other ones to hold the cover in place. I'll put some UHMW tape on the cowling to act as a rub guard. In the end, it may be necessary to rework the contours of the plenum chamber cover to move the outer edges closer to the engine. This would be a big job, so I am hoping to avoid it, if possible.

I'll do another 20 minute flight to see how things are doing. Maybe late tomorrow, or maybe some other day if the work takes too long.

Originally, I had planned to fly for an hour on the first flight, in order to minimize the low power running time. But, Ron MacEwen, the local Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and EAA Flight Advisor suggested that it would be better to only fly for 20 minutes or so, and then do a big firewall forward inspection before flying again. I am very glad I took his advice - I believe that the alternator pulley would have completely worn through the lower cowling if I had flown for an hour, which would have necessitated a lot of fibreglas work to fix. As it is, I only need to mix some resin and fibre to fill the gouge - that'll be a quick fix, and it can wait for a few flights.

Moral of the story - keep those first flights short, to minimize the risk of undetected small problems quickly becoming big problems. A lot can happen in the course of an hour.

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Well, its been ten years, 10 months, and a few days. But at 1600 this afternoon RV-8 #80427 finally got airborne. I circled overhead CYSH at 2500 ft at high power for about 15 minutes, being sure to keep well within gliding distance, just in case. I then pulled up to 5000 ft to do a simulated approach and flare. Then I brought the power back up and pulled some g to descend on the north side, crossed over to a very tight downwind and final and landed. It wasn't the best landing I ever did (I had a small bounce), but it was the most satisfying.The aircraft has no major snags. There is a bit of left wing heaviness, and the front cockpit heat seemed to be pumping out hot air even though the control was OFF. I'll pull the cowlings tomorrow to give a good look at everything ahead of the firewall, sort out the cockpit heat, then if everything is OK, and the weather is suitable, do another hour circling overhead doing engine break-in.

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My Special C of A finally arrived, so the first flight will happen as soon as I am in town with free time and good weather. I'm on the road now, but hope to arrive home Thursday evening. I go back on the road again on Wednesday, September 3rd, and will be traveling continuously until October. I hope to get airborne in the window between this trip and the next one.

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I had a very busy week - went to Toronto early Monday morning for two days of meetings. Tuesday night I flew to Brazil, arriving Wednesday morning, and went straight to Embraer for meetings. Thursday I did an ERJ175 autoland flight test, more meetings on Friday, then flew home Friday night, arriving Saturday morning. Tired. Very tired.

This afternoon I went to the hangar, and installed the forward and aft baggage compartment floors, the spinner and cowling. All I need to do before I fly is put some more fuel in the tanks. I have no idea when the paperwork will arrive. If it comes on Monday, maybe I’ll get the first flight off Monday evening. Otherwise I’ll be heading on the road again Tuesday morning, coming home late in the week.

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This next week is going to be brutal. Early Monday morning I will head to Toronto for two days of meetings. Tuesday evening, I’ll catch an overnight flight to Brazil, arriving mid-day on Wednesday. I’ll head straight from the airport to Embraer’s factory, to have meetings. Thursday will be ERJ-175 autoland flight testing. More meetings on Friday, then an overnight flight back to Canada, arriving in Ottawa sometime Saturday morning. Ugh.