Multitasking

Well it was a big week for working on my planes but not too much happened on the Sonex.

Basically all I managed to achieve was bolting on the engine mount above and drilling the top mounting bolts for the titanium spring landing gear. 

It was really only a half day to do both of those jobs and I did have some help from the wife to hold the mount up and so on while I secured the mount to the fuselage. 

I discovered that it was quite easy to drill the gear legs in the end. I used just a normal good quality drill bit and a fair amount of pressure and slow speed. It worked a treat. I did have to sharpen the drill bit a few times on the bench grinder. Basically I just offered the gear leg into position , marked the hole, drilled a 1/8 pilot hole with a drill press then refitted the leg and drilled through the final size via the bolt tube.  The process was quite quick and painless really. I was planning on drilling the lower axle assay as well however basically ran out of time. Also I was a bit unsure of the procedure for setting the toe in as per the manual. So that will be a next week job now. Not long till it's on its wheels however, that's for sure. 

Most of my week again was taken up by the Aeropup and Aerovee engine rebuild.  I fitted the four new cylinders and piston assemblies and two new type Mofoco heads.  I reset the  compression ratio to a guaranteed 8:1, and in turn that involved problems regarding valve train and pushrods issues, but nothing that wasn't easily sorted I guess, for someone used to working on these motors. 

Towards the end of the week I flew two circuits in the plane. With the new ground adjustable (vibrating) prop I managed a 600 fpm climb rate. I was absolutely pumped to see that as before the best I've seen was 400- 450 on a good day. So here's to looking up. On a massive downer though were the temps, that were heading straight up. As I hit 420°F on climb out both times, I leveled off at 500 ft and brought the temps back under 400°F then made two low level circuits. I expect being a brand new motor and ground run for less that probably 15 mins it was still tight and hot. Clearly though I will have to recheck my mixtures  and cowlings. I still think the lower outlets need some work. I am really hoping it will help. 

I am seriously wondering if I made a correct decision buying another Aerovee for the Sonex. I hear so many success stories with them I just have to assume I will get there in the end. I'm really just thinking positively that I have made all the mistakes with the first one and that the second one will just run like a Swiss watch from day one. Fingers crossed anyway.