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We had a successful test flight yesterday evening.
The flight was 1 hour at 6,000ft VFR above scattered cloud, just before sunset, and it was truly exhilarating for all involved - the single best flight I've ever done in fact, in every regard. The plane flew flawless without a single problem, no heavy wing, no overheating, nothing at all - it worked like a dream. I could not have hoped for a better result.
We used a chase-plane aircraft, having coordinated with the local control towers beforehand, so we got great views from behind/beside at all stages of the flight. Some times at quite close range when operations permitted it safely. It looks like a dream in the air, and is very fast compared to the 210hp Cessna we were using - in both climb and cruise regimes.
We also took quite a lot of video from several "GoPro" cameras - internal and wing mounted - so I will share that once it's been processed into a short "highlights" clip. I wish I had brought my still camera in retrospect, as the views above cumulus cloud in the beginnings of the sunset were truly spectacular, but in fact we were just busy enough managing the flight safely as we were.
I am also happy to report that all the temperatures were very good - all about 355F except #2 which runs a little hotter. Closing the cowl flaps increases temperatures to above 380F at 25"Hg and 2500RPM, so they seem to work very effectively and should prove useful on colder days or at a lower power setting. I will make one further mod which is known to further increase their effectiveness, then report back.
The only minor things we noticed were the need for a little left rudder at higher speeds, Bob says this "sounds about right"; and then a few nuisance alarms which came from settings not being updated in the EMS - which we've already fixed.
Here's a thanks to all the Bearhawker's who've shown an interest and offered help over the last 18 months of work. It's great to be flying.
The flight was 1 hour at 6,000ft VFR above scattered cloud, just before sunset, and it was truly exhilarating for all involved - the single best flight I've ever done in fact, in every regard. The plane flew flawless without a single problem, no heavy wing, no overheating, nothing at all - it worked like a dream. I could not have hoped for a better result.
We used a chase-plane aircraft, having coordinated with the local control towers beforehand, so we got great views from behind/beside at all stages of the flight. Some times at quite close range when operations permitted it safely. It looks like a dream in the air, and is very fast compared to the 210hp Cessna we were using - in both climb and cruise regimes.
We also took quite a lot of video from several "GoPro" cameras - internal and wing mounted - so I will share that once it's been processed into a short "highlights" clip. I wish I had brought my still camera in retrospect, as the views above cumulus cloud in the beginnings of the sunset were truly spectacular, but in fact we were just busy enough managing the flight safely as we were.
I am also happy to report that all the temperatures were very good - all about 355F except #2 which runs a little hotter. Closing the cowl flaps increases temperatures to above 380F at 25"Hg and 2500RPM, so they seem to work very effectively and should prove useful on colder days or at a lower power setting. I will make one further mod which is known to further increase their effectiveness, then report back.
The only minor things we noticed were the need for a little left rudder at higher speeds, Bob says this "sounds about right"; and then a few nuisance alarms which came from settings not being updated in the EMS - which we've already fixed.
Here's a thanks to all the Bearhawker's who've shown an interest and offered help over the last 18 months of work. It's great to be flying.
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