A New Dawn

Ok, so after today I have to admit I'm getting a fair bit excited about this plane. I am now trying to put all the negative behind me and focus on the future and I have to admit it looks good. I flew today  for 2.1 hours and started to do some general testing with speeds and fuel flow.  I started out flying over the airfield for 40 mins then, after it performed flawlessly, I ventured out of the proximity of the airfield and set sail.

Some very basic figures so far, that's if I can rely on the accuracy of the fuel flow metre, but here they are:
- 100kts @ 12.5 Lp/h
- 110kts @  15 Lp/h
- 130kts @  22 Lp/h
These figures were at about 4000 to 5000ft for reference.

I have noticed that on take off it is very easy to boost the heck out of this motor. I was a little bit tardy noticing today on take off when I saw 44" hg in the climb . It wasn't for long and I had only just gotten  airborne so backed off to about 36" and continued the climb out. It was a short runway and gusty so settled for 36" and climbed out at about 800 fpm. Temps have been fantastic since the addition of the Rotec tbi and the enlarged cooling outlet. Max temp on climb today I saw was about 380f on the hottest cylinder. Happy days for sure.

According to whatever you read the Aerovee is supposed to be broken in hard. Treat it mean keep it keen I believe. Well today that just wasn't going to happen. The turbulence was a huge limiting factor and mostly I was really only flying at around 2600rpm @ 24" map.  It was averaging about 110kts and that was about the top speed I was comfortable with. I'd like to think it will still be run in ok and upon landing the compressions felt really good turning the prop over so we will see.

I tried in vain to set the compass module for the discovery lite. It seems I got to 99.3% done but landed so will have to do it again I guess, I'm not sure why it wouldn't finalise but will read the instructions again and try next flight.

I have also today set the dial a trim correctly. I'm not sure why I didn't read the manual correctly but in doing so today I found it works perfectly and now flys very close to hands off. I also cut the trim tab down by half on the aileron but need again to trim some more off. It should be perfect after the next adjustment. In regard to the elevator trim I think I just erred on the side of caution in regard to the initial setting. I didn't want to find myself with a huge amount of up trim on the first flight so was a tad too cautious. After the adjustment today though all is good.

So for future flights now that the temps and engine seems under control I best start documenting the SAAA cards for the phase 2 registration. I have about 36 hours to go so need to get cracking. There seems to be a large number of them so time to start. They basically help you determine best glide speeds and climb stats so should be fun and also something to do to help pass the time for the test hours.

Some pics of today's flight