First flight - again

[Mike Kimball]

I had my first flight, for the second time, today. After three previous
"flights" with nothing but trouble ending with a hole burned in a piston and
an engine rebuild, today's flight felt more like a real first flight. And
it was completely uneventful. I could only bring myself to go once around
the pattern due to nervousness about the engine but all was well, the engine
ran very smoothly, and the landing was fine. I managed to notice a couple
of things that were encouraging. Soon after takeoff (4800RPM max power) I
powered back to 4500RPM and noticed an easy 1500FPM climb at about 80MPH, no
flaps. (I forgot Bob's recommendation to dial in some flaps for takeoff.)
I further reduced power to 4000RPM and lowered the nose to about 90MPH and
was still climbing easily. On downwind I reduced power to about 3500RPM and
saw 110MPH. None of these phases were held long enough to stabilize so the
numbers bear closer scrutiny in the practice area when I'm more confident in
the engine.

I also noticed that it took a lot of stick movement to control the
airplane's roll and to repond to burbles on approach. I wonder if I am not
getting enough aileron deflection. I'll have to check into that some more.
A builder in Arizona that has recently flown also noticed the same thing and
improved the response with more aileron cable tension. The tension on my
cables is OK so it must be something else or just something to get used to
with that long stick. I also noticed that I don't like the slow response of
the elevator trim servo. I keep wondering if it's working. Then I hold the
button longer and finally notice a change in pressure on the stick. Lastly,
the pressure on the flap lever is definitely higher than your average spam
can, and the stock Murphy design I would imagine, but it is quite
acceptable. I pulled in a couple of notches on downwind at 100MPH with
little difficulty. More flaps on base and final at lower speeds were
easier, as expected. The roof mounted flap system works just fine.

Oil temp 200F and coolant temp 180F. Nice and stable for the whole flight.
Unfortunately, EGT was still high. About the same numbers as I reported
before on my ground runs. I did replace the secondary jets before this
flight from #73 to #84. It seemded to make no difference.

At least the beast is flyable, and I can settle into changes and experiments
to address the EGT issue and the radio noise issue. I could hear the tower,
but I have to turn the radio way up and when the tower is not transmitting,
the noise is awful. Not so bad when the carrier is modulated (tower
transmitting).

Mike
044SR




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