Saturday, July 16, 2022

Update 7/16/2022

 I'd found the VG's weren't exactly symmetrical on the main wings, off about 1/8" so pulled them all off  (canard and main wings) to eliminate them as a contributor to the right roll issue.

The rudder pedal foot pegs had been moved forward, but the left peg bolt threads snagged in the nose sidewall pocket that had been made for extra pedal clearance.  I moved the pegs back one hole for the flight and will make adequate clearance so the foot pegs can be moved forward.

The right roll still persists so I consulted with Vance.  He advised the rule of thumb is to shim out the opposite wing by adding a 1/2 washer to the bottom outside bolt.  So by adding 1/2 washer to the left wing's bottom outboard bolt, the left wing will have less lift and negate the right roll.  I'd installed the wings with the -L washers originally so replaced the bottom thin washer with a thick washer.

The Titanium exhaust wraps didn't seem to help much.  Hottest cylinders are 3,4,2 & 1 in that order.  There's about a 50F degree delta between the hottest and coldest.   Vance advised that he's tried a variety of things in the past and blocking the air on the coldest cylinder had worked for him so I might give that a try rather than building ramps or cuffs.

The attempt to calibrate the compass failed so I'll plan on installing the remote magnetometer.  

The fuel flow seems more accurate with pulses set at 48000 but will take some longer flights to zero it in.

The prop clocked at 3/9 resulted in a lot of carbon on the prop.   Also the prop stops vertically when the engine shuts down.  I reclocked it again, this time to 11/5.   I think this will be similar to 1/7.   

The transponder didn't transmit my position when I flew from T67 to XBP because I'd set it to Ground the night before when I was changing fuel settings etc.  Flightaware was showing me in flight.   Reading the manual, depending on software and hardware, there should be an Automatic button, or I may have to set it to Alt and it will switch automatically when air speed is detected.

I checked the nose wheel castoring preload and found it was pretty light so tightened it up.  Vance suspected the grease I'd used on the large brass washer has squeezed out and caused it to loosen.

The canopy and gear warnings are working well.  I may lower the gear warning to under 100 knots.

The new throttle cable is sweet.   I'm doing quite a bit better controlling airspeed and maneuvering in slow flight by listening to the rushing air sound changes.   I still ate a Skywagon's lunch in the pattern and had to do a 360 to get more spacing.   Also had a truck pull out onto the runway when I was on short final so did a go around.   I think my landings have improved immensely.  It was nice to land at XBP with a 5000' runway.

I didn't get much done on the 3rd test card but am happy that I got to improve my flying skills and am looking forward to addressing the squawks so I can go fly again!

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