REFLECTOR: Congrats to Hirro + Paint update

[Terry Miles]

A little belated, but very much with a joyful tone...CONGRATS, Hiroo.  I
remain hopeful that I'll be there soon.
Terry
 
PS:  I have access to a paint booth that is idle now due to a
divorce/bankrupcy.  Very sad for them, but opportune for me.  Anyway,
the wings and canard were done Saturday.   We used Dupont Auto paint, 2
stage and it came out good.  Buff out is tomorrow morning, if I can get
the painter back over here.  The next batch will be control surfaces,
doors etc this Friday.  Last, if I can get it done in time, will be the
fuselage.  I used stick on vinyl serial numbers made for $20 at the
local sign-making company.  Even tho they are supposed to go on wetted
down w/ dish soap, we did them dry on to a color coat that was only 30
minutes old and they applied just fine.  They now have 2 coats of clear
over them.  I may drop my plans to use plastic plackards from the tropy
shop in town for panel labeling  (switches etc) and use vinyl stick-on
lettering.  
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Hiroo Umeno
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 1:23 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: Another Velocity in the air!



I jumped the gun and started posting about Franklin engines so the news
is out now but just to make it "official", I will post it here.

 

On August 24th, at 3:04pm PST, Velocity SUV (serial 103) N21HV took off
for the first time from Arlington Airport (AWO) with Steve Murphree at
the controls.  The first flight lasted a short 12 minutes.  Steve
reported that the aileron force was stiff (I have the yoke setup) and
had the tendency to over-control.  He also noted that the oil temps were
running hot as well.  Back at the hangar, we lubed the controls, ground
off some fiberglass from wing - aileron gap that were rubbing, and
generally loosened up things a bit.

 

The next morning, Chuck Harbert came out with a couple pairs of vortex
generators he made for us (Thanks Chuck!).  We put those ahead of the
top NACA scoops and, like magic, the oil temps came down.  Steve also
noted some left leaning tendency and stuck some mixing sticks on the
right rudder.  That seemed to help things a bit.

 

The following two days (Sat and Sun), Steve ran me through the wringer
drilling me on the finer points of flying the Velocity.  Some bad habits
from Cessnas I have to get rid of.

*	On take-off, I am used to firewalling the throttle, pull the
nose up and keep best climb and wait for the altimeter needle to crawl
up to where I want it.  On a Velocity, as soon as I get to safe altitude
(500AGL, which takes "seconds"), I need to pull the throttle back, pitch
down, set climb power / prop, and get some air flowing over those
cylinders. 

*	On landing, keeping the nose relatively low, instead of burying
the yoke in your gut as you do on Spam Cans. 

 

This weekend, I put another couple quality hours on the plane generally
getting used to the machine and brushing up on my landings using the
really long runway at Paine Field (PAE).  I am getting the plane down
and stopped in about 4'000 now.

 

As you've all seen in my other thread, I am having issues with Frankling
starting and running a bit rough.  Both of which, the consensus appears
to be, is related to fouled mags from running full-rich for break-in.
Seems like I need to get out my wire-brush next time I head out to the
hangar.

 

Some squawks and "to do"s now.

 

*	Attitude indication for Chelton AHRS dropping when accelerating
past 30Kts or so. 

*	Static port getting high-pressure from fuselage side / canard
leading edge. 

*	Better cabin ventilation 

*	Engine primer (as discussed separatedly) 

 

In general, I love the way the thing flies!  Every time I am in a turn
or something and look over and see the wingtip, it brings a grin in my
face.

 

Hiroo

 

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