Saturday 1 ~ Sunday 2
I still don’t have the turbo charger kicking in 115 % power, I should be able to get 40” of MP and the best I have been able to get is 34”. I called Lockwood Aviation and they told me that the engine needs to be at 5500 rpm or better before the TCU will let the turbocharger raise the boost. Since I can only get 5500 RPM in the takeoff setting I needed to fine off the pith a bit.
I pulled the cover of the propeller and found the micro switch that controls the pitch setting. I tied off the aircraft to my car and after warming it up I gave it a shot. It took a couple of iterations to get it to settle in at 5700 RPM, but unfortunately I still could not get better than 34” of manifold pressure.
One problem I have been struggling with is that I would get an oscillation in my headset on transmit. I finally tracked it down, I was really thinking along the lines of ground loops, but it turned out to be my ANR headsets…. I called up LightSpeed and yep, they knew about the problem. They invited me to send it to them and they would attempt to fix it free of charge. Those guys have really great customer service
Monday 3 ~ Thursday 6
Well since I don’t have any tail wheel experience I thought it would be a good idea for me to get a tail wheel sign off. I managed to get a run of weather so I could take a lesson every night after work. The local school as a Citaboria and I was fortunate to hook up with a really good instructor. He is a retired Naval aviator who does a bit of part time instruction. I am sure that he has forgotten more about flying that I am likely to ever know.
Well these tail dragger things seem pretty straightforward to handle on the grass, but on a paved runway it’s a different story, quite humbling really.
Saturday 8 ~ Sunday 9
Since I still can’t get full boost I figured that the waste gate wasn’t set right. Sure enough it was out by quite a bit. Fortunately I didn’t have to take my panel out to get at the servo controller, I could slide the radio and transponder out and get my hands in to adjust the cable.
I ran it up again and I got 39.5 inches of boost. I tie wired up propeller screws and replaced spinner and called it done!.
Another small task was to put some controls on the firewall air box. I was originally going to put a servo motor on it but upon reflection I concluded if the was an engine fire that the servo would be destroyed and I would have no way of shutting off the valve. It seemed like the good old-fashioned way with a Bowden cable was the way to go. I machined up a mount and ran the cable through the firewall and it all seemed to work pretty well.
Towards the evening the air was smooth so I did two high speed taxi runs up to 30 knots. Every thing seemed to behave, as it should so I didn’t push it any further.
Tuesday 11 ~ Thursday 13
I did a couple more tail wheel flying lessons and continued to be “humbled”
Saturday 15 ~ Sunday 16
I dragged the Comanche out along with my airplane partner and we went off to fly some young eagles. It was a good weekend, and over the course of the weekend the guys from our EAA chapter flew over 530 kids.
I continued with some small tasks, including re programming my EIS. This is a pretty neat instrument. I also made up some hardware to fit up a fuel pressure sensor. I am waiting for a differential sensor from UMA, but in the mean time I have a loan unit from Europa.
Saturday 22 ~ Sunday 23
Well I think I have just about run out of excuses to fly this thing. I
have been reading a lot of material written by Ed Kolando that has been
published in the EAA's sport aviation about test flying. One
recommendation was if you are going to wear a parachute then make sure you can
get out of the aircraft with it on.
I rounded up a Nomex suit, gloves, parachute and crash helmet and put it all
on an then made sure that I could actually get out of the aircraft with it all
on. I did a hew practice exit procedures, including, shut down, fuel off,
electric's off, trim full forward, door open (which I assume that the slip
stream would rip off) and jumping out. I sure hope that it won't come to this
but at least I proved that it would work.
Sunday came around and it was stormy most of the day, but at 4.30 the wind
dropped, the sun came out so I thought I could give it a go. Part of the
plan was to tell no one so I would feel no pressure. I taxied out to
runway 28 (5000 x 15') and lined it up. I figured that there was no more
checking I could do, either this was going to work or I was going to be on the
6 o'clock news. I gave it nuts and the aircraft was off the ground almost
instantly. I only used the climb setting with 34" of MP, and I left
the gear down. I stayed in the pattern with gentle turns and came around
for a landing. My first try was at 65 knots, way to fast, I did a gentle
bounce and I decided to go around. My second attempt was at 55 knots, with out
any power, a bit on the slow side but it settled nicely. With 20 minutes
on the Hobbs and a big smile on my face I decided to call it a day.
Tuesday 25
I pulled all the cowlings off and inspection covers looking for any
loose or leaky bits but every thing looked good. I dragged over the hoist
and did one more gear retraction test and had a good look inside the wheel
well. The gear lowered and raised smoothly so I will pull the gear up for
my next flight.
Wednesday 26
The evening was not too windy so I did a one-hour test flight over the top
of the airport staying at 4500 feet. For the take off I retracted the
gear and I was surprised that by the end of the runway I was above pattern
altitude. I wasn't using the take off pitch or letting the turbo kick in,
but it sill seems to climb like a scalded cat.
Friday 28
I took the covers off again and still no sign of anything a miss. I pulled
the gascolator off and cleaned it but their was only a small amount of debris, all
on in bowl, none on the screen.
The afternoon was had winds less than 10 knots so it seemed fine for
flying. I took my first flight away from the airport visiting 4 local
airports for a flight time of 1.9 hours.
I took a break and the evening was even calmer so I made second flight to
10,000 feet to confirm that the turbo charger was working correctly. It
held 34". A rough speed indicated about 160 knots, wow
The airport about 15 miles away has 93-octane auto gas on pump at $2.00 per
gallon. I took 8 gallons for 2 hours of flying. After the Comanche I can
really get used to this!
The aircraft seems to be in perfect trim "straight out of the box"
and while I can attribute this to a lot of careful alignment, my A&P said I
had to attribute a bit of "dumb" luck as well! It has nice
stable flight characteristics and a clean stall doesn't drop a wing.
Quite frankly is aerodynamcis seem to be text book perfect.
Saturday 29
Today was raining and crappy most of the day but it cleared up a little bit
and I flew 1.3 hours and collected a bunch of data for the ASI
calibration. On my return I realized that I had made some data collecting
mistakes and I will have to re do the measurements.... oh well... I guess I
will just have to go out and fly some more, darn....
Sunday 30
Today was forecasted to storm all day and it did
so I pulled off the pilots side door and fitted the coverers on the latching
mechanism, fitted and internal handle and gave them a coat of paint. The
turned out quite nice. Installed a door handle and fitted the covers on the
poor side door.