The wind was finally almost calm this morning for the first time in weeks. Sky clear but hazy and reported 6 SM visibility from the Sahara Dust. My wife nervously obliged my request to witness the first flight along with two neighbor/pilot/builders.
A lone Skyhawk was doing touch and goes, otherwise the pattern was not busy. The (North, South and mid-field) windsocks were pretty much hanging straight down, which they haven't done for a month.
I preflighted again, pushed the aircraft out, climbed in, started the GoPro and the engine. Set the left screen for 1/2 PFD and 1/2 engine. The right screen is displaying full engine data. No sectional or ADSB traffic will be displayed. I taxied to the North end of Rwy 14, did a run up, called for a radio check, closed the canopy, checked for traffic, announced my intentions, pulled onto the runway, opened the throttle and accelerated quickly. The take off roll began and in a few seconds the nose wheel hit the first bump on the runway I'd become familiar with during taxi tests, then the second bump and the canard began to lift. I was careful to control the pitch to not over rotate as I was leaving the runway behind. The airspeed was climbing and I began pulling back on the stick more to maintain 90 and quickly reached 1200' to turn crosswind. The sun is straight in my face now and the haze is quite a bit worse than on the ground, but I could see Alliance airport and other nearby landmarks. The Dynon panel is giving me some expected warnings such as the gear is down but I don't let the warnings distract me other than to quickly look at the panel, see #3 CHT is at 425 (edit-I'd previously posted 245), IAS is now about 140 Knts and RPM is about 2500 after turning down wind and leveling off. I pull back on the throttle a little and continue to climb to 2000' while watching for traffic. Dynon audibly warns of traffic once but I don't see any. I hear radio traffic from a distant airport (Durant) that I've never heard before here. I pulled the power and stick back and soon am seeing the air speed bouncing between 62 and 64 knots to confirm the approach speed should be 1.3 x Vs. I push the throttle back in for about 1700 RPM and descend to pattern altitude. My first pass was to high resulting in an easy decision to go around. The second attempt was better but touch down was going to be to far down the runway. The third attempt looked and felt right, a nice descent, but touched down further down the runway than I'd like, but acceptable. The brakes worked well to decelerate and exit at the end of the runway.
Here's the in-cockpit view of the landing video.
I open the canopy after clearing the runway and taxi back to the hangar. The brake shield temp sensors are reading 139F after braking hard.
Post flight inspection reveals no visible damage, all the screws and camlocs are intact. One exhaust pipe has made minor contact where it exits the cowl. No oil in the bottom of the cowl. Some exhaust residue is on the prop.
An initial analysis of the engine logs seems to indicate the fuel flow is reading low as it never showed more than 6 GPH. There's a couple of other minor things to address but am grateful to have an EFIS that logs so much data.
Gallons 19.8, 1547 .lbs CG 99.7
Take off: 830' Estimated from Dynon data/Google Maps.
Landing 1700-1960'
ROC @ 85KIAS 150-250'
VS 62-64 KIAS
Hottest CHT #3 @ 425. Hottest oil 190F in flight. 203 after landing. Max speed 142 knots @ 1700' @ 2500 RPM after turning downwind.
Highest Fuel Flow 6 GPH (SDS EI/EFI feeding Dynon EMS 220)* Should be higher.
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