Details
Hits: 4168

It's been a busy week - too many other distractions to make much progress on the project. I did a few rounds of fill, sand and prime on various fibreglas parts, but not much changed in the big picture.

I did receive some used Vivisun annunciator lights from another builder - he had the legends redone. They are a huge improvement over the big round LEDs I currently have installed. They look much more "professional", as they are similar to the lights used in corporate and airline aircraft. The Vivisun lights work off 28 volts, so I'll need to make a 14v to 28v DC converter. I'll stick with the current setup to get flying sooner, but I'll order a new panel blank later and redo my panel after I get flying to sort out the lights and remove the removable portion that was intended for electric gyros.

Saturday I used two 6v lantern batteries and my 12v battery to test the lights in bright sunlight. They work very well - they are quite visible with sunlight directly shining on them, and also if the viewer is looking into the sun.

The "MSTR WARN" light will be connected to the EIS 4000. The other lights have a dark face if they are unlit.

Details
Hits: 2997

It seems that some Dynon EFIS users have had problems with momentary attitude display anomalies, that are possibly related to vibration from the engine. The problem is present at some specific engine rpms, but not others. Dynon is taking the problem seriously, and are working hard to find and fix it.

The following message was posted on the RV-List:

============== Start of RV-List Message ===================

Subject: RV-List: Dynon D-10 errorsDate: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 20:26:04 -0400From: "Stewart, Michael (ISS Atlanta)" To: --> RV-List message posted by: "Stewart, Michael (ISS Atlanta)" I want to thank those who have inquired as to the errors I have beengetting on the Dynon based on some Findings From Dan Checkoway's post onhis website here:http://www.rvproject.com/20040901.html Dan has done an excellent  goodjob summarizing the issue there. I suggest you read that first.To summarize, myself and others, have been getting errors on the horizonfunction of the Dynon EFIS. In one case it really scared me and as aresult I have grounded me 6A from any IFR work. Most of the errors are alean in the roll axis by as much as 7-10 degrees. Pitch errors in mycase have been as much as 20 degrees. Here is a brief synopsis of whatand how it is happening based on some e-mail to Dynon:I flew 6 hours today and worked the Dynon hard. I can now easilyreproduce the lean.I started after departure at 2500rm and went to 1900rmp 10rpm at a timewith 1 minute intervals, and back to 2700rpmAt 2560, the leaning happens, it slowly oscillates from right to left,and back again. I can come off it by 15rmp on either side and it resumesaccurate operation.I can give you further details but I now can quickly reproduce it, and Itook some shots of how bad it is out on the lean. You will notice thaton one shot, the bank indicator on the right shows wings completelylevel, autopilot on, and it was silky smooth air.Also I have seen it at other RPMs today. I saw it in formation at 2480but could not troubleshoot as we were practicing.I was able to see the pitch out during this activity, but not by much. 2degrees maybe, but it was out and I could watch it happen with theleaning at the same rpm, although the pitch was not as reproducible asthe roll problem.took off from home base, early turn out, climb in smooth morning air to3500'agl level off and the d10 compass heading was swinging a d10 beingerratic on the screen. That caught my eye. At the same time, d10 showedme in a 20 degree climb and I was level. In about 6 seconds the compassstabilized, and in about 20 seconds the pitch stabilized to level.Next on a different day, I saw another example of the leans in rollinformation by about 4 degrees. A very pronounced lean showing a righthand turn 4 degrees or so, autopilot flying the plane straight andlevel, compass on the d10 holding steady. It would eventually, after 1minute or so get level, then lean again. This went on for about 6minutes. Then fine. I have seen this behavior in the unit a dozen timesover the 700 hours of flight with it.In another case, the one that really scared me, I came out of 15,000' ona long hard decent to 1000'AGL and leveled off in MVFR vis 2, mist, andthe dynon showed I was in a steady climb of 20 degrees. I was clearlylevel cross checking other instruments and was low. After a min or so itcleared up and resumed normal operation. This is the largest deviationin pitch I have seen. I took a big deep breath and thanked god I was notIMC. If I were, I may not have caught the pitch error and might have putthe nose into the ground. Needless to say, no more IFR till it isresolved.So the above e-mail excerpts will give you and idea of the issue. LikeDan stated on his webpage, I have been in contact with Dynon and theyare taking this very seriously. I have been impressed with theirresponsiveness and professionalism. Clearly this is serious and Dynonsays "this is the most important item on their plate." Now, we have notfound a fix yet. I seem to be the only guy who can easily reproduce theproblem, but I would bet, as I did with the EMI item, that this is afleet wide problem. Dynon says I have the most hours on their unit inthe field. Perhaps that explains some of why I have been able to get toa reproducible stage. They are working hard and I am confident they willget to the bottom of it. They have offered to refund my money. I haven'ttaken it yet as I want to help them work out the problem. This is aterrific unit and I am confident they will nail it down. Until then,remember this is an experimental device and should be treated as such.If you have one of these in your plane, keep this in mind as you fly.Picture of a lean here: Notice bottom right Trio Autopilot shows wingslevel, as they were.http://www.mstewart.net/deletesoon/dynonlean.jpgRegards,Mike Stewart

============== End of RV-List Message ===================

I've always considered the Dynon EFIS as a big experiment, and nothing has happened to change that viewpoint. I'm encouraged by Dynon's willingness to admit problems, and to work hard to fix them. I have every reason to believe they will fix this one. I am thinking very seriously at having an independent attitude source though, just in case. I just need to do a bunch more overtime to pay for it.

Details
Hits: 4106

I'm making good progress on the fibreglas, but there is still a depressing great deal of more to do on it.

All the empennage tips are done now, plus the empennage fairing. The upper and lower cowling are looking quite good, but there is still some work to do in the cooling air inlets to smooth out some rough spots. The second attempt at finishing the canopy skirt is looking much better than the first go, but there is still a lot to do there. Yesterday I started on the spinner and gear leg fairings, and today I put two coats of West Systems epoxy to seal the filler on the wing tips and wheel pants. I also put a layer of deck cloth over the Tinnerman washers that I had inserted in the wheel pants, as I was afraid that they would eventually come loose.

While working on the Engine Information System section of the POH, I realized that I should modify the format of one of the EIS pages. So today I dug back into the documentation to relearn how to configure the page formats. I updated the page format, and carefully recorded all the configuration and limits settings, so I have a good baseine.

Back to work tomorrow :(

Details
Hits: 1480

I've long wanted a smoke system for the RV-8, and I've actually reserved the gun-trigger switch on the stick grip for it. But I wasn't looking forward to sorting out the design and debugging it. Plus I've read many comments about how much of a mess the smoke oil is to deal with.

This morning I read a message on the RV-List from an RV-6 flyer who had recently installed a smoke system. He raved about the ease of installation and good design of a ready-made smoke system from Smoking Airplanes.

RV-List message:

From: "Stein Bruch" To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: RE: RV-List: smoke systemDate: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 21:15:21 -0500--> RV-List message posted by: "Stein Bruch" Funny you should ask....I just installed the system fromhttp://www.smokingairplanes.com.  I've been happily leaving long trails overthe past couple of weeks!  I'll have pictures on my website soon.The kit is THE most complete kit that I've ever seen, from anyone.  Comeswith every little piece of hardware you can imagine, right down to Zip Ties,Hose Clamps, Electrical terminals and wire.The neat thing is that it comes with an adjustable valve where you can turnthe smoke down from "full bore" to zero, which makes the oil last longer.Took me a whopping 2 hours to install the entire system!  John, the guy whoruns that company will happily answer any questions you have, and is a realnice guy.  Tell him I sent you!Just my 2 cents!  I'll hopefully have pictures soon.Cheers,Stein BruchRV6's, Minneapolis.

And they even have a version that will install in the RV-8 forward baggage compartment, although I'm not sure I have enough room to work around the piece of SCAT tube that carries heated air. I'll probably purchase this kit someday.

Details
Hits: 30267

I've been working the Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) for about a year. I used one of the available POHs as a starting point, and copied most of the format from the typical Cessna POH. I originally was using OpenOffice (an open-source office suite - sort of a MS Office clone), as the POH I used as a starting point was in MS Word format, but I don't own Word at home. I wanted a freely available word processor that could open Word documents, and was available on both Mac OS X (home computer) and Windows (work laptop, which goes with me when I travel). It worked well enough, but I was having trouble getting it to put the diagrams where I wanted.

So I looked around some more, and decided to try LaTeX. LaTeX is a set of programs that is commonly used in the academic community to produce technical documents, papers, text books, etc. It produces great output, and is perfectly suited to a POH, but there is a fairly steep learning curve. The software is freely available, but it is almost essential to purchase some reference books. I ended up with "LaTeX: A Document Preparation System", Leslie Lamport (the main author of LaTeX) and "The LaTeX Companion", 2nd Edition" - two excellent, almost essential references.

It was a fair bit of work to convert from OpenOffice to LaTeX format, but I'm glad I made the change. LaTeX handles diagrams extremely well, and it can be integrated with gnuplot to produce the graphs for the performance section. Gnuplot is a command-line driven program, which was a bit of a stretch for me, as a long-time Mac user, but the documentation is very good. And there are some advantages to the command line - it is easy to set up one file with formatting commands that will be used in all the graphs, and then have each file that creates a graph call that set of common commands. This ensures that all graphs look alike. I also set up one master file that calls each file that creates the graphs. So I issue one command in gnuplot, and it remakes all the graphs using the latest set of data files. I've put in some "dummy" performance data for now, but it will be an easy task to insert the correct data files once I've done the flight testing.

The current, draft POH (very large file - 1.6 MB) is looking pretty good. There is lots of red text, which represents stuff that needs to be completed, or needs to be reviewed. Some of the page breaks are in strange places, but I won't worry about those until I have finished editing the text. I'll put the LaTeX and gnuplot files on this site once the POH is complete, just in case anyone is interested. They are available on request in the meantime.

Update - 21 Dec 2012 - The latest version of the LaTeX and gnuplot files needed to create my POH is now available via my POH repository at GitHub. You can either grab it using git, or click the "ZIP" button to download via Zip.

Update - 16 Mar 2015 - The latest version of the POH is available in PDF format on the Downloads section of this web site.

Details
Hits: 2811

I took this week off, and I'll take most of next week off too. I've built up a lot of comp time from working extra hours, and I'm gradually using it up to get some time in on the project.

I've done three rounds of fill, sand and the cowling. It is looking a lot better. I probably get about 90-95% of the remaining pin holes with each round. I did have a minor set back mid-week - I had the upper cowling supported on two saw houses outside as I wet-sanded it. There was a bit of a wind from the west, and I knew there was a chance a gust could blow it off the saw horses. So I put the saw horses on the lawn on the east side of the drive way, figuring that the lawn would provide a soft landing spot if required. And I oriented the cowling with the open end facing east. Then it happened. I was coming out of the garage with a fresh piece of sandpaper, when there was a freak gust of wind from the east. 180 degrees from the prevailing wind. It blew into the open end of the cowling, picked it up and blew it across the driveway. The only good news is that it flipped 180 degrees and landed on the flat bottom, so it didn't ding any of the edges. It just put some nice gouges in the surface. Drat! That set me back a few days.

The rudder bottom an empennage fairing are almost done, but I still have a few pin holes and imperfections to fill. Hopefully this weekend I'll start putting on the temporary silver paint. Yesterday I put some West Systems filler on the top of the canopy skirt, and today I started sanding it down. So far, so good.