I think a submerged ramp and low profile ramp with a cover will perform better, but this took less work. I'd like something that would protect the oil cooler from hail stones when it's parked on the ramp. Mike Arnold's AR5 engine cooling exhaust duct is probably the optimal solution but that will require some cowl and oil duct surgery.
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| Blue foam used for form. |
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| Bolus tape shredded after SARL Jasper race. Top speed was 240 MPH. Course speed was 209 MPH. |
Nose gear high resistance connection. Found a bare ground splice under a wiring label in the wiring harness.
Capacitive fuel tank levels. Reading high. Corrected by tightening ring terminal screws on hell hole ground strip.
Hall Effect amp sensor occasionally reading negative instead of positive. Cross checked with the VPX. -Update - seems to be working after tightening ring terminal screws.
High fuel pressure. Reseated the connector at the sensor and treated with LPS1 (electrical contact lubricant).
Flat nose tire. Tire balancing beads had gotten in the valve stem seal when I checked pressure. Cleaned out with a Q-tip and is holding now.
Red X's on CHT's & EGT's - Remedied by tightening the ground on the engine. The jam nut and nut were tight, but retightened and issue cleared.
#2 Spark Plug cap fell off-came unscrewed. Fell out of bottom cowl when it was removed. -Update - replaced the plugs with solid top plugs.
SDS programmer display backlight is working, but there's no text displaying. Update-Barry is sending a new board. Update - board was replaced and is working again.
30 Amp fuse to distribute power for the Landing Gear, B Fuel pump and B coil replaced with a hard wire (each downstream circuit has its own circuit breaker.
Shorted PFD - RMA'ed to Dynon. Swapped left/right screens and trouble followed. ETR two weeks. -Update - Panel was returned and functions normally except for the temp widgets intermittently showing X's. Update - retightened engine ground cable and the red X's cleared.
Pilot relief tube - needs more suck. Testing with water, didn't draw out. Need a tube moved into the slip stream to create a vacuum. Update - tube has been extended.
Nose/leg area - still has a slight draft in flight. Needs more sealing around the nose gear motor cover.
A quick test flight:
Scenario:
No major change, but it seems the oil is a bit cooler.
Other prep:
Winglet fairings. (May wait until this winter to do large radius fairings, or make some temporary smaller radius fairings.)
Wheel pant gaps. (Fill / sanded/ painted)
Ammeter Hall Effect sensor 5 volt check. (Found a few terminal screws a touch loose.)
Princeton fuel sensors (reading a few gallons high). Suspect a few loose terminals on the positive buss may be a factor. Tightened and need to test again.
Found butterfly arm was not up against the stop when WOT. Repositioned the throttle clamp under the sump to improve throttle travel.
Looked at the K&N filter. It doesn't have a built in velocity stack like some performance filters do. The intake OD is 65 mm. Finding some stacks with screens and some performance filters have built in velocity stacks.
6/16/2024 - AVC race prep.
There's a bunch of administrative stuff to do such as provide a Certificate of Insurance, Log Book entries, copies of Airworthy Cert, Operating Limits, Registration, ELT Battery dates etc. The planes don't fly unless the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft!
Technical items to address:
Leading edge tank drains - remove (I have lower sump drains that are less draggy).
Fuel vent lines are sticking down 1" on each side under the strakes.
Cowl and cover seams.
Winglet / wing fairing. - Notes from one of Mike Arnold's videos indicate a radius of 6% of the wing chord is optimal. I've been referring to Berkut13's site: https://www.berkut13.com/berkut61.htm#wfair
Wheel pants - need some finishing work to smooth/reduce drag.
Top mounted oil cooler exhaust fairing.
2000/3000/polish on clear coat.
Order and apply Race numbers. - Found a supplier in Georgia via Amazon. They were 1/3 what a local shop wanted.
Spinner - I have a "Hershey Kiss" spinner that needs finished. After watching some of Catto's recent prop videos, am tempted to add some small fins to it.
Strake/wing fairing.
Canopy seam - see video below. (V-seal and Tesa Tape). Looking for gap seal solutions, found this video:
A new Cozy owner needed some stick time for insurance purposes. He's flown a variety of aircraft and is an ATP. He used to own a T-18 which can be a handful to land, so the Cozy will be pretty easy for him. We flew to three different airports and he did pretty well. My neighbor is renting him temporary space for several months. Hopefully, he'll retrieve his Cozy next week.
During the flights, a few gremlins popped up:
The canopy latch circuit was intermittently showing the canopy open. Suspect the magnetic switch on the canopy is failing again.
On the last two landings, one of the main wheels had some shimmy, suspect the brake caliper was hanging up a bit.
The fuel levels displayed on the Dynon panel seem higher than what's in the site gauges. Suspect adding MMO to the fuel has changed the dielectric constant. May need to recalibrate the gauges. - Update - I think issue is that I had long beaded chain connected to the gas caps and it had slid under the probes. The anchors were hanging down to far and would slide through the lower baffle holes. I fished the chain and anchors out and shortened the chains and moved the anchors closer to the caps. The probes seem to read correctly now.
The light colored Zolatone in the cockpit is making it difficult to read the adjacent panel due to shine/reflectivity. Probably should get some "dash mat" and put in the strakes.
An email from the AVC (Airventure Cup Race) says I need to pick a new number, so replied with three choices that weren't already reserved.
My wife reminded me that the back windows still need tint.
I need to work on my "speed list" for some small fiddly stuff that should be addressed to gain some micro-knots.
Seat foam (soft and medium soft remnants) was ordered from Dynamic Systems and arrived yesterday (Monday 4/8) . I have some medium left over from a friend's project and will use some of that too.
Remnants are available from Dynamic Systems (Sunmate): https://www.sunmatecushions.com/
Video on shaping seat foam:
https://www.youtube.com/live/dxDqKdkmGuk?si=Tg8sgZy9qLBDF_eI
My wife wasn't fond of me buying a sewing machine. Youtube was feeding me video suggestions from https://www.youtube.com/@oldschoolautoupholstery and he is located at Livingston TX. The airport is 00R (Zero Zero Romeo). Richard said he'd be available after April 14th to work on the seat covers.
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| Template for the back seat. |
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| Passenger seat foam laid out on the wing. |
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Variation from plans on the thigh support is to cut a round or rectangular edge to make it easier to slide feet under the panel.
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| Pilot seat foam and headrest pad. |
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| Head rests for passengers will go on the battery cover. |
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| Pilot and Copilot headrests will attach with Velcro or snaps. |
Vance Atkinson implemented an adjustable NACA inlet lip. Also had vents above the #3 & #4 cylinders. IIRC, he said the cylinders were about 15 F cooler by adding the vents. The adjustable lip was only effective to a certain point but did help cooling on take off and reduced cooling drag in cruise.
A common method used to prevent a dead battery is to visually indicate that the master switch was left on by leaving the strobe switch turned on. The shortcoming with this method in N724CZ is that the strobes and non-essential equipment is powered through the VPX and that gets it's power when the master switch is on.
The nose gear actuator gets its power from the essential buss, so when the nose needs to be raised or lowered on the ramp, the essential buss switch needs to be on.
I don't want the warning buzzer going off when I'm preparing to start or shut down the engine so my logic is:
If a fuel pump is running, don't buzz. The pump makes enough sound, it's obvious a buss is energized.
If the fuel pump(s) aren't running and essential buss is energized then buzz. Either we're preparing to start or momentarily lowering or raising the nose.
To simplify the logic, the buzzer will be powered by the essential buss. Then two inputs are needed that sense if either fuel pump is energized.
www.homemade-circuits.com/how-to-make-logic-gates-using-transistors/The NOR gate in the article above will work with the A & B inputs connected to the positive posts of each fuel pump. The buzzer circuit's ground will connect to output "C" and the positive source for the buzzer will connect to the essential buss.
It might be nice to have a 15 second mute button. The points where a battery charger are connected will need to be on the source side of the master or buss relays to avoid energizing the buzzer.
My family needed help fixing some windmills at my dad's place in Nebraska. My wife had some things going on and the trip up was going to be pretty bumpy so she opted to stay home. Since this wasn't my first trip up, planning was a bit easier but the weather was going to make it a challenge. Normally I like to take off early in the morning but the weather was IFR here and cleared around 11 AM. Monday morning (late) I departed North and followed Hwy 237 towards Wichita Falls. The weather wasn't very good around Altus and Sherman so I stayed to the South for quite a ways, figuring I may need to go to Dalhart before going North. Before getting close to Amarillo, the weather on the western side of Oklahoma and Kansas was looking better but it was very turbulent and clouds weren't very high. My ground speed was between 120 and 135 knots most of the time with a crossing headwind hitting as much as 50 knots. As I neared Garden City, noticed Meade KS had cheaper fuel so buzzed over there. The leading edges were plastered with mashed bugs so I took a few minutes to clean them off.
I departed Meade and ultimately climbed to 13,500 to clear broken clouds and skirted one of the MOAs that appeared to have a tanker active. The OAT was showing 34 F but the cabin heat was working good. It was about a 5 hour trip. George, one of my sisters and brother in law were ready for me and helped push the Cozy inside his big hangar for transients. George pumped in 30 gallons which would be enough to get me home on the return trip.
A week was spent working on windmills, vehicles and other miscellaneous tasks. It was hard work and brought back a lot of memories working with dad growing up. A couple of nephews and a friend also helped with one of the mills. We made informal plans to tackle more projects on the next gathering.
My brother in law hauled me to the airport the following Monday and watched me depart. The weather coming from the West wasn't looking good and Kansas was looking sketchy. Leaving Sidney and climbing high enough to see off towards Ft. Scott KS, decided to head towards Dalhart TX where I could have a nice lunch if I needed a rest and to check weather. As I passed Burlington CO, I could see cumulo nimbus clouds further south that weren't showing up on ADS-B weather. They were probably south of Dalhart. Checking other options, a direct to T67 actually looked pretty good but was skirting IFR weather in Oklahoma. Most of the trip was around 11,700 with a bit of a head wind. As I neared the MOAs, I descended to 7500, skirting Altus and Wichita Falls. Soon I was near Class B and dropped down to 3500, then lower to get into the pattern for T67. Flightaware shows 684 miles in 3h 41m.
After getting back, a builder contacted me about giving him some assistance. He's about a two hour flight from here. I contacted another builder/flier to see if he'd be available as well to get another pair of eyes. I'll probably be able to buzz over there soon.
Another fellow that I gave a ride to texted and called me about a Cozy he's buying. Sounds like the prebuy has gone well with minor concerns. He's making the decision to proceed with the purchase.
Mark Rieger contacted me and discussed some issues with broken ring gear teeth.
I spent a few days prepping the plane for the Mark Hardin SARL race at KTRL on 5/25/2024. Changed the oil, spark plugs etc. The vinyl trip on the trailing edge fins was starting to peel some so I pulled it off and put race numbers on the rudders. The glare shield was recovered with black mat vinyl. I ran to XBP for fuel and found the ceilings were low. There were thunderstorms forming so I didn't go to the dinner on Friday in Terrell. Saturday morning, the weather at T67 was misty with a low ceiling with broken clouds higher. I took off, skirted Alliance and Meacham's airspace, down towards Cedar Hill and was on top at 2500'. It was looking like a solid deck the further east I traveled. I'd hoped that the clouds would be breaking up but instead, they were lifting and there was still haze being reported at various airports. I flew over KTRL but there weren't any holes to drop through. Johnson County showed VFR just east of KTRL so I flew over there, but there was a sold deck there too. I'd been cruising at pretty low power since I wasn't in a hurry and was thinking that the weather was going to get better, but ended up having to climb to 4500 to stay above the tops. Then 6500 as I headed back west to get back to some accessible VFR airports. I had 40 gallons on board and the EFIS was showing over 800 mile range. As I got near Cleburne, it looked like Waco was VFR. The front that was moving through was further west and I wanted to be a little closer to T67 so cruised by Granbury. I could see the ground south of there, but there was a heavy fog like layer covering Granbury. There was an airshow going on at Breckenridge but some of the nearby airports like Bridgeport and Graham were showing IFR. I noticed Stephenville was VFR so punched in direct to and sat there for a couple hours watching weather, ADSB exchange and chatting with the few pilots that were at the airport. The National Weather Service advised there was a likelihood of severe weather in the afternoon coming from the west. The folks in Terrell decided to race. I didn't want to get painted in a corner by the bad weather coming from the west so decided to get back to T67. KAFW and nearby airports were showing marginal. A few aircraft had departed T67 according to Flightaware so left KSEP and headed for T67. It was awfully warm and bumpy with a low ceiling.
I pulled up KTRL on Flightaware to watch the racers. Wow...they are fast!
The evening was spent cleaning bugs off again. I fired up the grill, ate dinner with my wife and then putted around the airport on the golf cart for awhile. It's nice to be home for awhile.
Saw this on a Beech 17 cowl. Not sure if it will help clean up the air coming out of the vent before hitting the prop. I'd like to do some tuft testing and have a before and after comparison.
A neighbor brought a wheel pant over after running over something, probably a chunk of asphalt. Initially he just wanted it repaired, but then a friend of his suggested that since he had an oversized tire, enlarging the pant some would be great.
I sanded the paint off the damaged area and applied some UNI on the outside to get the original shape restored. After it cured, the Fein tool cut multiple slits longitudinally and one laterally in the glass to increase the clearance where the tire rubs.
Cardboard and hot glue held the "fingers" in their new position.
The wheel pant was turned over, and was held nicely by an empty case of Shiner with a couple pieces of box tape on the flaps to keep the pant secure. One layer of BID covered the slits on the inside of the pant. After it cured, I decided that the raised hump needed to be a bit rounder on the sides, making the enlargement less noticeable, so I added two more slits on the sides and curved the bottom cut a little, which added more radius to the enlargement. Additional BID strips were applied on the inside of the pant to the last two cuts.
Isopropyl alcohol removed the hot glue. Sanding with a small DA sander and starting with 60 grit, the edges of the slits were rounded. Then a mix of wet micro balloons and a little flox was buttered into the gaps between the slots.
After the micro/flox cured, it was sanded down and checked for bumps. It felt pretty smooth. The neighbor did a test fit and will do some flying to make sure it's okay before taking it to the painter.
The weather and schedules were finally conducive to haul the Sunmate seat cushion foam and patterns to Livingston TX 00R. I preflighted the plane the night before, adding a little air to the nose tire, updated the Skyview database. I filed a flight plan from Hicks T67 to Livingston 00R using FlyQ EFB the night before.
An email to Richard (the upholsterer) was sent to reconfirm I'd be on my way and I received his reply Monday morning.
Occasionally leg cramps have bothered me so I try to remember to use Theraworx (for muscle cramps) before longer flights. I also carry some homeopathic cramp remedy which are small tablets that go under your tongue, and always carry water.
Monday morning I made a quick breakfast, checked the weather, pushed the plane out, started and taxied. A few students were already in the pattern. I checked my pre-take off list and set Com2 to Meacham, anticipating a transition immediately after departing Hicks. After taking off, I called Meacham and the tower responded "Do you have a working transponder?". I'm already going about 150 KTAS, climbing to 2500. I make a quick 180 and respond to the tower that I'm checking... Usually the transponder is set to Automatic but it had manually been set to Standby. I hit the VFR button, but still showed Standby...so hit the Automatic button and the tower advised they saw me going North near Hicks. She asks if I'd still like to transition at 2500, showing a Cessna at 2000' 1/2 mile south of me and I reply affirmative. She clears me through on the West side of the field.
The Avidyne IFD540 alert audio is announcing "Airspace ahead". This is new to me after spending a few days during the CI, pinning the wires that hadn't been installed by the shop that built the audio harness. I hadn't worried about it much as getting my IFR certification has been lower on my priorities. I'd suspected that the lack of alert audio was a configuration issue but that would have been to easy.
After passing South through KFTW's airspace, the tower approved the frequency change and apologized for the confusion which I replied, "The pleasure was ALL mine!" lol
I was monitoring several frequencies and the air space was plenty busy. I opted to skirt around Arlington then climb after exiting out from under Class B. I'd been hand flying and finally dialed in the altitude and engaged the AP in Nav mode. After skirting Arlington, headed direct to 00R.
FlyQ EFB has a nice "winds" feature under the weather tab. It showed if I climbed up to 5500, I'd avoid a head wind. It was moderately bumpy so had the power pulled back yet was showing some respectable ground speed. I watched the map along with the roads and airports nearby, monitored local airport radio traffic occasionally until the heterodyning crosstalk made it difficult to listen to, so turned the volume down.
Nearing Lake Livingston (5th largest lake in TX) from the Northwest when descending to TPA, there is mostly wetlands and trees. I disengaged the AP about 15 miles out in a 800 FPM decent. A Cherokee called 7 miles out shooting an RNAV from the South as I landed straight in on Rwy 12 on the 3700' runway. Trees are on the ends of both runways. There is no taxiway so back taxied to the ramp. The Cherokee did a low approach and exited to the East.
I closed my flight plan and called Richard (the upholstery guy). I repositioned the plane closer to the vehicle entrance and heard a firetruck siren, then a medivac chopper approaching. I double checked the ELT to make sure it wasn't going off. Soon an ambulance arrived, then Richard. After a few minutes, the patient on an ambulance was loaded into the medivac and it departed.
Richard took photos of the interior and we loaded up the boxes of foam and patterns, then drove to his shop. One of his customers had recently had some seats done for a Ferrari. He showed me different types of stitching and material. We talked about pricing and (ouch) I had some sticker shock. Not terribly surprised though as a neighbor just had a Mooney seat redone and it was $3600 just for one seat. This neighbor had also bought a Juki machine and said it was hard to sew a straight line. Months previous, my wife caught me watching upholstery videos and commented that I wasn't going to buy a sewing machine. Other amateur upholsterers in the past had commented they wouldn't make any one else's seats. The mental gymnastics going through my head had lead me to this path of having someone else do it. I put down a deposit after deciding on material. Then we laid out the foam and patterns to make sure it was in order and instructions were clear. Richard showed me some large RC aircraft that he'd designed and built. He also had a large bicycle that he'd made.
Richard took me to lunch and then back to the airport. We chatted some more, he took more photos and he watched me depart.
Initially, on climb out, full power, the turbulence wasn't bad but after starting to level off, it was not pleasant. I pulled the throttle back to about 2300 RPM. Ground speed fluctuated from 150 mph to 180 mph. The AP was doing it's job better than I could at maintaining altitude and heading.
Soon, I started to get cramps in my legs. I reached down to massage my legs and noticed they were cold to my hands, so turned the heat on a little and that helped some. Suspect the turbulence and lack of cushion under my thighs were also contributing to lack of circulation. I drank some water, took some of the homeopathic tablets and suffered a couple more cycles of cramps. I also recalled that I didn't exactly follow the directions for applying Theraworx. Lesson learned.
Nearing Class B, air traffic was very busy around the airports. The rainy weather had many students grounded and now they're trying to get their lessons in and time building back in motion. I opted to stay further south and skirt the Class D's and B to get back to T67.
Finally back on the ground, I hobbled around and managed to push the Cozy back in the hangar. The leading edges were splattered with bugs, probably the worst I've seen in two years. A hazard of flying over lakes.
This is probably one of my least enjoyable flights ever and if every flight was like this, I'd probably quit flying. OTOH, this would have been almost a 4 hour drive one way and would convince me that flying is wonderful even when it's bumpy. I know better weather is coming and will soon have some awesome seats. Oh....and my wife had sticker shock too. My daughter nailed the price when mom asked her how much she thought it would be. She said, "You can't take it with you." and I replied, "That might be soon!" lol
In four weeks, the patio furniture cushions should be back where I borrowed them from. Maybe I should finish the wheel pants?
Cylinder head wrenches can be handy for torquing hard to reach bolts and nuts. Using the wrench for the prop flange bolts makes it easier for one person to hold the prop and torque the crank flange nuts. Getting a torque wrench on sump bolts and nuts may a bit easier than using a swivel and extension.
I'm not getting alerts from the Avidyne IFD 540 and suspect the alert audio pins aren't connected to the audio panel's unswitched audio input #2. My audio harness was built by ACS in order to get the warranty on the audio panel. They did mis-pin one wire but is looking like they didn't pin the alert audio wires from the IFD to the audio panel. We'll see.
I found this on line that I'll try. If the audio is connected, I should hear chimes when I change volume.
https://pilotsupport.avidyne.com/kb/article/221-i-am-not-receiving-flta-alerts-on-my-ifd5xx4xx/
If there's no chimes, the audio isn't connected. Bleh. That will probably take a good 1/2 day to remedy.
- Update.... The alert audio was not pinned from the IFD to the audio panel. It's connected now and can be verified by adjusting the alert audio and hearing a chime sound.
I got all the seat cushion foam cut last night. Forgot to take photos before putting it in the box, so will try to get some for the blog and post them. -Update - a separate blog entry was started for upholstery.
I'll start a post to edit/add items to that I'd like to complete during the CI:
Upholstery......(contacted a shop. He wants me do the foam and he'll make the covers.)
Complete wing/strake fairing. Or not. Bolus tape doesn't look to bad. I'd rather fly than sand...
Finish wheel pants. (They're in primer and have some gaps, but see above.)
Touch up paint - nose door and longeron have some chips.
Check baffling cracks. (Good)
Replace alternator belt. - Done
Canopy seal improved.
External access to canopy latch.
Landing/Taxi lights.
Heater control moved/improved. Bowden cable..change to actuator.
Items done:
Moved headset jacks.
Installed TVS diodes on starter solenoid coil and "I" terminal.
Installed 5 Amp charging port to passenger area.
Broke ring gear support attempting to replace ring gear with a broken tooth.
Replace ring gear, install SDS magnets. Made a jig to drill magnet holes.
Things to check on post maintenance flight:
Dynon Software update/operation. Maintenance item list.
Heater operation. Canopy closed circuit.
Dynon (new) radio operation. Headsets.
Best power TAS @ 7500' DA.
Alternator operation (new belt).
SDS (carrier replaced)
Post flight check (
Intermittent GPS signal...4 wire connector intermittent. Removed and hard wired the connection.
Engine start - cranked and gradually opened the throttle.
Service Bulletins, Service Advisories, Plans Corrections, Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins (SAIB)
Created 3/26/2024 Expect some of these links to change or disappear. The FAA links in particular.
Andair (fuel selector) https://www.andair.co.uk/about/service-alerts/
ACL ELT https://www.ackavionics.com/technical-library/
Avidyne https://www.avidyne.com/manual-guides/
Dynon https://dynonavionics.com/support-bulletins.php
Matco (wheels & brakes) https://matcoals.com/technical-support/technical-manuals-and-service-bulletins/
Plain Power https://planepower.aero/aircraft-alternator-support/service-bulletins/
SDS EI/EFI http://www.sdsefi.com/sb.htm
SKy-tec https://skytec.aero/aircraft-starter-support/service-bulletins/
Titan (PMA & Experimental Service Bulletins) https://continental.aero/pma-service-bulletins/
Vertical Power (VP-X) https://verticalpower.com/index.php
Miscellaneous Cozy related Bulletins and advisories at:
http://www.cozybuilders.org/Canard_Pusher/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/newsletters/ (plans corrections)
Various items have been discussed in this group (access may be restricted): https://groups.google.com/g/cozy_builders
Misc:
Breaker Switches SAIB (posting a non-FAA link because they move documents and break links). https://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=6a6f4b28-82cc-4fd4-8337-c240470fd3d0
SAIB - Federal Aviation Administration Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/alerts/saib
ADs - FAA DRS (search for Airworthy Directives) https://drs.faa.gov/browse/SAIB/doctypeDetails
ADs (Biweekly (select Small Aircraft) https://drs.faa.gov/reports/ad-biweekly
NTSB ntsb.gov
My last flight, got a good radio check at the run up area but after taking off, got a reply that my transmit audio had become "weak and scratchy". I pulled the module, opened it up but didn't see any physical damage. The pins/sockets of the 25 pin connector looked okay. The nut holding the antenna connector to the case wasn't very tight, but the threads were plastic so apparently the bulkhead connector's case wasn't a functional ground.
I'd opened a case with Dynon and got an RMA for the radio. I'm not certain which model I'll get back but will probably have to repin the 25 pin connector. Shipped priority express, two day.
Dynon also announced a software update. Unless told otherwise, I'll wait until the replacement radio is ready to install before upgrading the software.
Update - Dynon appears to be sending a SV-COM-760 and adapter cable.
Doug Steen and Bill James are the newest names on the list of pilot/ATPs that have flown N724CZ.
Doug contacted me and offered to trade rides. A neighbor of his needed a ride to retrieve his Bonanza so on a frosty Tuesday morning 2/13/2024 I flew from T67 to 50F (~9 minute flight).
Doug gave us (Bill came along too) a ride in his PA46 JetProp to Georgetown and back to Bourland 50F going up to FL19. Doug's wife Valerie and son looked over the Cozy. They showed me their Whitman Tailwind. An RV in their shop was getting a new Dynon panel. Doug & Valerie own and operate a 145 repair station for avionics, www.semiplane.com. A podcast interview with Doug: https://open.spotify.com/episode/20oomjCjaZn64kLKr3oqsp?si=jrCzrItfSuiR_j_yEdzUrA
Doug was impressed with stability at low speed. We had the IAS under 60 KIAS and could bank left or right. VSI was showing about 600 FPM decent.
After we got back to 50F we chatted and went to lunch. When we got back to 50F, Bill was eager to go for a ride. He asked me about the feeling of the realization that "you built this and are flying it". I think every time I preflight and push it out of the hangar I'm still getting butterflies. When we got back to Bourland, we chatted for awhile. The sun getting lower in the West was my queue to head home.
Tallying
up hours for insurance renewal and FAA survey, I was looking at my own
data and was surprised that my logs showed giving 20 different people
rides during the last 12 months. The youngest was 9, the oldest was
+75. 15 are pilots, at least five are ATP's (two retired). Three +500
mile trips and one short flight were with 3 on board.
Today
was a good day to not give a ride since there was a turbulence SIGMET
up higher and wind (per KLAW Lawton OK tower) was 250@18G27 across RWY
17 (150' wide). The Sheppard MOA above me had a few targets on ADS-B,
one coming right at me but 1500 feet higher. The METAR wasn't showing
as much wind as the tower reported. Despite carrying 85 knots on
final, the wind gusts picked up the right wing a couple of times and
there were a few moments of excitement after touching down.
Karl Riley
& his wife met me at the FBO where he was bestowed Eureka canard
core foam. Karl insisted on paying for some fuel. I had the lineman
put the fuel in the right (upwind) tank. We chatted a bit, watching the
wind socks sticking straight out and the linemen were taking photos of
the Cozy. Major construction on a new terminal was going on next door.
I taxied for take off and asked the tower to repeat the wind again. Gusting 28 at almost 90 degrees. The guy in the Tower seemed to be using his Dad voice. Angling into the wind on the 150' wide runway, the rudders were starting to do their job at about 40 knots at about the time I was intersecting the center line. On departure, the AP wasn't wanting to track very well until the wind direction was more stable at 5500'. The Tower reminded me to use caution exiting Class D and transiting under the MOA ahead.
Radio chatter from a few students when approaching T67 had students making pattern calls for RWY 14. There was a batch of helos flying patterns at 4T2 (Copeland), so I followed Hwy 287 at 1500' to stay clear of them, KAFW Alliance and KFTW Meacham traffic. On upwind for 14, the windsocks were showing a comparatively meager crosswind. A student and instructor along the taxiway had their cameras out as I touched down. Glad I didn't repeat the previous landing and become Internet famous.
One of the FAA survey questions had tickled my memory about a puzzling stat I recalled from my earlier student pilot/CAP days. Pilots that file flight plans have a lower accident rate. Today I'd easily filed and activated flight plans for two "short for a Cozy" flights using the EFB on my phone. Hey...if it helps...why not? There's still a lot of nothing for miles in parts of OK and TX.
Initially, I installed the headset jacks at the suggested location in the copilot's headrest.
I gave a fellow some stick time so he would be closer to getting insurance. He did pretty well and noted that the Cozy was much faster than his older GA aircraft. We did standard maneuvers and some touch and goes and got fuel at Graham.
When we got back to Hicks, I checked the front tire pressure and found it was at 10 psi. so aired it up to 45 and also checked the mains. One of the valve core filter stems "filters" got stuck in the valve stem so I drilled the plastic out and put in a short valve stem.
Previously I'd installed a 470 uF cap across the essential buss but still have some alternator whine on the GoPro audio when playing back audio. I installed a .47 uF mylar capacitor across the main alternator's output and ground to filter the AC ripple out. The pitch trim motor also creates some noise but isn't terrible. I'll see if the .47 uF cap resolves the whine and motor noise. Also need to check whether the whine is worse using Com 1 or 2.
Dynon database and charts were updated. Connector screws were checked. The copilot side display screws were a tiny bit loose but the connector was pretty secure. I reseated the displays ethernet connectors and Wi-Fi dongles.
I installed some more ferrite beads on unshielded nose gear wires that were close to the transponder antenna.
The fuel filter screen was cleaned and reinstalled.
Update - The GoPro audio alternator whine level seems improved. It seems to make a difference which platform (Windows/iPad/iPhone/Linux) you watch it on and also how high the volume is. The noise is less raspy/buzzy than it used to be.
Marc Zeitlin's clamp modification to the EZNoselift should eliminate bolts unscrewing and or bending. It was not hard to install.
I'd taken oil samples at each oil change (4) since changing from break in oil to XC20-50.
The lab reports:
MICHAEL: Our thumbs are still up for the 12/06/23 sample. Metals pretty much stayed the same after the
longer oil run, leaving us with no concerns about how this engine's oil-sharing parts are getting along at
136.6 hours. Lead's higher level is just due to the longer oil run --it's from blow-by and it wasn't excessive
for the run. Dirt, water, and fuel stayed out, and insolubles remained low. Nice results all around!
David has been building a unique Cozy. Apparently it was a Cozy III morphing into a Cozy IV, one of the first prototypes. I invited him out so he could go for a ride and take a close look to see if anything I did could help him with build decisions.
We departed T67, went past Stevenville, then North to Graham for 10 gallons of fuel. About 20 miles West of Hicks, dialed up the radio to see what runway was in use and it was quiet. Then I radioed we were over the lake and now there was a Cessna taking off staying in the pattern, another student about 8 miles out and two Christen Eagles a ways to the North. I fell in behind the Cessna in the pattern, the Eagles did a 360 for spacing and I think another aircraft said he was the only aircraft in the pattern. I called that I was 1 mile final behind the student Cessna and the Christen Eagle said my audio was low. The targets on the screen when clearing the runway showed three or four aircraft on final and a couple more out west. Wow! Busy! As I was taxiing the Eagle called, "GOOD JOB EVERYBODY!"
Back in the hangar, I pulled the cowl and a screw dropped out of the bottom. The #2 valve cover was missing one so that mystery was solved quickly.
A few things popped up on this flight. The ARINC module went off line, the standby network went unavailable and the fuel pressure glitched to 75 lbs. a couple of times. The EFIS data was uploaded and will be analyzed for clues.
I have some 15 volt TVS diodes & some capacitors ordered. I'll install a small mylar cap across the pitch trim servo since it has generated a bit of noise on the GoPro audio.
The heater control is located where the fuel valve is usually located and is a pain to get to. I'd like to move it to the side or instrument panel. An alternative is to implement a servo.
The Telex headset I've used for passengers seems to not get my transmit audio when talking on the radio. I'd suspected it was in mono mode but checked the dip switches and seems like its set for stereo now. When we took off, we had some scratchy audio that was cleared by reseating the headset plugs.
So the squawk list has: ARINC module/standby network alerts. Noisy headset audio/jacks. No pilot transmit audio to the copilot. Move heater control. Replace missing valve cover screw. Check the fuel filter, pumps and regulator. Check connections on the copilot HDX panel.
An email from Marc Zeitlin advises the nose gear clamps have been shipped. Tracking info shows it will be here tomorrow.
Gremlins of a particular species like to break off ring gear teeth and kill starters.
Improper clearance between the starter and ring gear. This is attributed to a known issue with new Superior ring gears and the Skytec 149NL starters having zero clearance. Destroys starters.
Flipped trigger wire on an EI coil. This caused the wasted spark to occur on the bottom of the intake stroke causing a kick back.
Starting the engine without sufficient fuel pressure/momentarily bumping the starter switch.
Timing not retarding or advanced when starting and light weight props.
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| Only missing one tooth this time. |
The first issue was resolved by replacing the starter. Oddly, the issue didn't seem to occur until after several initial engine test runs. I'd started the engine, was wearing a non-ANR headset and could hear a clattering ring ring sound. I shut the engine down and quickly found the starter had not disengaged. It shelled a bearing. Although it had only been used a few times, it was out of a two year warranty. A call to tech support at Skytec quickly diagnosed the issue was due to the dimensions that Superior and Skytec used to make these components resulted in no clearance between the gears. A shim would be required to increase the clearance so that the starter would disengage properly.
Aeroperformance aka Aircraft Spruce near me had starters in stock so I ordered one. The price had gone up considerably since I'd purchased one several years ago There is also a refundable core charge that is dependent on Skytec inspecting the core.
I made a pattern from the starter's mating surface and fabricated a .020" thick shim out of 2024T3. The starter was mounted and clearance checked based on instructions from some hot rod web sites. The starter then disengaged properly after that.
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| Shim for starter |
So, back to first engine runs... The engine would start fine but then one day when starting....a nasty crunch & kickback sound indicated there were still gremlins. Ultimately, this cause was attributed to one of the EI coil trigger wires being transposed causing a spark at the bottom of the intake stroke.
All was well for months, but then one day when for some reason (distraction), I'd neglected to turn on the fuel pump(s) and I'd usually also been able to start the engine by just bumping the starter switch. This is my theory, but apparently when the fuel pressure is low and the injectors fire, only a minuscule amount of fuel enters the intake and if the cylinder that's on the bottom of the its stroke, finally accumulates enough fuel to fire, the engine kicks back. Since that episode I ensure the fuel pumps are operational before starting and I keep the starter engaged until the engine cranks up. It is odd that the shear pin in the starter didn't let go before breaking a teeth off the ring gear. Fortunately others with the same EI/EFI and similar engines haven't had this problem.
The flywheel and ring gear have to pulled off the engine. I asked some local pros if they'd done this before but no luck. Searching the interwebs for replacing automotive ring gears found several methods. One was to heat the ring gear with a hot torch to expand it and it would either fall off or with a few pops with a hammer, come off. I tried this initially but after paint started blackening decide to try the cold chisel method. Since this method breaks the ring gear, it made sense to help it out by cutting a slice as deep as possible without damaging the surface under the ring gear. There is a lip that the ring gear is against so a round cut off wheel can only go so deep, but weaken the gear. The assembly needs a very solid surface so that the chisel strikes are effective. Place the ring gear retaining lip up so that the ring gear is driven away from it when it is struck from above. The chisel head is placed in the slot that was cut. A 3 lb. hammer, large cold chisel, gloves and eye protection are prudent. I tried multiple light strikes initially but didn't make any progress. Experience revealed on the last two ring gears, that it took three solid whacks to break and depart the ring gear. The ring usually moves a little on the first whack, more on the 2nd and breaks on the third. It comes off faster than a scared cat so heavy gloves are needed to protect your hands.
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| Cold chisel and slit cut in the ring gear. |
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| 3 whacks later. |
Installing the new gear is easy. It's important to verify the tooth count is the same. The U shaped teeth are on the 149 count gears and V shaped are on the 122 count gears. The ring gears teeth are machined so it's important to mount the gear with the machined side towards the starter oriented away from the retaining lip. Make sure all of the mating surfaces are clean and free of burs. Heat the new gear (oven works fine) to 375 - 400F. Put the other part in the freezer. When you're ready...and wear gloves to handle the hot ring, drop the ring gear on. It is so loose it spins around but in less than a minute, it will have shrunk and secured itself.
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| The ring gear will fit in a countertop oven. |
