Very nice discipline
Very nice discipline
"One rule I made early on is that I will make no flights on the same day as I make a meaningful* repair"
Boy oh boy...are those ever 'words to live by' in more things than aviation..
Kudos
Running an additional ground from the Diehl case to the ground of the regulator worked a treat! Steady voltage.
Now back to waiting on weather and crew...
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
She went up and around this morning!
No pics or video - I didn't have the mind to set up the GoPro, as I was going over the plane closely and when she was ready for flight, went!
Weather was still with some patches of fog. In fact, about 500 feet from the end of the runway was a wall about 1,000 feet high, and when I saw it taxied back to talk to my spotter.
"Hmmm, fog on that end. Whatcha reckon?"
Rusty looked that way, squinted, and said "That's a long way down there..."
And we both laughed.
The runway is 6,000 feet long. I need about 500 feet to take off, and about the same to land.
So I took off pretty cleanly, if a bit longer than normal - she didn't quite leap in the air as before - did a slow climb to build up airspeed to about 1,300 AGL, did a gentle turn until I was going the other way on the downwind, and looked at the runway. By design I was just about over it, and there was more runway behind me than in front.
One of the things I've been doing not so well is my approaches to land. Way too shallow and way too fast. This time I pulled throttle just past the runway end and did a nice curve to the threshold, letting the plane sink in a good glide down to it. Tiny goose at the end for a not bad wheel landing.
Rigging seems okay, though she's got a little pitch up hands free at full throttle - still very much a two finger aircraft on the stick, though, so I'm not too concerned. It might resolve itself at cruise.
Brakes are pathetically weak, which is okay by me.
Engine timing is <this> close, but off a bit. She ran fine, turning 3K RPM's on the climb and downwind before I throttled back, but it's not quite there. I killed the engine at the end* and she kept running for six or seven turns of the prop. So something to work on.
* I have just one switch, the master, and she's electronic ignition. I have to chase down solutions to this, but my money says it's a timing issue. Also, I should be turning 3200 RPM's on take-off. Part of this just may be breaking in the new engine.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Congrats, Frank. What was the total number of days, from turn-over to first flight?
Ron Wanttaja
Frank,
Congratulations! I want to wish you the best.
Rick
My "no probem, gimme three months" repairs took one year, three weeks to flight.Originally Posted by rwanttaja
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Apparently time does not fly when you're trying to fly. Congrats Frank, you persevered and you're back in the air. Please keep it right side up from now on. 😀My "no probem, gimme three months" repairs took one year, three weeks to flight.
A little walk around video I made:
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
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