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It's been two weeks since my Patrol's first flight, but only a bit over 2 hrs flight time. It's strange how everything works perfectly in the hangar, but some things go funky in flight. While I was definitely in 'sensory overload', on my first flight, I did note that the ailerons were HEAVY! Wasn't too much of an alarm, just noteworthy. The second flight was in a bit more wind. Without going into boring details, the wind that day was creating a roller, from the treeline parallel to my runway. This is a very common condition... nothing unusual. What was unusual, was that the roll corrections were alarmingly difficult, because of the stiff ailerons! I'm thinking unkind thoughts about my Patrol... A quick chat with Donna revealed that her ailerons were light as a Citabria. This told me that I had some investigation to do. (saga condensed here) When I rigged my ailerons, I had them about 1/4" below the flaps and wingtips, figuring that the airloads would even everything up. BIG MISTAKE! Picking the ailerons up, about 3/8" made all the difference in the world! Now, they're light and responsive, at slow speeds and nicely firm when going fast. Now, mine are just a hair high of the wingtips and even with the flaps (I adjusted the flaps up a bit, to match). One of my buddies questioned how that adjustment could change the feel, but I can assure you it changed the plane completely. The rudder is quite powerful and pleasantly sensitive, pitch is responsive but not nervous or twitchy and now roll control is nicely balanced with the pitch. Not too light (which makes for a heavy workload) and not too heavy.
Something I noticed, fairly quickly, was that my Garmin G3X was doing something a bit unusual. On takeoff, airspeed came up nicely, climbout saw airspeed as expected and altitude responding. Cruise was similarly reflected by the numbers displayed. Power back, to slow a bit and (to my surprise) airspeed displayed zero (0). Hmmm.... this thing really slows down fast! The standby G5 was working perfectly in all regimes. Much head scratching and internet searching revealed nothing. I checked almost everything. Thinking I had a bad ADAHARS unit, I called Garmin. Got a nice gentleman on the phone, who politely listened to my saga. After a significant pause, he suggested (firmly) that I had reversed some pitot/static/AOA lines... How dare he accuse me of such!!! Then, as his words sunk in, it started making sense. Well, you guessed it, I had the pitot and static lines reversed, on the primary ADAHARS. 10 minutes later, the lines were fixed and a quick flight ( with pleasantly light ailerons!) saw the G3X doing all the cool stuff it's supposed to do. How the heck it ever displayed any speed at all, is a mystery to me, but hey... It did.
With those items sorted out, I was able to make some longer flights. After about .6 hrs at 70%, I noted my oil temp was 235 and RISING. A quick turn back to the home field, accompanied by a power reduction, brought them down to about 233.... CHT's were about 370, for the highest and 350 on the low. Bear in mind that this is a 0 SMOH engine. I didn't put a 'cooling lip' on my lower cowl, but realized that I need one. A quick bit of bending and stretching yielded a nice lip that was quickly attached. ALSO, bit of research directed me to a Lycoming service letter that described a new vernitherm valve, that superseded previous numbers. The letter advised to replace the old unit, with the new one, if high oil temps were encountered. So, Spruce got $330.00 more of my money. The combination of the lip and the new vernitherm has my oil temps about 208 now. Still higher than I'd like (it's not August yet), but not alarming. Supposedly, new overhauls can be expected to run high temps for the first 25 hours. I suspect that I don't have enough cowl exit area and will need to modify that. For the time being, It's good.
Now, let me assure you that none of these fixes went as quickly as my description might lead you to believe. There IS a reason for the phase 1 flight restrictions and it just takes a while to shake out all those gremlins! But, just as there's satisfaction gleaned from creating a piece of a plane, there's also a bit of a smile when a problem is solved.
I can say that I like the plane a bit more, every time I fly it! Compared to my Husky, it's downright cavernous. 3" doesn't sound like a lot, but 3" more elbow room is a BIG DEAL in an airplane! I really love the landing gear! Not sure how many landings I've made, but I only bounced one, which is an indication of too much speed (right?). In the bounce, I glanced at the airspeed... 42 mph.. Now, ain't that cool! 42 mph was just a tad TOO FAST... Ya gotta love that!
Keep on building!
Bill
Something I noticed, fairly quickly, was that my Garmin G3X was doing something a bit unusual. On takeoff, airspeed came up nicely, climbout saw airspeed as expected and altitude responding. Cruise was similarly reflected by the numbers displayed. Power back, to slow a bit and (to my surprise) airspeed displayed zero (0). Hmmm.... this thing really slows down fast! The standby G5 was working perfectly in all regimes. Much head scratching and internet searching revealed nothing. I checked almost everything. Thinking I had a bad ADAHARS unit, I called Garmin. Got a nice gentleman on the phone, who politely listened to my saga. After a significant pause, he suggested (firmly) that I had reversed some pitot/static/AOA lines... How dare he accuse me of such!!! Then, as his words sunk in, it started making sense. Well, you guessed it, I had the pitot and static lines reversed, on the primary ADAHARS. 10 minutes later, the lines were fixed and a quick flight ( with pleasantly light ailerons!) saw the G3X doing all the cool stuff it's supposed to do. How the heck it ever displayed any speed at all, is a mystery to me, but hey... It did.
With those items sorted out, I was able to make some longer flights. After about .6 hrs at 70%, I noted my oil temp was 235 and RISING. A quick turn back to the home field, accompanied by a power reduction, brought them down to about 233.... CHT's were about 370, for the highest and 350 on the low. Bear in mind that this is a 0 SMOH engine. I didn't put a 'cooling lip' on my lower cowl, but realized that I need one. A quick bit of bending and stretching yielded a nice lip that was quickly attached. ALSO, bit of research directed me to a Lycoming service letter that described a new vernitherm valve, that superseded previous numbers. The letter advised to replace the old unit, with the new one, if high oil temps were encountered. So, Spruce got $330.00 more of my money. The combination of the lip and the new vernitherm has my oil temps about 208 now. Still higher than I'd like (it's not August yet), but not alarming. Supposedly, new overhauls can be expected to run high temps for the first 25 hours. I suspect that I don't have enough cowl exit area and will need to modify that. For the time being, It's good.
Now, let me assure you that none of these fixes went as quickly as my description might lead you to believe. There IS a reason for the phase 1 flight restrictions and it just takes a while to shake out all those gremlins! But, just as there's satisfaction gleaned from creating a piece of a plane, there's also a bit of a smile when a problem is solved.
I can say that I like the plane a bit more, every time I fly it! Compared to my Husky, it's downright cavernous. 3" doesn't sound like a lot, but 3" more elbow room is a BIG DEAL in an airplane! I really love the landing gear! Not sure how many landings I've made, but I only bounced one, which is an indication of too much speed (right?). In the bounce, I glanced at the airspeed... 42 mph.. Now, ain't that cool! 42 mph was just a tad TOO FAST... Ya gotta love that!
Keep on building!
Bill
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