REFLECTOR: Fwd: Test flying update

Mon Nov 12 14:51:30 CST 2012

Rene,

Good points - I haven't been practicing those scenarios enough.  Thanks for
the reminder.

One other thing I didn't mention - the sparrow strainer.  Initially, I
installed it as per the manual.  It had great pitch stability, but required
some man-handling of the stick during high-speed decent.  I took it off and
flew it for a bit and it was better (didn't require so much stick down
pressure at high speed), then I put it back on upside down.  With it upside
down, it doesn't have much pitch stability but it is a breeze to handle at
any speed.  When I mean it doesn't have any pitch stability, when you push
or pull the stick, it will not correct itself and eventually resume the
original altitude, it will drift.  AP does a fine job of keeping it at
altitude, and its not like it wanders all over the place so I may leave it
like this.

Geoff

On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 11:21 PM, David Rene Dugas <renedugas at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks for the update. It can be boring but it can be exciting. I
> recommend you make a long list of emergencies and write out the procedure
> you think best. Now us the time for that. Then practice and plan: engine
> out, oil pressure loss, loss of a brake or tire on take off and landing.
> What will you do for fire?  Exactly!  How will you handle a door up, what
> will you turn off if you smell smoke,  wing tip vortex, loss of stick
> control of roll(practice rudder control). Can you knife edge it to lose
> altitude so you don't miss an emergency landing.  practice rudder control
> just above canard stall if you had to land off airport you'll be a pro. The
> list is long but you have time. Please preflight really well our planes
> vibrate too.
> Best.
>
> Rene' Dugas
> Sent from an Apple.
>
> On Nov 11, 2012, at 4:10 PM, Geoff Gerhardt <geoff.gerhardt at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought it'd be good to give you guys
> an update on my test flying.  Great weekend here in New England and I was
> able to get out for ~4.5hrs between yesterday and today.  I suppose I could
> have done more, but it is getting awfully boring flying around my little
> box.  But, here's where I'm at.  I've got 31.5hrs in so far, so not far to
> go.  I've had a few issues, but nothing too major.
> >
> > Cooling issues early, but a combination of plenum changes and cleaning
> injectors brought temps in line.  Now, in cruise my CHT's are within 4F of
> each other.
> >
> > I had a few oil leaks, but I found that these were being generated by
> poor oil venting.  I had been fooling around with oil separators and ended
> up putting too much restriction on the oil vent which caused a few leaks to
> pop up.  I was able to get the leaks taken care of and now I vent my oil
> line into the exhaust.  Its not really a permanent setup, but it works ok.
> >
> > The prop I ordered from Catto was a 66x74 (recommended from him for a
> SE-RG).  I found the take off roll a bit long and had been thinking about
> sending it back for re-pitching, but didn't want to be down for a month.  A
> canard owner on the west coast had an older Catto prop that would fit my
> left-turning engine, so after a rather long process we were able to
> identify it as a 64x76 and I had him ship it out to me.  I just started
> using this prop and it is working well.  Its shortened my takeoff roll and
> I still have about the same top end.  At 10,000', running 50F LOP, I get
> 150kTAS using 7.5gal/hr fuel.  That's about what I was getting with the
> other prop, as well.  The 64x76 prop is an older Catto design, so I think
> I'll get my original, newer Catto prop re-pitched to something similar to
> this as I think his new design is more efficient and may get improved
> performance.
> >
> > The original Matco brakes gave out pretty quickly.  Not exactly sure
> why, but the pads ate up the disks in no time.  After only ~15hrs on the
> plane, the pads were done and the rotors were deeply grooved.  For ~$350, I
> ordered the parts to beef up the Matco 600XT's I had to the 600XTE which
> are really just a thicker disk and slightly different pads.  So far, these
> have worked well and the pads and disks are wearing normally.
> >
> > I've had a bit of a nose wheel shimmy when I brake hard, so I'll
> probably give the nose wheel pivot nut a bit more torque to see if that
> helps.
> >
> > Even with the original prop, I've been able to get out of 3000' runways
> with plenty of room (good conditions, just me and full fuel, tho).
> >
> > The first landing I did with the plane on the first flight was the best.
>  I've gotten in the habit of really cutting the corner from downwind to
> final.  Just after the numbers I start to turn in and drop altitude as fast
> as possible.  This can lead to faster speeds on final if I get sloppy.  On
> tight fields, I do a longer final to make sure I can get good speed control.
> >
> > My alternator (PlanePower) failed last weekend.  It was a bummer, too,
> as I'd been traveling for a couple weeks, the weather was perfect and I was
> hoping to bank some hours.  10min after take off, the alternator light
> started to flicker, then went on solid so my weekend was ruined.  Don't
> really know why it failed (stator was fried) - its a 60A one that should
> have more than enough power to handle the loads I have.  They shipped me
> out a new one in time to fly this weekend, tho.
> >
> > Its been nice, now that I don't have any real issues that I can just
> show up at the airport, preflight then fly.
> >
> > That's about it, everything's going well and I hope to be flying outside
> of my box in a couple weeks.
> >
> > Geoff
> >
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