Terrific looking bird - sincere kudos.
Terrific looking bird - sincere kudos.
Exercise in discipline today.
Went to the airport to not only check on the general state of things after the storm, but do some minor maintenance.
The forecast was no wind, but low clouds. No flying, just work, was my decision before heading out.
The epoxy on the fuel tank worked a treat - I no longer have a sheen of gasoline on the lower neck of it next to the battery. While that removes some minor sense of adventure in flying, I'll just have to live with it.
I had used the fuel pump to empty the gas tank, and so the battery had to be recharged.
One of my tires was flat, so I replaced the inner tube.
The gun's front bottom bolts looked kinda ugly sticking out there, so I made covers for them. Completely cosmetic, the bolts are firm and robust. The rear support tube joint was a bit rough, so I bent the tabs to a better angle and placed nuts on the insides of the center section to reduce vibration. Not that I saw it wiggle in flight, it's just a simple means of beefing it up.
Double checked my fuel bobber, as it seems a bit low with five gallons in it. It's bobbing fine; maybe I've needed to extend the rod the whole time, and adding another three gallons really brought it up. Going to have to think about that. It needs to bottom out at the three gallon mark (one hour flight time) or maybe two, not the five.
Meanwhile, the clouds were slowly lifting and breaking up. Two thousand feet. No, don't look, the're sucker holes and there's a lower wall over there. Two five hundred, with it looking pretty good to the west. Winds are almost nil on the ground. But something is moving the low clouds, and it ain't magic.
I have a little personal rule that if I call a no-go for flight from the start, that's it. No flight. Nobody is running up to me with a kidney in a cooler for a child's transplant, after all, and it's a hobby. I'm naturally kind of risky, so I have to really watch myself; without a system of personal rules for risk to follow I have been known to be foolhardy - it is through the grace of God that I survived long enough to see the wisdom of risk management.
Talledega race week, so my airport has already been invaded. On the upside, they cut the grass. Hell, they bailed it, it was tall enough. The front of the FBO looks like a car dealership with rental vehicles. RV's are starting to fill the areas across from the race track, so traffic will be crazy soon. Well, slow and stupid. The NASCAR guys that make up the airport board and folks sporting lanyards with ID's on them were seen today clearly checking things out, and judging by the looks I got from them, us local yokels aren't favored sons. The place where they put the boarding pass machine was being cleared in the FBO.
Things get pretty fancy for a few days twice a year.
I need to have a few weeks of good weather to complete my test flight requirements and move one airport over. St. Claire County (Pell City) is much better, with friendly folks and management that isn't a huge corporation taking care of a field only because they are under under legal obligation to do so.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Awesome looking bird. Rim tape can be your friend with those style rims. Get the right width.
Tony
Frank, give the induction system a careful look, a small leak that allows the engine to run lean at idle can make it "diesel" when you kill the ignition. Make sure the carb to manifold connection and all the connections in the intake manifold are tight. An airleak at the carb bowl gasket can also cause this problem.Originally Posted by Frank Giger
Yes, PLR should be a much more conducive aerodrome for our type of flying. I really miss the great restaurant (Sammy's, I still have the t-shirt....) that was on the field before the owner lost his life in a Breezy accident.
Last edited by Sam Buchanan; 10-10-2017 at 05:58 PM.
Okay, the good news - it's the timing that was causing the run-on.
The bad news - I've got so buggered up that she wouldn't turn more than 2K RPM under load and so that was an aborted takeoff attempt.
The good news - it's just a function of pulling the prop off and starting from square one on the whole timing thing. Eventually I'll be a pro at it. I had a long conversation with Valley Engineering about the ignition system (it uses a Harley Davidson set of coils), so I'm better informed on the whole of the system, which is a step forward.
In all of it I noticed Culver had cut me a 60x27 prop to replace my 62x27 one, and when I brought it up they instantly said they'd cut me one of the proper size and replace it. Gotta love a company that backs up its product.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Hey Frank,
Nice you have some Harley parts, gives that VDub some class
Man, Culver sounds like some good old small American company customer service giants.
Happy Fokkering to you
Jim
I can't sing the praises of Valley Engineering/Culver Props enough. They do need some reminders and follow up from time to time, but they make their deadlines and the quality of their product (and the prices) just can't be beat.
Or, for that matter, Great Plains. When I was rebuilding my VW, I called them with a question and the guru for that wasn't around, so they took down my name and number. AND HE CALLED ME WHEN HE GOT IN. Now, then, I didn't buy a whole VW kit from them, just some parts, and they acted like I was a huge corporate customer.
Both companies speak doo-hickey, which is invaluable to me. Not a single snicker when I said "So I got the light gun and did the thing with the thing with the marks."
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Now with 300% more bounces on landing!
Last time, without a camera, I rounded it out nicely for a greaser wheel landing.
Putting the GoPro on top of the gun was a good idea, except it shook too much - and the anti-shake filter made it look like it was made of rubber!
Some minor oil leaks to chase down, but other than that I'm very pleased.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Frank,
An old timer once told me that he never bounces a landing, he does high speed, high impact non-destructive (hopefully) testing of the bungees. As usual thank you for the awesome video. Fly safe
Rick
p.s. The same gentleman would also refer to them as landing 'First And Recurring Test Sequences, he was an engineer after all
Last edited by wyoranch; 10-26-2017 at 10:39 PM.
I refer to it as a ground stability check.
My field has the bonus of being grooved pavement, which is like the double bonus round in landing a plane like mine. It's not forgiving in the least, with no sliding at all...it is definitely ground loop friendly, but not in the good way. Smooth pavement is much easier, and I'm looking forward to landing at a decent grass strip.
Post flight checks show that I had a couple oil leaks - oil cooler line inlet hose needed tightening, and there's some oil leaking around the prop hub (very little), and some around one of the valve push rods. Hopefully rotating the tube around it will seat the seal...otherwise it will involve some surgery.
I'm also going to replace the hinges on the rudder pedals. The were bent a little in the flip, and my fixes weren't where I want them.
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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