Missing the Big Show

This is the first year I've completely missed Oshkosh, in I don't know how many years. It's kind of a sour grapes pity party, but that's the way it is.

Last year I flew a friend and his C-182 up there, so it wasn't like I wasn't connected or anything, but I realized one of the best things for me was to just hang around the Quickie and see how many moths are drawn to the light.

So, this year I decided if the Quickie couldn't make it, I wouldn't make it. That's completely okay with me, but nothing beats being at Oshkosh with the plane on the flight line, Sandy nearby, and visiting with all the friends I've made over the years.

Next year, for sure.

Third Flight

Quick report.

Flew this evening for .6 hrs. That puts me well over an hour now. I just climbed and circled the airport.

Roll trim is still kattywhumpuss, but that's just hardware work. Also I'm not getting enough elevator down, again easily fixable and the two are related.

I started gently fooling around with the mixture mapping in flight. I am using Deem's lamda meter, which is really cool. I didn't go through the whole thing, just making some mixture adjustments when I happened to look at the meter.

I don't have anywhere near the speeds I'm used to, I think the best airspeed I saw was around 160 mph.

I did check out the airspeed/differential pressure. In level flight and throttle at 2,500RPM I was showing about 93 mph. If you look in the table, in the previous post, you will see that is only about 4 inches of water. Not enough, I think. I should probably be getting at least 5 1/2 inches, so that will be something for me to work on.

I'll report back when I know more.

P.S. I apologize to someone. They left a constructive comment and I accidentally hit the reject button and I can't take it back. Sorry. Please post it again and I'll try to not be so clumsy.

Starting the de-bugging

Now that I proved that it can fly, I need to get after all the squawks. Right now, the main issues are engine heat and power. Yesterday I went out and:

1. Adjusted elevator push rod for better roll trim.
2. Significantly opened up the path for cowling discharge air.
3. Discovered air leak around #2 cylinder. Will repair after next test flight.
4. Took care of fuel line chafing on cowl.
5. Plumbed in an airspeed indicator to measure cowling pressure differential.
6. Hooked up mixture meter so I can observe it in flight. I will continually be checking the fuel/air ration to fine tune the EC3 mixture mapping.
   

It started raining so I didn't fly.

Regarding item # 5 above. There are a lot of factors about engine cooling and there are several great articles out there if you are willing to search for them.

One of the fundamental things to check for is to make sure that you have an adequate pressure differential between the top of the engine, compared to the bottom of the engine. The engineers like to refer to this as inches of water, as seen in a manometer. Let's say you had no baffling at all. In that case there would be zero pressure differential and zero inches of water.

Lycoming wants to see between 5 1/2 & 6 1/2 inches of water. Since rigging up a manometer can be cumbersome, there is an easier way, using an airspeed indicator. I had an old one laying around so I hooked it up kind of like this (scroll down a bit).

If I don't have enough pressure differential, that should be addressed first. But, if there is enough difference, then I need to go after different things like controlling air flow around a specific component, but first things first.

So looking at the table below, I will be hoping to get about 110 mph on the indicator.

MPH	KNOTS	IN. of H2O	#/IN2
30	26.1	.44	.016
40	34.8	.79	.028
50	43.5	1.23	.044
60	52.2	1.77	.064
70	60.9	2.41	.087
80	69.6	3.15	.114
90	78.3	3.99	.144
100	87.0	4.92	.178
110	95.7	5.95	.215
120	104.3	7.09	.2558

I'll report my results later.

One Small Step for Sam - One Giant Leap for Samkind

Finally. Finally. I got it back in the air. I told Sandy that I flew and she said something like "Whew! O-boy". She sounded just like Walter Cronkite.

I didn't pick the date, it just happened, but my third first flight in the Quickie happily fell on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Heady stuff for all.

I always told Sandy, "I'll fly it when it's ready". The to-do list finally got whittled down so there was nothing left to do but fly. I haven't posted my recent struggles, like the primary system going dead for no apparent reason (I blew a critical fuse while tinkering) or the back-up system not working (I somehow had discharged the back-up battery down to 5 volts).

But today, all systems were go for launch and I committed aviation. Twice, in fact.

My good buddy C-Rod brought out his entire A&P inspections class witness the crime, in direct opposition to my general secrecy policy for these events. But It worked out - I just ignored them and went into my secret place. You know, where the Olympians go right before that big track or swimming event.

A parachute was offered, but it turned out there just wasn't room, so I didn't wear it.


It started just fine and I ran it up and down an inactive runway a few times and everything seemed strong. With my straightened tailspring and lengthened cowling, I have lost a fair amount of forward visibility while taxiing, but I'll get used to it.


So I went out to 18L and flew. Must have gotten all of three tenths before the oil really started getting hot and I told the tower I wanted back down.

I bounced the landing a bit, but cut me a break, it has been a year and a half since I flew this critter and all's well that ends well.

My residual adrenalin must have stayed with me for a couple of hours. There are lots of things to work on, trim and cooling, etc, etc., but they will sort out in time and I hope to be going fast again.

I have to make a mention here. On the way back from the airport I got a phone call from my good friend Jim Patillo, who was calling to tell me a Quickie builder, Ron Weiss, had been killed while flying another type of homebuilt (Lancair) out in California. I never met Ron but he did post messages often on the Quickie Builders e-mail list, and we sure hate it when we get those calls. I guess you could say it made today's event somewhat bittersweet.

But anyway, after I calmed down a few hours I went out and committed aviation a second time - I wanted to get a better handle on what my new Dynon instrumentation was telling me.

This time, the engine wasn't quite so hot and I was able to stay up for about four tenths of an hour.

That's enough for now, just remember, there is no higher education than aviation. And hey - Let's be safe out there.

There is No Joy in Mudville

Rats!

I thought I had it licked. Last night I was getting roughness in the backup system and also the primary was acting up. This morning I went out early and replaced the electronic ignition spark plugs and the engine ran great in all functions! I have been doing a lot of ground running and I have seen this plug fouling before.

I put the cowling on and called the tower and told them I would like some high speed taxis, then possibly a takeoff. Everything seemed fine until I did my run-up at the end of the runway. The primary system was strong, but when I switched to the backup the engine just sputtered and died.

I ran up and down the runway a few times, then tried it again. Same thing. I tried leaning the back-up system, then richening it. Tried all sorts of throttle settings. No joy, so I taxied back to the hangar with my tail hanging between my legs.

Rats! Did I already say that?

So now, I am officially scratching my entrance in the AirVenture Cup race. We're taking the granddaughters on a little vacation today and maybe I can figure it out when I get back.

I'm dumfluxed. I need an expert to come and help me out.

See you in a week or so.

Sam

Isn't She Lovely?

Not So Fast, Buddy Boy

Or, should I say "It's not ready, till I say it's ready".

The weight & balance is done, and I was glad to see that it came in at 696 pounds, even with all the stuff I added, including extra batteries, heavier paint job, and TWO paint jobs.

I thought I just needed to get the vinyl lettering applied and a few more little items, when go taxi. But, why should it be that easy?

I thought I'd celebrate having the canopy on by running the engine a little. I got it up to 2,400 RPM, then it started getting rough again. What's the deal with that?

Rats.

Maybe that sensor bracket is still vibrating a little. I have a plan for that. Maybe the mixture still needs tweaking. I dunno.

We'll see tomorrow.

Anyway, here's some photos of the mostly complete engine installation.





Mixture look a little rich?

So Close I Can Taste It

I am 90% though my annual condition checklist and the thing is close to being ready.

Yesterday, I hauled it over to AvTech for weight & balance. I had the help of the instructor, Karen and two A&P students, Tom & Colin. I forgot to use my camera, but Colin grabbed these with his cell phone. Thanks folks!


I was happily surprised to see it come in under 700 pounds, 696 pounds, to be exact. I was afraid I would be in the 725 range, so 696 is good, considering all the stuff I've added. We weighed all possible combinations; empty, main tank, header tank, aux tank, pilot installed, etc. I'll figure all the arms & moments later.


Just to remind me that nothing should happen too easily, I intended to taxi the Q-200 over to AvTech for the weigh-in. Unfortunately, there was interference between my air induction tube and the cowling, which resulted in causing the lower cowl to bind against the spinner. So, today I'll have to modify the tube to better fit the cowl, blah, blah, blah.