Thursday, April 26, 2007
Issues I am dealing with....
Now that the plane has been flying for a couple of weeks I have had to deal with a few issues.
1) My handy dandy auto correct trim system which counteracts the nose down tendency of the flaps worked too well. The first two flap positions do not generate much trim change, but the correction still tried to correct. The result was severe nose up changes when the flaps were first deployed. Once the trim was manually put to the correct place for 10 deg of flap, the rest of the flap deployment was counteracted for very well. I installed a microswitch which disables the trim correction for the first 10 deg of flap.
2) I had the aileron trim and the altitude hold working backwards. Now corrected.
3) The fuel pump was leaking from an unknown number of places. Took it out and tightened a number of fittings.
4)I have an oil leak from one of the connections to the oil cooler. It looks like the pipe thread was cut too far into the cooler, with the result that the fitting could not be properly tightened. New oil cooler on order.
5) The Ray Allen stick grips with the flush pushbuttons for trim are a disaster. You can hardly go near them without inadvertantly operating the trim. New grips with a coolie hat switch are on order.
6) The comm flip/flop switch on the grip has to go. Too many times I have been transmitting on the wrong frequency because I accidently touched the switch. It's easy to reach the radio so I'll just switch it there.
7) I connected the bowden cables for the cabin heat backwards so in is ON and out is OFF. Have ordered new cables cause the old ones are too short to make the necessary changes.
8) Lots and lots of tweaking and changes on the EFIS and EIS.
9) Corrected a heavy left wing by removeing the rear spar bolt, moving the spar down about 3/64 ths of an inch, redrilling to the next size up and reassembling. Ther is NO tendency to heavyness any more.
10) I removed the inoperable aileron trim indicator and put it in the EFIS. Now I have to plug the hole.
11) My AOA does not talk to the audio panel. It worked originally, but I had the panel out to make some corrections and when I reinstalled it , it didn't work. Broken wire ?
12) Had to tweak the high speed setting on the governor. It was going into overspeed on takeoff. Good now.
13) I have some problem with the idle. Screw in all the way in, but still reluctant to idle. It seems to run a bit rough at low RPM as well. Pulled the plugs and they looked good.
14) For some reason, I did not put a screen in front of the intake air for the oil cooler. I still need to do that.
1) My handy dandy auto correct trim system which counteracts the nose down tendency of the flaps worked too well. The first two flap positions do not generate much trim change, but the correction still tried to correct. The result was severe nose up changes when the flaps were first deployed. Once the trim was manually put to the correct place for 10 deg of flap, the rest of the flap deployment was counteracted for very well. I installed a microswitch which disables the trim correction for the first 10 deg of flap.
2) I had the aileron trim and the altitude hold working backwards. Now corrected.
3) The fuel pump was leaking from an unknown number of places. Took it out and tightened a number of fittings.
4)I have an oil leak from one of the connections to the oil cooler. It looks like the pipe thread was cut too far into the cooler, with the result that the fitting could not be properly tightened. New oil cooler on order.
5) The Ray Allen stick grips with the flush pushbuttons for trim are a disaster. You can hardly go near them without inadvertantly operating the trim. New grips with a coolie hat switch are on order.
6) The comm flip/flop switch on the grip has to go. Too many times I have been transmitting on the wrong frequency because I accidently touched the switch. It's easy to reach the radio so I'll just switch it there.
7) I connected the bowden cables for the cabin heat backwards so in is ON and out is OFF. Have ordered new cables cause the old ones are too short to make the necessary changes.
8) Lots and lots of tweaking and changes on the EFIS and EIS.
9) Corrected a heavy left wing by removeing the rear spar bolt, moving the spar down about 3/64 ths of an inch, redrilling to the next size up and reassembling. Ther is NO tendency to heavyness any more.
10) I removed the inoperable aileron trim indicator and put it in the EFIS. Now I have to plug the hole.
11) My AOA does not talk to the audio panel. It worked originally, but I had the panel out to make some corrections and when I reinstalled it , it didn't work. Broken wire ?
12) Had to tweak the high speed setting on the governor. It was going into overspeed on takeoff. Good now.
13) I have some problem with the idle. Screw in all the way in, but still reluctant to idle. It seems to run a bit rough at low RPM as well. Pulled the plugs and they looked good.
14) For some reason, I did not put a screen in front of the intake air for the oil cooler. I still need to do that.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Training
I've been up twice with Colin for training purposes. I've never flown constant speed, and the insurance company won't cover me until I have 10 hrs with Colin. Going up again today and tomorrow.
This is an awesome plane. The first takeoff was like hanging on to the tigers tail. I've never flown anything so powerful and fast on the climb. Quite an experience.
Discovered that the nose wheel fairing did not have enough clearance to the tire. Did not hurt the fiberglass but it bent it enough to pop some of the paint off. It now has the clearance. I'm in the process of moving my trim indications to the EFIS. The aileron trim indicator is not working and rather than replace it, I'll move it. Pretty simple wiring change.
I moved the rear spar connection about 3/64 in down. Hopefully this will correct the heavy left wing..
I absolutely hate the stick grips I installed. Have ordered grips with a coolie hat on them. Anyone want the old ones? They are Ray Allen with the pushbutton trim switches, a flap switch, and a toggle center off spring back from either end switch.
I found that 50 lbs os sand in the luggage compartment makes it much easier to fly.
This is an awesome plane. The first takeoff was like hanging on to the tigers tail. I've never flown anything so powerful and fast on the climb. Quite an experience.
Discovered that the nose wheel fairing did not have enough clearance to the tire. Did not hurt the fiberglass but it bent it enough to pop some of the paint off. It now has the clearance. I'm in the process of moving my trim indications to the EFIS. The aileron trim indicator is not working and rather than replace it, I'll move it. Pretty simple wiring change.
I moved the rear spar connection about 3/64 in down. Hopefully this will correct the heavy left wing..
I absolutely hate the stick grips I installed. Have ordered grips with a coolie hat on them. Anyone want the old ones? They are Ray Allen with the pushbutton trim switches, a flap switch, and a toggle center off spring back from either end switch.
I found that 50 lbs os sand in the luggage compartment makes it much easier to fly.
Labels: modifications, training
Saturday, April 14, 2007
C-FXCS FLIES !!!!
The aircraft flew on Thurdsay April 5 2007.
Colin Jordan was at the controls and he was very impressed with the plane.
There are a few issues to be addressed: an oil leak, heavy left wing, aileron trim working in reverse, altitude hold which doesn't, and the aileron trim indicator doesn't work.
He flew for an hour at high power settings to break in the engine, then did some stuff at slower air speeds. Stalls are straight ahead.
More to come
Colin Jordan was at the controls and he was very impressed with the plane.
There are a few issues to be addressed: an oil leak, heavy left wing, aileron trim working in reverse, altitude hold which doesn't, and the aileron trim indicator doesn't work.
He flew for an hour at high power settings to break in the engine, then did some stuff at slower air speeds. Stalls are straight ahead.
More to come
