Here's a couple videos from this week.
A misplaced sharpie resulted in an aborted flight.
I completed a flight from T67 to KGLS (Galveston) in less than 4 hours.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Merry Christmas!!!
Merry Christmas!!!
I've signed and entered the Phase I statement in the log book after consulting with my DAR. Over 40 hours of testing are complete. Sometime in the future, I'll expand the MGTOW limits I've tested to since our runway is only 3740'. I'll go to an airport with a longer, smoother runway. I also chatted with Vance (EAA Tech advisor and canard guru). He commented that "you'll always be testing".
Yesterday, I'd planned on a 1.5 hour flight to KGLS Galveston but shortly after taking off, found the canopy hadn't closed properly due to a sharpie that had fallen in front of the instrument panel. This left a gap and caused the front catch to not quite catch the front screw on the canopy properly. I reduced power and returned to the airport, found the sharpie and went for two short flights to get fuel.
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Update 12-4-2022
Added 27 .lbs ballast to the front seat along with 51 .lbs in the front nose and 33 .lbs in the aft nose section to simulate a 220 .lb copilot. Flew to XBP, added 15 gallons of fuel for a total of 32.8 gallons on board. Departure weight = 1641.8 .lbs, CG 99.3 inches. Need to add 100 .lbs total weight (1746) keeping that CG for a more accurate simulation.
Leaving XBP, had 32.8 Gallons for a total weight of 1637.6 EFIS data GPS and vertical speed show about 1200' take off distance. There was light wind down the runway, possibly 0-9 knots.
Increased Autopilot Pitch Sensitivity (High and Low speed) from 19 to 39. Pitch isn't lagging the FD as much now. Will test more when there's a higher ceiling.
Arriving T67, a student in a C150 was ahead of me in the pattern. I managed to drag around the pattern at about 80-85 knots at about 1200-1300 RPM burning 2.5-3.5 gallons an hour. I was having so much fun, I came in a little high and then did a go around and followed the student one more time.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Update 12-1-2022
The nose castor wheel had been sticking a little despite the preload set to about 4 .lbs. I disassembled it and soaked the brass oilite washer in 160F 30 wt. mineral oil. I put a light coat of molybdenum grease on the spindle shaft and set the preload to 5 .lbs.
Ballast was configured to simulate a 160 .lb pilot and a 200 .lb copilot with the CG at 99.6 with 22 gallons fuel. 51 .lbs in the nose, 33 .lbs by the rudder pedals and 10 .lbs in the copilot seat. It took approximately 16 seconds to rotate and lift off before midfield on the 3740' runway.
OAT was 50F, ~10 knot wind almost down the runway. Ceiling was reported at 5K but seemed lower near XBP with some rain developing (not predicted). The cabin was comfortable despite getting down to 48F, hitting TAS over 160 knots occasionally.
Had an operator error issue with the GoPro. Only got a photo of my face when turning it on. A few flights ago, the video was inverted because the camera lost it's settings.
Briefly attempted tweaking the autopilot. Switched to simplified AP and the roll control seems to be working fairly well. Switched to Expert mode and the pitch control was pitching to much. Due to the low cloud ceiling, I opted to defer AP tuning to more optimal conditions.
I turned base/final at about 77 knots, put the landing brake down but my finger bumps the switch on the throttle and raises the board before touching down. I need to put the console cover on to protect the switch.
Analyzing the CHT's, looks like they could be balanced a touch better, but the delta is about 30F. I'm going to try one more time to see if I can find and remedy the oil leak using soapy water and some pressure in the motor, then draw a vacuum and suck some Loctite into the leak if necessary.
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