:) my ADS/B works. Tracking from this morning's flight.
Ok, I'm miles behind on my posts, so I'll cut to the chase and try to back fill later.
DAR inspection by Brooks Smith on Monday, October 30th, 2017. No squawks other than I forgot to put my N number on the panel where the PIC could see it. :) Not a requirement actually, but a good idea. I have my operating limitations and test area. Time to get ready to fly this bird.
Transition training with Tim Ribble in his RV-6A. Totally forgot to take pictures. Did 2 flights - first was 1.5 hours and pretty much wore me out. I've been flying a Cherokee for the last 6 years or so and getting used to the acceleration and performance really took some getting used to. Climb out at 1500+ fpm dual (Cherokee solo on a good day *maybe* 800fpm), and if I wasn't careful I'd be 120kts downwind, which the Cherokee can only do in a dive.
But what a blast to fly.
We did all the usual things - steep turns, turns around a point, power off and power on stalls, accelerated stalls, slips, power off landings, slow flight, unusual attitudes, etc. Then went back and did about a dozen landings. After about the 5th I was starting to get the hang of it, and of the 10 or 12 I had a couple (including the last one) that you couldn't even tell you landed. Called it quits for the day and determined to do another flight after digesting all the info.
We were back at it just practicing landings on 11/14. We had a pretty decent crosswind 10 G 15 about 30-40 off the nose, so it was really good practice. On about the 3rd or 4th I knew I had it - I was pretty much nailing every one. I think on the 5th one (which Tim said was perfect) he turned to me and said you're ready. I totally agreed. Did one more and packed it in for the day. Now I just had to wait for good weather for my first flight.
Saturday Nov 18th was supposed cold, dead calm, and CAVU weather - just some high cirrus. Perfect day. Friday afternoon I sent out an email announcing a 7am launch to my EAA buds at KCPK. I got there about 6am to use my engine pre-heat (hair dryer) and the CPK EAA first flight gang showed up to help, support, offer last minute advice, and just keep an eye on things. We had fire extinguishers, Nick had his handheld and Pete and Glenn had their vehicles should the worst happen. I briefed everyone on my plans as well as emergency fields if I had a departure problem and couldn't return to the airport.
Glen was out early as I was preheating - offering excellent thoughts and advice from his first flight in his Zenith. He had a very heavy wing - a common problem - and we were discussing the best plan to deal with that if I ran into that issue.
Going over the plan with Nick and Glen. Takeoff runway, emergency landing fields if we have a problem before we can safely land back at the airport, etc. Nick had his handheld to provide ground communications.
Getting buckled in an ready to go.
Cold morning - frost on the ground. I think it was around 32 at the airport. Waiting for the oil temps to come up so I can do the run up.
Patti and Connie doing an interpretive dance while they wait to keep warm. :)
Got the engine nice and warm and went wheels up at about 7:15am. The engine ran great and even with a judicious power application (because I was ready to abort at any minute) I was still off in maybe 600 feet and she climbed like pretty much every RV. I kept the deck angle fairly shallow to help keep the engine cool but I was still seeing 1300+ fpm rates. Turned downwind and started a racetrack climb to 3000.
Here's a video of the takeoff courtesy of Nick Jones. I did one final runup on the runway just to make sure she wasn't going to conk out on me.
Dale's RV9A First Flight takeoff
We have some stills of the landing but no video. I had to swap ends on the runway - the surface winds were dead calm so I was going to stick with 5, but the winds aloft were 30+ and when I turned base I knew I'd never make it. By the time I tried to turn final my groundspeed was hitting 120kts. Didn't realize the winds were that high almost down to the runway.
At any rate I probably did the worst end swap in history. Trying to stay within gliding distance of the airport and in a position to be able to land while at the same time changing to right traffic for 23. It was truly ugly. I heard someone on the ground said "what in the heck is he doing?". It was bad.
At any rate I got turned around and made a much better approach to 23.
Pete saw that swap coming and went down to the end of 23 to catch the landing, so he had some great
stills of it.
The landing was uneventful - very easy plane to land, and after the transition training I felt extremely comfortable. I was totally prepared to go around and had practiced it up at 4000 in case I needed to, but there was no need and I wanted to land and look everything over after 45 minutes in the air with a new engine.
Safely back on the ground. There is some shimmy in the nose gear, no side play (I made sure the breakout force was properly set) but there is definitely a rolling resistance. Nick suggested we balance the nose wheel and I definitely intend to do that.
Very glad to be back safely on the ground and with no unpleasant surprises.
And here's some stitched together video my Dad took (thanks Dad!). Pete mentioned I definitely have the RV-9 whistle. You can hear it in the overhead pass on the video. We have several -9s and other RVs locally and you can always hear them coming in, especially if they are at speed. Personally I like it. :)
The RV grin. One very happy builder/test pilot.
I had some minor squawks after the first flight (to me anyway). Interestingly, my D-10 had perfect airspeed, but the altimeter was wonky. My Skyview had perfect altitude and vertical speed, but the airspeed was zero except when rotating and pitching up to land/slow flight (that's a clue). I suspected I had the pitot and AOA tubes swapped, and in fact that was the case.
Keeping with the "only change one thing at a time" we use all the time in IT, I swapped the Pitot and AOA at the ADAHRS for the Skyview and left the D10 untouched.
I had one other issue - my SL-40 powered off just after I rotated. Turned out to be not quite seated in the tray. I reseated it and got it working again.
After the flight I opened up the cowl - no leaks. The folks at Aero Sport power did a great job on this engine. Runs like a champ. I changed the oil and Nick cut open the oil filter - nothing magnetic and not much metal, which is a good thing. Ready for the next 10 hours or so.
Given it's dark by the time I get off work, I decided to try to start flying in the morning before I head out to work (that's got to improve the day considerably in my view).
Thanksgiving morning was cool, clear and had light winds, so I headed out at 6 to do my 2nd test flight and hopefully knock out test cards 2 and 3.
Fueled up and took off just a bit after 7am for a 1.5 hour flight. There was a thin layer just north of the field at 3200 so I went up to 4000 and just hung around doing about 2 mile radius turns around the field, both left and right.
Very happy with my instrument setup - easy to keep both instruments in the scan and I have redundant everything. (but not the still goofy altitude on the D10 - need to swap AOA & static on that guy).
I was consistently seeing between 122 and 125 KTS air speed at 2400, which is about right without fairings and with the engine still not broken in. Once I get it all broken in and add the fairings I'll determine if some pitch adjustments are needed on the Sensenich.
KCPK from 4000 on an early morning. Beautiful day. Smooth air except right at that layer just to the NE.
Sunrise over the Atlantic to the east - pretty good visibility - I'm guessing 20+ miles. Really nice day to fly.
I ended up validating my ADS/B this flight, which was great. I also finished verifying everything on the engine is working correctly, can check off on the Skyview (minus the AOA calibration, which will come later), the SL-40 worked great, so that's fixed. Also did some steep turns, slow to 65KTS with flap extension and retraction. Time to move on to airspeed validation and finish breaking in the engine before I do a lot of climbs/descents and stall validations.
