N3XH Phase 1 Flight Testing

[rodsmith]

Several builders have done a great job documenting their builds. What I have not seen is much detail about initial test flying, I plan to document my flights as I go through the task based testing as outlined in the new EAA gold colored flight test manual and test card book. My DAR gave me the option of task based or 40hrs. My test area is a 50NM radius from my home at Crawford airport (99V). He also asked for a list of airports I wanted to land at during phase 1 testing. I drew a 50NM radius circle on the chart and listed every public airport within it except Aspen and Telluride which have landing fees. They are documented in the restrictions on my AC. Crawford's elevation is 6470 with a 5000', 40' wide paved East-West runway (7-25). The runway has a 2% grade, sloping down from the East end. There is an alfalfa field on the south side of the runway smooth enough to land on, about 2000' usable. My first three flights I took off on pavement and landed uphill on grass. Christmas day it snowed enough that I won't be using that again until it melts off. The major hazard on our airport is deer. We have a local herd of about 30 mule deer, not uncommon to see some on the runway, especially during the winter. One of the reasons we recently made the airport day use only. I invite others to join in with their experiences, comments etc.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Nice post Rod.

I met with my DAR yesterday as he was on the airport and he looked at all my paperwork prior to me submitting it online. All was good! He has previously looked at my plane twice during the build. I asked for and received 100NM radius for phase 1 once I get my airworthiness certificate. I asked for 100 as it allows me to head to some lower terrain for engine break-in purposes, my home airport is at 5637’. Planning on the inspection in the next 10 days or so.

I too am doing the EAA task based phase 1. My buddy did it on their Kitfox and with someone on the ground on a radio relaying info it can be done in under 12 hours

 

[jaredyates]

Great idea Rod, this process has changed in the past few years and we can always use more ideas and data. I applaud you for taking the testing phase seriously, it will make for an optimal relationship with the plane. You'll know what it can do and how to make it do it. One option we have to make the thread easier to find is to put it into the Flight Testing channel, but that is entirely optional.

 

[rodsmith]

Card 1 - First Flight: Card 1 says to make this flight without flaps. I elected to take off with 2 notches and land with 3 notches. That is how I took off and landed while getting checked out in Virgil Irwin's beautiful Model 5. The other reason for flaps was I wanted to limit the ground speed during landing initially, which is quite a bit higher due to the elevation. I listed the primary goal of the flight as starting to break in the cylinders. Flying at full power is not conducive to completing most of the test cards, so the majority of testing will have to wait on the rings seating. The plane took off and climbed so fast I was definitely struggling to keep up. My plan was to climb to 8000' and circle the airport within gliding distance. Half way around the pattern I glanced at the altimeter tape and was at 8300' with 1700fpm climb rate. The only squawk on the first flight was way too much angle on the rudder tab. Keeping the ball centered, my left leg quickly went numb leading me to land after 20 minutes of circling instead of my planned 30 minutes. I don't know that there are words to properly express the feelings after successfully completing the first flight in a plane you built. Definitely a feeling of relief, mixed with joy, and awe that the plane you built flew like you hoped it would. Flying with Virgil gave me an idea of what the take off and climb performance would be. I can't thank Virgil enough for the time in his plane, the Five flies very much like the Four. I would not have made the first flight without some time with Virgil or Jared. My initial plan had been to train with Jared, the only reason I didn't was the sum of travel costs to North Carolina and feeling the financial strain of many unplanned expenditures during the last year of construction. Test Card 1 signed off!

 

[rodsmith]

Great idea Rod, this process has changed in the past few years and we can always use more ideas and data. I applaud you for taking the testing phase seriously, it will make for an optimal relationship with the plane. You'll know what it can do and how to make it do it. One option we have to make the thread easier to find is to put it into the Flight Testing channel, but that is entirely optional.

Great idea Jared, lets move this thread there, I don't know how to.

 

[rodsmith]

Nice post Rod.

I met with my DAR yesterday as he was on the airport and he looked at all my paperwork prior to me submitting it online. All was good! He has previously looked at my plane twice during the build. I asked for and received 100NM radius for phase 1 once I get my airworthiness certificate. I asked for 100 as it allows me to head to some lower terrain for engine break-in purposes, my home airport is at 5637’. Planning on the inspection in the next 10 days or so.

I too am doing the EAA task based phase 1. My buddy did it on their Kitfox and with someone on the ground on a radio relaying info it can be done in under 12 hours

Great idea, I had thought about asking for an expansion to include Moab, 4580' elevation. If I had gotten started earlier in the fall, my plan was to drive my travel trailer to Moab, park it on BLM land adjacent to the airport and do my engine break in there. I would have flown to Moab, via Grand Junction and followed I-70 there, instead of direct which is over some very rough country with few reasonable emergency landing possibilities. The G3X system logs 81 parameters. No need for a notepad while testing, allows more time to watch for traffic!

 

[svyolo]

The DAR I used gave me 75 nm, and I didn't even ask.

 

[svyolo]

I flew 2.4 hours today, so far 16.1 total. The weather here in the PNW sucks, but has been good enough to fly that in 3 weeks. I am good with the 40 hours, I am daylight,/wx limited so if I can get airborne, I try to get at least an hour. Engine runs good. Now getting the cylinders to peak EGT at same time so I can run LOP in the future. So far no issues with the engine, electrics, or fuel. My induction might be currently a bit below average. I can only maintain 24" MP up to 5000'. I have a fix for it, hopefully, but too cold to do FG work, it will have to wait until sprint. I did make the mold.

I flew 25 nm to the south to a different airport today and did some circuits. I think that is my first VFR cross country since 1982. LOL

 

[Nev]

Interested in how you fix that.

 

[Nev]

Good idea for this thread Rod.

I found the 40 hour test phase to be far too long - 20 hours would have been plenty given that we're not testing a first of type, and most of our engines are closely derived from previously certified Lycomings or similar. Essentially what we're doing is testing that our systems and controls are functioning as they should, and fine tuning them so they do.

My initial few flights centered around ensuring there was no catastrophic issues. They were flown very close to the airfield and the first couple were kept within gliding distance. I was also running the engine in, so this initial few hours were at power settings too high for much else and limited to things like logging CHT's during climb to altitude. After about 2 hours the CHT's had all decreased, and I ventured further afield and continued the test program, using the NZ Sport Aircraft Association (SAA) and the EAA test cards. Both had their own strengths. All of the test flying had been completed by 20 hours and the remainder was essentially me learning to fly the BH and getting used to tailwheel handling.

Good idea to do the initial takeoff and landing with flaps. For manual flaps I can't see any benefit to going flapless, particularly in an tailwheel aircraft and particularly on a sealed runway. All of my test flying was conducted from grass runways, however I had the luxury of choice.

One interesting test was the flight to VNE. This was completed once all the fairings had been installed as I initially had a number of them removed for ease of access to make control adjustments.

The one small issue that took the longest time to resolve was the heavy left wing. Even when I thought I had it solved, I became aware of a small and stubborn "steady heading sideslip". All sorted in the end.

 

[rodsmith]

Your are doing great John! My intent was to fly every day after first flight, with all flights being an hour minimum. For various reasons that hasn't worked out.

 

[svyolo]

Interested in how you fix that.

Fix which one? The engine leaning or low MP? EFI engine leaning is done "Gammi" style, but electronically. I can add or subtract fuel to each cylinder to get them to peak closer together. The MP issue is a design problem (mine). I have a 3" opening in the right intake on the bottom (many RV's use a filter in the left intake). It feeds a Vans' FAB via Skeet tube. I will make a fiberglass "scoop" to hopefully catch more ram air. I have seen stuff similar to that on some certified aircraft. But it is too cold for fiberglassing. I already made the mold.

Another hour of flying today. The weather was closing in or I would have flown longer. Heavy wing almost completely fixed, and getting close on the EGT peaking at the same time.

Each flight I make a few adjustments to the EFI. I can now start in the cold without ever changing the mixture. OIl consumption seems very low. 17 TT so far.

 

[Nev]

Well I was thinking of the MP issue, but actually both problems now that you mention it. Tell us more about the EFI system. Do you mean to say that you can effectively tune the nozzles.....without touching the nozzles, as in electronically ? That would be a real step forward. Making great progress there John and i enjoy following your updates.

 

[rodsmith]

Flights 2 and 3. About 1 hr each no test cards completed. Forgot to mention that for the first flights I am ballasted to be 1/4 to 1/3 back from the front CG limit. That is per the test card and Bob Barrows. Two 60# sand bags secured where the rear seats would be, gave me a CG of 13.5. I made a major adjustment to the rudder tab, from 20deg to about 5deg. Now just need light pressure on the left peddle while high power cruising to keep the ball centered. Spent a good amount of these flights practicing turns. Started with 30 deg bank, then 45, then 60. Coordination is good but I tend to add too much back pressure and actually start climbing. Still working on that. The pitch really is quite sensitive. I performed a fuel flow test by starting at 7000' and climbing at 25 deg and holding that attitude until 40K then pushing over to level. Repeated at 30 deg. This was on both tanks, boost pump off. The fuel pressure never wavered from 28.5psi. Will repeat with left and right tanks selected. I also calibrated the airspeed at 22 squared, 8000'. Flew all four cardinal directions. East and west true air speed matched ground speed at 133K North was 132 ground speed and South was 134K gs. So airspeed is right on at 133K. Have to wait on testing at lower speeds. My first three flights, the air mass was very still. Would have been a perfect time for determining V speeds, glide speed, climb angles etc. I also checked lateral stability, trimmed for level flight gave the stick a push, settled back to the same airspeed after 3 oscillations. Fun stuff.


Before

 

[svyolo]

I will resurrect an EFI thread for that in the next couple of days. Might be thread drift for this one.

 

[rodsmith]

Flight 4-New Years Day: 1.4 hrs. Took off with 0 flaps, believe I prefer that if not doing short field work. Still gets in the air really short. I believe my rings are starting to seat. I could lean much further. My first flight, fuel flow was nearly 20 gph (not calibrated). Yesterday I got it down to 15gph, with the cowl flaps fully closed the entire flight. I try to keep my CHTs mid to high 300s. Highest cylinder yesterday was #2 at 380. Oil use has been way less than I expected. I started with 10 quarts the first flight, saw no decrease until after the 3rd flight, added 3/4 quart, after the 4th flight still showing 10 1/2 quarts. Practiced 75 deg banked turns, got the back pressure correct. I found that I really like 45 deg banked turns. I can see through the skylight to watch for traffic throughout the turn. Getting much better at maintaining altitude in level flight. Was bold enough to fly away from the nest to an airport 9 air miles away. It is 500' lower so was circling at 7500'. First time I have seen 23" mp. So far I have not found that the plane has any bad habits, it does exactly what you ask of it. Bob Barrows is a genius!. I really love this airplane! I have been doing very thorough pre and post flight inspections. Before flight yesterday I found several spinner screws starting to loosen up. I have an aluminum trim strip over the aft edge of the skylight two screws were gone and some others were loose. Seems like a strange place for high vibration. The engine prop combo seems very smooth to me, but when I get a chance I will get a dynamic prop balance.

 

[rodsmith]

I am very frustrated as my last flight was on Friday the 3rd. The rings seem to be seating. On that flight I was able to lean past peak with CHTs peaking form 370 to 390, cowl flaps closed. Of course you don't want to be lean of peak while breaking in, so set the mixture 125 deg rich of peak which is best power. The engine was at 6.5hrs after the flight so I removed the cowling for an oil change. Was very pleased to find the oil screen totally clean. I didn't have a filter cutter so had our on field mechanic open it up for me. The only thing in the filter was some small shiny flakes which he said were chrome flakes off of the rings, very common during engine break in. With the oil drained I installed the Antispat.aero oil pan heater in the right hand sump drain. After my second flight I had noticed some carbonized splatter on the bottom of the cowl below the exhaust header to muffler joint. After following flights the splatter seemed to slow down and stop. With the cowl off I discovered that oil had been dripping down the inside of the cylinder 6 intake header onto the exhaust header. I searched all over for the source of the oil but never found anything. I thought it must be from one of the cylinder head oil drain line connections but everything was tight and dry. Due to some other obligations it was a week until I got the cowl back on. I planned to fly Saturday, forecast was for overcast conditions but I woke up to a snowstorm. Monday was clear, cold and calm. I taxied to the fuel pumps and did a run up after filling up. The lightspeed ignitions have been very consistent with a 40 rpm drop on one ignition. This time running on #2 ignition, which powers the bottom plugs, I had a rough running engine and 150rpm drop. Back in the hangar I removed the bottom plugs and found nothing that looked like a problem. Now I am still trouble shooting #2 ignition and so far haven't found the problem. Trying to think what might have happened with the cowling off to cause the problem. Have missed two beautiful flying days so far and the next three are supposed to be the same.

 

[TrueAirSpeed]

Thanks for your write ups Rod. You mentioned #2 CHT being the warmest of the six. I've experienced that with my 0-540 and have heard others mention it also. While #1 runs the coolest, #2 can be the hottest. I attribute that to the descending blade of the prop cooling #1 and the ascending blade of the prop not cooling #2. Your or anyone else's thoughts. Terry

 

[svyolo]

My engines 1st 5 hours I had bottom plus foul several times. Auton plugs. i started doingv a Mag chech after landing as wellI. Hasnt happen since. I pulled the offending plugs and found small bits shorting out the plugs. Again, hasn't happened since 5 hours. 35 hours now.

 

[gregc]

An option similar to svyolo's suggestion is to run the engine at a high idle (1200 or so) for 30 seconds before shutting it down.

 

[kestrel]

Do you have an engine monitor that lets you see EGT and CHT for each cylinder? That should be able to tell you which cylinder has the problem.

 

[rodsmith]

Excellent point, I should have thought of that.

 

[rodsmith]

I'm back in the air after a 3 week break. After the oil change I had some spark plug and other part issues. Who would think it would be hard to find the recommended auto plugs. Ended up ordering them with a 5 day delay. Had some other obligations to fulfill. When I was ready to fly again had several days with a 10-15k direct crosswind. With my limited experience in the Bearhawk I didn't want to chance flying in that. Made up for lost time, flying 5 hours in the last two days. At 11 hours, I think the rings are mostly seated. Haven't used any oil since the oil change, the cylinder temps run in the mid 300s with mixture set to max power and cowl flaps fully closed. Going forward I will spend some time at full power, but also start doing testing that requires lower power. I did complete test card 17 - EFIS testing. I now have a much better understanding of the G3X and GNX375. Between flights I would scan through the pilot manuals to learn things that I couldn't grasp in the air. I don't care how much you read the manuals, some of it doesn't gel until you use the function in the air. The capability of the system is just amazing I still have a lot to learn. I'm trusting the engine enough to venture to the edges of my test area. I'm still trying to stay over areas that provide emergency landing sites, not flying over rough country. After four iterations I have the rudder tab where I want it. At five degrees I was still holding notable pressure on the left peddle. I decided to fly without it. I had to hold right peddle and left aileron to fly straight and level. I don't understand the dynamics of that. I adjusted the tab to about 2 deg and reinstalled it. Now just a very little left rudder pressure and it flies level hands off again. Weather was very low earlier but looking better so about time to fly again.

 

[whee]

Good stuff Rod! Phase 1 flying can be so fun or a significant challenge. I enjoyed it but was glad when I was done.

133kts…I’m always jealous of you big engine guys.

Sounds like you’re getting some MP. I’d love to see 23” at 7500 feet.

 

[rodsmith]

I now have 19 hours on the plane. It is flying great, and I am now much more comfortable with it, especially landing. After 17 hours of break in, my oil usage is 1 qt in 10 hours. I'm afraid it won't get much better. Although, I tried to limit it, I spent too much time on the ground before getting in the air for the first flight. Finally started working through the test cards. In the test manual there is a matrix showing weight and CG for each test. I have completed all those at light weight/forward CG. I'll now do the tests requiring heavy weight/forward/CG. I have determined that clean stall is 46kt,
flaps 2 stall is 44kt, and flaps 4 is 41kt. I have calibrated my airspeed at several intervals between 50kt and 135kt. It is within 1kt of measured speed using 3 leg gps ground speed, except at 50kt where is reads 2 kt low. It took me 3 iterations to calibrate the fuel flow. This was a pain because our fuel pad is not level, so I would fill the tanks, then park it in my hangar and weigh the additional fuel I had to add from a can to get the tanks totally full. The initial K factor was quite a bit off, so fuel flows that I reported before were low. At 8000' 24/2200 my fuel flow is 15.5gph at 135kt. That is with the engine leaned to best power, 125 deg rich of peak. I did a test at what I think I will normally cruise at. 8000', 2100 rpm, 50 deg lean of peak. Fuel flow 9.9 gal hr and 125 kt. I didn't record the manifold pressure, I think it was about 21.5, full throttle. That extra 10kt comes at a huge cost! The lean assist feature in the G3X is great. As each cylinder peaks, the graphic changes from green to blue and you see a number showing how far below peak each cylinder is. I was thrilled to see that all 6 cylinders peaked within 15 deg. One of my biggest surprises was simulating a go around with full flaps. I thought it would require a large forward force on the stick until you adjusted the trim. With trim set for 52kt, when I went to full power and lifted the nose it didn't take much pressure on the stick to keep from over rotating. Biggest problem in that scenario is getting the flap setting reduced before you over speed them. I was surprised at the 46kt clean stall speed, expected it to be less. I am on the fence over installing VGs. Would like to see lower stall speeds. I'm thinking I should install them before completing the tests if I am going to. I think completing the tests should go pretty quickly now. I am thoroughly enjoying the testing, you really get to know your airplane.

 

[jaredyates]

Thank you for the update, all of that sounds totally in line with my experience, except for maybe the trim on go-around. The amount of pitch force needed during a go around will depend on CG. The more forward the cg, the more pitch trim is needed to reduce the stick force, so that may have been a factor in our differences of experience.

I'd be curious to know which fuel flow sensor you have and which k-value you started with and ended up on. I'm knee deep in fuel flow sensors at the moment and hope to have a lot of detailed info when I make it to the other side. But so far I'm 6 weeks into a fuel flow odyssey without any flying. I hope to have it resolved shortly so that I can also complete the condition inspection.

 

[rodsmith]

Thank you for the update, all of that sounds totally in line with my experience, except for maybe the trim on go-around. The amount of pitch force needed during a go around will depend on CG. The more forward the cg, the more pitch trim is needed to reduce the stick force, so that may have been a factor in our differences of experience.

Hi Jared, I was flying at 2150lbs and 15" cg when doing the go around testing.

I'd be curious to know which fuel flow sensor you have and which k-value you started with and ended up on. I'm knee deep in fuel flow sensors at the moment and hope to have a lot of detailed info when I make it to the other side. But so far I'm 6 weeks into a fuel flow odyssey without any flying. I hope to have it resolved shortly so that I can also complete the condition inspection.

I have the EI FT60 red cube. The default setting was 68000. I ended up at 66145.

 

[alaskabearhawk]

FWIW, I used the gold cube, FT-90. The fuel sensor product comparison on the EI web site says: "Up to 350 HP engines, engine driven fuel pumps only" Since I have a boost pump, I went with the gold cube. I don't know if that makes any difference in practice.

 

[jaredyates]

Thanks Rod, that is interesting. One of the selling points of the EI units is that they are supposed to be pre-calibrated so that you don't have to adjust the k-value but I'm glad you've got it sorted.

 

[svyolo]

I assumed that was the case as well. My EFI computer spits out a "red cube signal" that was waaayyyy way off for my engine monitor. It is probably within 10% now, but I won't get it tighter until I go somewhere for an hour or two.

 

[500AGL]

I now have 19 hours on the plane. It is flying great, and I am now much more comfortable with it, especially landing……… I was surprised at the 46kt clean stall speed, expected it to be less. I am on the fence over installing VGs. Would like to see lower stall speeds. I'm thinking I should install them before completing the tests if I am going to. I think completing the tests should go pretty quickly now. I am thoroughly enjoying the testing, you really get to know your airplane.

Rod, go ahead and install a set of Stolspeed VG’s in the 1.1-2.5% Chord range. That alone, with a CG in the middle (23-25% Chord) should make a significant difference. The CG is important to maximize the lift ability of the wing rather than creating drag on the tail having to hold the engine up.

 

[Ursa Buteo 272]

Rod,

First journey on the VG path should be under the horizontal stabilizer, about 3 in forward of the hinge line.

Very notable improvement in pitch authority at slow speeds.

Adding VG to the wing did not result in a noticeable reduction in stall speed. It did / does keep the feel solid and crisp. When the stall happens it exhibits a large sink rate. No nose drop, sink is formidable and treated with caution as it takes some energy and time to arrest the sink.

Interesting your speeds are almost Identical to mine.

Kevin D
N272DG
Phase 1 complete

KCHD

 

[rodsmith]

Rod,

First journey on the VG path should be under the horizontal stabilizer, about 3 in forward of the hinge line.

Very notable improvement in pitch authority at slow speeds.

Adding VG to the wing did not result in a noticeable reduction in stall speed. It did / does keep the feel solid and crisp. When the stall happens it exhibits a large sink rate. No nose drop, sink is formidable and treated with caution as it takes some energy and time to arrest the sink.

Interesting your speeds are almost Identical to mine.

Kevin D
N272DG
Phase 1 complete

KCHD

Hi Kevin, was that with the flat or profiled tail, or is it advantageous for either. I did notice that with the profiled tail, power off stalls with flaps 4 required nearly full aft stick at 15"cg.

 

[Ursa Buteo 272]

Have installed VG’s on both horizontal types of construction with positive results on both.

My pitch stability and hand off return to trim speed were all acceptable. Then I lowered the horizontal leading edge about 3/16 of an inch after installation of tail VG’s
no stability degradation but notable improvement in
low speed elevator authority.

Your results may vary. I miss read the tape measure during construction and my fuselage is 18 inches longer than stock…….. nice mistake.
Proceed with incremental caution…

Kevin D

 

[Nev]

Very interesting Kev.

 

[Nev]

I'd like to start a new thread on this topic. I expect I'm about to learn something here !

 

[rodsmith]

I now have 28 hours on the plane. On my post on 2-18 I had reported I was losing a quart of oil in 10 hours. Turned out it was somewhat worse than that. After a detailed discussion with the most knowledgeable engine guy I know, I decided to work more on seating the rings. Lowell is one of our chapter tech counselors, was an engineer at Pratt and Whitney, after retiring there he moved to Colorado and spent 5 years re building Lycoming engines at Western Skyways in Montrose. He had stories about how engines that had failed to break in had been saved by very hard running for a period of time. He suggested long flights at as high a power setting as temperatures would allow, no additional landings or flight at low power settings. So that is all I have been doing the last 8 hours. A 2 hour flight, and two 3 hour flights. I think it worked. My last 5 hours of flying, I have seen no decrease in oil level. Although I have a 50nm radius test area, the amount of low elevation area is limited, and by low elevation I am talking 5-6 thousand feet. To get the most MP I found the best area to fly was the Colorado River valley between Grand Junction and Rifle. I have spent a lot of time flying back and forth in the valley at 6000', 500' agl. For about a 30 mile stretch there is a road that runs next to I-70, low traffic, no wires, seems like a great emergency landing option. A couple flights I saw 25" of MP pressure. I will take one more high power 2 hour flight, then change oil to Phillips Victory, then I can get on with flight testing. It's interesting how many close bird encounters I am having. Hawks, Eagles, Ravens, a lone goose. Today was the first time I had to take evasive action. Had a flock of 50 or so Sand Hill Cranes approaching at my altitude, made a 45 deg turn to avoid them. The more I fly this plane the more impressed I am with it. It is such a docile tail dragger. Actually should make a good trainer for a new pilot or pilot new to tail draggers, with an instructor skilled in teaching management of high power engines.

 

[svyolo]

I thing I am about a quart every 8-10, with no leaking, and I have a air/oil seperator.

I got my TW rating in a 65 hp Champ a few months before my first flight. I was a bit worried about the "high power" part of the TW equation on my 540 BH. Turns out the BH rudder is also "high power". I really didn't really notice a difference in that regard. Obviously the climb is a lot better.

 

[gregc]

Normal oil consumption on a 6 cylinder engine is a quart in 4hrs to a quart in 12 hours so I think you are fine.

 

[rodsmith]

Normal oil consumption on a 6 cylinder engine is a quart in 4hrs to a quart in 12 hours so I think you are fine.

I am probably setting my standards too high. Lowell's award winning homebuilt has an engine nearly identical to mine. He doesn't need to add oil between oil changes at 30 hours, and he had tougher conditions for breakin, doing it in July.

 

[gregc]

There is such a thing as too little oil consumption. It's a balance between oil use and cylinder wear.

 

[rodsmith]

No better way to start the day than an early morning flight. My first flight in 4 weeks. I had the plane down for about a week for an oil change and to fix some squawks. The day I put it back together to fly the next morning I had a stupid accident causing a left shoulder injury. By the next morning I was in a lot of pain, no way was I going to fly for awhile. Couldn't raise my arm to level or apply any force with it. Took two weeks to get an x-ray and a cortisone shot in the shoulder which totally relieved the pain finally, nice to sleep again. Today I did accelerated stalls, test card 16. You are supposed to do them at a light forward weight and at a light aft weight, today was light forward weight. The tests were very inconclusive. You are supposed to roll into a stable 30 deg bank each direction, idle throttle and let it stall. Unlike level stalls I could not get it to break. Around 45 knots it would develop a big descent rate and tend to tighten the turn. This was true for no flaps, flaps 2 and full flaps, both directions. So apparently it stalls mid 40s without a break. AOA was indicating it was stalled also. Curious what others have experienced if they have done this test. By the time I landed I was at 11" CG, my most forward so far, I like the way it lands with forward CG. I'm at 33 hours now. I think I can finish the tests in a few more hours. Break in is officially over now that I have changed to a multiviscosity oil with the anti-scuff compound.

 

[jaredyates]

That matches my experience at forward cg. It will get more exciting as you move aft.

 

[svyolo]

Stalls above 1g can be quite exciting. The more g's, the more "fun". I doubt anyone in a BH will stall at a high enough speed/G to make a difference. I did mine at about 65 knots IAS - no issue.

 

[rodsmith]

Completed my Phase 1 testing today at 44.9 hours logged. The extra time spent insuring the rings seated was responsible for going over 40hrs before completing all the test cards. I could have signed out last Saturday at 40.5 hrs but I was committed to completing all the test cards. I spent 22 hours completing the test cards. Overall the testing went very well. The eye opener for me was how different it flies at light weight versus heavy. It was only the last few hours that I flew it over about 2050 lbs. Approaching at 2300-2450 lbs at the same 60k, the cowling blocks most of the view of the runway.. It's almost like I have to learn how to land it all over again. So a few numbers. I determined Vy to be 65k Vx 55k. Rate of climb at Vy at 2344 lbs starting at 7000' (8800da), 1025 fpm. Vg, best glide speed 75k, 9:1 glide ratio. Minimum sink, 700 fpm at 60k. Huge difference in glide when the prop control is pulled all the way out at idle. You can feel the acceleration. I still have work to do with the AP. I was encouraged that it did a pretty good job on a very rough flight of keeping the wings level and altitude within 150' ( was penetrating 800 fpm thermals). The yaw damper did a great job of keeping the ball nearly centered. Next up is installing the Stolspeed VGs, then I will be repeating a lot of these tests. Pictures of 360#s of sand for heavy weight testing, including my co-pilot, Bagman Bob. The next flight I added a 7th bag for a take off weight of 2585, 20.2 CG. Handled fine, except not happy with the view on approach.

 

[svyolo]

I got my 40, but went for quantity over quality based on wx and limited daylight. Still need to do the heavy weight stuff. Next week. I may end up with similar hours.

A light airliner or a fighter is a rocketship. A heavy one, is a fully loaded truck. No different, but you have to be able to fly both. Or, a light or heavy BH.

 

[rodsmith]

The extra time I spent insuring the rings were seated paid off. I was going to settle for 8 hrs/quart before talking to my tech counselor. Took several more hours and lots of fuel to get there before completing the testing. Finally had to add a quart at 21 hrs after my change to Phillips Victory. Determined that the correct starting oil level for my engine is 9 quarts. I started at 10 and it was down to 9 in 1 1/2 hours, another 21 hours to 8 quarts. My Maule would quickly dispose of any oil above 8 quarts. The O-540J engines have a different sump design,

 

[rodsmith]

Completed another test this morning, one that is not in the test book. I wanted to determine the service ceiling for my airplane. I borrowed an oxygen set up for the test and was able to climb to 17,200, could have probably made it to 17,500 but the climb rate got real slow there. If I understand standard temp calculations, the temp at that altitude (27F) was 30 deg F above standard. Cruising at 17,000, MP was 15.8, 2200 rpm, 53% power so about 159HP, indicated airspeed 98kt, true airspeed 130kt., fuel flow 8.8 gph. I also had a cheap pulse oximeter to play with. Resting O2 on the ground at 6500 98%. Started O2 at 14000' 94%. Took off the oxygen at 17000, O2 bottomed at 83% within a couple minutes. One of my goals was to determine if I should get an O2 setup. I'm thinking not when I can cross the rockies at 12000'. Would be rare to need to go higher, and I definetly won't be flying over the mountains at night. I need to consider passengers though. My wife got a little light headed while 4-wheeling last week, at 12'800 on Engineer pass.

 

[TLyon]

My 2c from flying the RV around is that a little portable setup is nice. Even in the 10-12k range the wife and I both feel better and less fatigued with a little oxygen after a couple hours up there. And sometimes a couple 1000’ extra can get you significantly smoother air. Not as much fun as being down low but nice to have options.