good to go

[Ron Shannon]

Yesterday I finished 254R's 40-hour Phase 1 flight test period --
which means that henceforth, nowhere is safe from Rebellious invasion.
;-)

For those who may be interested, detailed performance data collected
to date is posted at http://n254mr.com/node/1607 As expected, the
calibrated & confirmed numbers are a little lower than the indicated
numbers reported in my exuberant "first flights" posting, but they're
still very good. Engine temps are all good and break-in is complete.

Significant mistakes I made early on include 1) not putting pedal pads
on the rudder/brake pedal tubing at the beginning, and 2) mounting the
brake cylinders to the pedals instead of the floor. Floor mounting of
the cylinders and proper pedal pads have made a ton of difference in
managing tailwheel steering and braking -- when they're needed most.
These things will be a big "duh" to many, but I was in a hurry to fly.
Also, in spite of what I thought was a well-founded conviction
everything had been exhaustively inspected, not only by me, but also
by other builders and our meticulous local EAA Tech Adviser, I still
found more than one alarming omission during the early preflight
inspections. I've always tried to be diligent about preflights, but
those experiences have really made me slow down, look, and think about
what the eyes are seeing even more. The preflight checklist has grown
to two single spaced pages. (The hard copy is all marked up with
corrections & additions right now, but I'll post a cleaned up version
soon.)

I still have lots of other things to do that were put off until after
first flights, like door locks, fairings, skylights, A/P servos, etc.
Numerous things have needed attention -- like wheel bearings that
loosened up, little oil leaks, door & window adjustments, frequent
wood prop bolt torque checks, etc. Even the spam cans need that kind
of thing -- maybe more of it.

The are only a couple drawbacks at this point. The AeroCarb throttle
body slide requires quite a bit of pressure to open throttle due to
engine suction pulling it down, with the friction augmented somewhat
by the unavoidably serpentine cable routing, both common problems. I'm
getting used to it, but still working on ways to reduce it. I also
still have some slow but persistent fuel seepage from rivets and seams
on both tanks. There are a couple more techniques to try before
cutting access ports to better seal them from the inside. A little
background whine has shown up in the 430W audio that I don't think was
there in the beginning. Still working on stabilizing the somewhat
erratic tach sender, though I've had excellent service from Advanced
Flight Systems.

With those few exceptions, which will be remedied in due course, I
couldn't be happier with the plane. It was quite a struggle to get it
done, but already the payback is huge. I feel very fortunate to have
been able to build the plane I wanted, and to now be flying it.

Ron
N254MR



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