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Engine Mount, Gear Legs |
Check List Scot I do a simple, what I call CHIFFF check. Canopy locked I feel that if these main cockpit checks are covered you are good to go, CHIFFF is easy to remember. IFR conditions will require additions to suit the individual. The pre-flight walk around and cockpit check are assumed to have been done. Aside from all the normal walk around things you would do with any plane it is important to take a look at the points where the rudder cables attach to the pedals. There have been cases with both rockets and RVs where big feet have removed cotter pins. Van has a SB in this issue. He recommends an additional way of holding the nut on such as safety wire, epoxy, peening the end of the bolt etc. Tom Martin Fairlea Field I STILL use CIGARRS CB C Controls I Instruments G Gas A Attitude R Radio R Runup S Seatbelts also add C canopy & B boost pump as you are in position and ready to push up the power. Mark Tom Martin Fairlea Field BEFORE ENGINE START 1. SEAT BELTS – TIGHT 2. ALL SWITCHES RIGHT PANEL – OFF 3. CBs - IN 4. LOOSE ITEMS – STOWED 5. FUEL SELECT – FULLEST TANK ENGINE START 1. BATTERIES PRI and SEC – ON 2. FUEL BYPASS – PUSH ON 3. THROTTLE QUAD - SET 4. ENGINE – PRIME AS REQUIRED WITH BOOST PUMP – (5 SECS COLD) 5. THROTTLE / MIXTURE LEVERS - SET FOR START 6. IGNITIONS – PRI and SEC – ON 7. PROP ARC - CLEAR 8. HOT SWITCH – ON 9. START BUTTON – PUSH BEFORE TAXI 1. ENGINE INSTRUMENTS – CHECK 2. HOT SWITCH – OFF 3. AVIONICS MASTER – ON 4. LIGHTS – AS REQUIRED 5. AI and HSI – SET 6. FLAPS – UP ENGINE RUN UP 1. CANOPY- CLOSE 2. ENGINE INSTRUMENTS - CHECK 3. RPM – 1500 4. PROP – CYCLE 2-3 TIMES 5. RPM – 1200 – IGNITIONS CYCLE EACH OFF 6. POWER – IDLE/ AS REQUIRED 7. BOOST PUMP - ON BEFORE TAKE OFF 1. FLIGHT CONTROLS – FREE AND CORRECT 2. TRIM – SET 3. RIGHT SWITCH PANEL / CBs – CHECK AND SET 4. FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS – CHECK 5. FLIGHT TIMER – SET 6. COM AND NAV – AS REQUIRED 7. TRANSPONDER – ON 8. FUEL SELECT – VERIFY ON FULLEST TANK 9. CANOPY – CLOSED AND LOCKED 10. WARNING LIGHTS – OFF 11. ENGINE RUN UP – COMPLETED LEVEL OFF CHECK 1. ENGINE POWER – AS REQUIRED 2. MIXTURE – LEAN AS REQUIRED 3. LIGHTS – AS REQUIRED 4. BOOST PUMP - OFF DESCENT/ APPROACH TO FIELD CHECK 1. MIXTURE – RICHEN AS REQUIRED 2. LIGHTS – AS REQUIRED 3. RPM – INCREASE 4. BOOST PUMP - ON
AFTER LANDING
1. FLAPS – UP 2. LIGHTS – AS REQUIRED 3. PITOT HEAT – OFF 4. TRANSPONDER – STBY 5. BOOST PUMP - OFF EMERGENCY CHECKLISTS LOW VOLT/MAIN ALTERNATOR FAILURE 1. CONFIRM E.I. VOLTAGE 2. BATTERIES - PRI AND SEC – OFF 3. ESS BUSS ALT POWER – ON 4. PRI E.I. - OFF 5. MONITOR VOLTAGE WITH SEC E.I. Note: This checklist will configure electrics to run with backup alternator and sec battery. Pri EI will draw down the Pri battery if on. ENGINE - ROUGH OR FAILURE 1. POWER REDUCE IF ABLE 2. MIXTURE RICHEN 3. FUEL PRESSURE CHECK. IF LOW BOOST PUMP ON 4. FUEL – SWITCH TANKS 5. E.I.’s – CYCLE EACH OFF AND ON 6. RPM Lever – LOW FOR BEST GLIDE ELECTRICAL FIRE / SMOKE 1. BATTERIES - OFF 2. PRI E.I. - OFF 3. ESS BUS ALT POWER – ON - IF ESS BUSS REQUIRED 4. VOLTAGE – MONITOR WITH SEC E.I. PREFLIGHT 1. COCKPIT, CANOPY, SEAT BELTS – CHECKED 2. ENGINE OIL – 10 MINIMUM (ADD TWO TO DIP STICK) 3. COWLING – CHECK FASTENERS 4. WHEELS/TIRES – 35 PSI 5. FUEL VENTS – CLEAR 6. ANTENNAS – SECURE 7. FUEL – DRAIN/CHECK FOR WATER 8. FUEL CAPS – SECURE – CHECK LEVEL 9. WING TIE DOWNS - REMOVE 10. AILERONS – HINGES AND CONTROL BOLTS 11. STATIC PORT - CLEAR 12. ELEVATORS/ RUDDER – HINGES AND BOLTS 13. TRIM TABS – SECURE 14. TAIL WHEEL – CONDITION 15. LEFT SIDE – SAME AS RIGHT + PITOT TUBE
Log Book Entry What do I need to put in the log book? I understand that you need to make a note that a spin test was done and airobatic manuvers such as aliron rool and loop. Is there anythin else? I did the spin today, it was flat while rotating. When I stopped the rotation the nose dropped stright down. Sound rigth? Tomorrow I will clean the plane out and do the roll and loop. I've only done this once before in a Decathlon last month. I'll go to 9000 feet before I try it in case I totally screw up. Jack #70 Donna, A simple generic entry might be: I certify that the prescribed test hours have been completed and the aircraft is controllable throughout its range of speeds and throughout all maneuvers to be executed, has no hazardous operating characteristics or design features and is safe for operation. Maneuvers completed during the test hours were..........(list them) Sign you name, repairman's number and date the entry with the hours on the airframe... Technically, only maneuvers completed and test flown during this time are legal to be flown later unless you put the airplane back into the test phase again and note that in the logs....(this is all U.S. regs.) Jim B Jack, Do not repeat DO NOT do acro if you aren't REAL comfortable with it. Trying and botching aerobatics, even at 9000 feet, will have this slippery airplane going like stink (350 plus) if you mess it up. Get enuf aerobatic instruction to VERY comfortable before trying it in a aircraft like an F1. Jack, You are only required to perform aerobatic maneuvers during Stage 1 if you intend to perform them after Stage 1 - so you aren't required to spin, loop, or roll your airplane. Remember that Stage 1 isn't complete until you fly the minimum hours AND complete the log book entry. You can extend the flight testing as long as you want until you're satisfied with the airplane. Take your time. Chip Gibbons Bob Between the FAA and the Insurance Company they give you very little choice. The FAA won't let an experienced pilot ride with me and the Insurance company won't let anyone else fly it unless I check them out. I've done a lot of spins so that wasn't a problem. I flew six or seven hours with a good Instructor in a Decathlon to get my feet thinking again and we did a number of rolls and loops although I still am no where really qualified I think I will survive. My biggest problem is landings. Only two out of twenty I would call good. Twice I've had to go around twice. Bad Landing, open the throttle and your flying again. We have cross runways and damn if I haven't had to land in a gusty cross wind four times. Thanks for the concern Jack #70 Jack, Here's the entry I've made in the past..... I certify that the prescribed flight test hours have been completed and the aircraft is controllable throughout its range of speeds and throughout all maneuvers to be executed, has no hazardous operating characteristics, or design features, and is safe for operation. Chip Rudder Trim Mark, > > Do you have a ground adjustable trim tab riveted to your rudder? Do you > recommend riveting one on down near the bottom while I'm riveting the > trailing edge of the rudder? If so, do you have a recommendation on size? > > Randy Pflanzer > Hey Randy: Sure do: I cut a 2 1/2 x 6" pc of 6061 x .032 material & rivet it to the TE while I'm closing that area. I suggest putting it about 1/2 span -- not at the bottom. I moved mine to an area where it would look OK with my checkerboard -- down a fuzz from center. Pre-bend the tab to make it parallel with the right side of the rudder -- adding a bit of right rudder initially. Bend more to add more rt rudder, or trim the chord on the tab to subtract trim pressure. Cheers Mark Randy, another option that I used on Blackjack (my F-1) is to tape a small wedge shaped piece of wood to the rudder until you get it the right size, then cut a piece of aluminum to permanently mount. Mine turned out to be 1'' wide and 1 1/2'' long (very small), and I used black GE silicon to attach it to the rudder. Max width at the back side of the wedge is about a quarter of an inch. You can't see the little wedge shaped piece of metal on the left side of the rudder and it works great. This airplane does not need much trim for cruise. You hold a yard of rudder in the climb to offset the engine torque, but it is minimal when you pull the power back to cruise. I gotta get Mark out of the Dark Ages on this rudder trim thing.(HA) If there is interest I can take a picture and post it. Jim Cash Thanks Jim. I tried the wedge thing on my RV-6 but it didn't help much. I might have put it in the wrong place along the trailing edge though. That's why I thought towards the bottom edge would be best because the tab would have the most leverage, but perhaps it will be in the dirty air coming off of the horizontal stabilizer. Is in the middle of the rudder the right location? Where do you have your wedge located? Randy Pflanzer My wedge is right on the bottom of my rudder and it centers the ball in cruise perfectly. Bob Mine is located at the mid point in the lower half of the rudder. It doesn't take much. In fact, I need to take off another quarter of an inch in length, and the thing is less than two inches long now. I've seen several RVs that did not require any trim. You might want to make the first flight with no trim at all, and adjust from there. Jim Hmmm. Midpoint in the lower half? 3/4 of the way from the top? This might be something to consider. This is from an old Vans airforce article. I'm incorporating this spring bias system into my RV-6 except I'm going to use a Mac servo to keep everything electric. Eric I would say to not spend a lot of time worrying about the rudder tab issue. I had a small wedge on my RV4 about 1/3 of the way up and it worked well. On both rockets I do not have a trim tab at all. Just lightly resting my feet on the pedals works. I believe that Mark uses a bungee cord attached to the cable and hooked on a bulkhead to use as an inflight adjustable trim method. These are things that you can do after first flight. Tom Martin Flight Test F1 guys I have a few more flights on the plane now, 8.0 hours total time. I like the three blade Hartzell, it is smooth and quieter than my two blade. On take off I feel that this prop pulls better than my two blade, this surprised me but this is the exact same prop that Bruce Bohannan uses, and he has tested a few. The only disadvantage that I can see over the two blade is the extra cost and the added weight. The MT is lighter but a few more bucks; where does it end! The Nav-aid that I installed is a beautiful thing, today I had to fiddle with the batteries in my gps; flip on the wing leveller and change the batteries. In my other plane this would have been a heads down, up, down, up kind of a job. At 180 indicated the control surfaces feel very much like the HRII, at 200 indicated the elevator is heavier in pitch and it does load up increasingly with speed. This is not a bad thing, the HRII is probably a little too light in pitch. In discussions with Kevin Horton he has given me some stick force parameters to check, and I will do this on both planes. The elevator has more surface area than my RV8 tail on the HRII and my trailing edges on the F1 come to a point rather than the joggle. The extra weight of the Hartzell on the front may also affect elevator feel. It is much, much more solid though when it comes to holding altitude. Also I do notice the extra elevator on final, this is a good thing as my flares can use all the help that I can get! I stalled the plane today, it indicated around 65mph clean. A normal Rv type stall. I also rolled it for the first time today, yehaaa. There is no little bump in the ailerons that you feel in the van's wing when you push the ailerons a bit, another pleasant surprise. The gear leg dampeners continue to do their job and I can see no apparent wear on the tires so far. I have tightened up the big nuts on the top of the gear legs a couple of times. They should seat before too long. When I landed a friend pointed out one of my tail wheel chains needed attention. The little spring clip had spread open. It was my intention to install the Jantzi Steering Link like the one on my other plane but I had not yet done so. I have just placed my order with Terry. And yes I have the two inch exhaust. Mark tells me that it attracts women. Unfortunately that has not yet been my experience although men seem to like the sound. Perhaps Mark has a special edition. Tom It seams to me that the Hartzel three blade prop works better at higher RPM settings and high altitude.I had lunch with Chip Thursday and on the 2 1/2 hour trip each way at 10500 & 11500 at 2400 RPM and a 25knot quarting wind. I averaged 190 knots with a average fuel burn of 11.4 GPH (25 degrees rich of peak).Bob, do you have any experience at these RPM and altitude settings? ack #70 Bob Gross
Good call. Here's some of it, specific to our ships: The ship doesn't have any really bad habits, but it does come with a very high engine-out sink rate, for no extra charge. Engine out: keep her at 100KT or so in the glide so you have enough energy to flare (and flare kinda late)...stopped prop might allow 90KT... Be sure of control system continuity and good clear fuel flow, tight oil hoses, and have some sort of radio out procedure ready (sign language with your wingman, or simply land), and you should do OK. The flight advisor area of the manual was written by a good advisor -- use it , and ask questions if necessary. If 3 things go wrong, abort, and back up. 2 things are not so hard to handle. 3 things will hurt you: 3 things, plus flying the plane, is an overload. If your pre-taxi engine runs are a non-issue, chances are the rest will be OK too. If you had any problems with getting the engine started and getting it to run cleanly, I will suggest that you check everything else again. No high-speed taxi runs please. Go ahead and hop the thing to 5-10' AGL and land it (if your runway is long enough) if you think that will help. Plan for a 20 min flight; have fuel for 1 hr in each tank (15 gal or so). Taxi out & fly on ONE TANK; the other is an emergency tank on this flight. You can use tank #2 on the second 20 minute flight, with tank #1 as the emer. tank this time. 1/2 flaps on your 1st landing; 85-90 KT on approach. Expect a plugged injector some time in the first 5-7 hrs. The engine will tell you that one is plugged. Don't worry or hurry -- just land as soon as practical. Your EGT gage will tell you which cyl is plugged. The ship will fly fine and maintain altitude at 15"/2000RPM. Don't bust your ass, and don't let anyone else bust it for you. Seems Yeager said something like this. Carry on! Mark Scott, here are some comments from someone that is not a hotshot pilot and survived my first flight in the F1.I taxied around quite a bit and made a few runs down the runway but not very fast or much power.Sense I had no tail wheel time in the last 20 years I flew with an instructor 6 or 7 hours in a Decathlonto get my feet thinking again.On the first flight I added power very slowly and didn't fully open the throttle until I was off the ground.Expect to use some right rudder on the takeoff roll.The F1 fly's great no surprises there. I did a clean stall and a full flap stall (60 and 55K) the F1 stall is very clean.12" of manifold pressure will get me 100K in the pattern and when full flaps are added it will drop to 80K.Keep the speed at or above 80K as it seams to get a little mushy below that.I like 3 point landings but it takes a lot of back pressure on the elevator so I use almost full nose up trimwhen I'm alone. You might want to tie down some weight in the baggage compartment, the plane land mucheasier without the forward CG. I was able to stay on a 50' wide runway (just barely) on my first flight and didn't bounce to many times.Get very close to the ground be for you flair the speed bleeds off fast when you chop the throttle.Good Luck, Hay guys shot me if I put anything wrong or bad in here.Jack #70
Taxi Test The thing is pretty unstable during the rollout. Took some good taildragger-two- > step to keep it straight (but not as bad as a pitts). > Fellas: The throttle up/cut maneuver is VERY dangeroous. Please don't do anything like this as a normal practice. Thankfully, Bob had his Superman shirt on..... Cheers Mark Speed Calculator All, We checked Greg's numbers using the program we have here at the Air Force Test Pilot School and it gave the same results, so it looks like his calculations are working. Back to riveting Vince #115 -----Original Message----- From: u2nelson [mailto:u2nelson@prodigy.net] Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 5:51 PM To: F1builders list Subject: Excel spread sheet/speed calculator Everyone needs to save this on their computer for future flight testing. >From your GPS, Enter your ground speed and course across the ground (not heading) for three random headings, approximately 120 degrees apart. This program completely compensates for the winds by fitting three circles representing your three speed vectors, leaving you with the actual winds and your TAS. Bob, the version I'm using calculates the winds correctly. Three runs this morning and the wind calculations were 195/35, 196/34, and 191/31. Amazingly consistent actually. There is no way the winds were twice what was calculated or half what was calculated. I believe it to be accurate. My second run at 2100 is shown in the table on the attachment. Cheers and fly safe. Greg Nelson Little late getting in the game, but I was 12,000miles away. I was reading this thread on speeds and went out this morning and did three points, crunched the numbers using the 3 leg GPS Excel calculator at 10,500MSL. I'm now running the MT 3 blade, and it is very smooth at all RPMs, I'm very pleased with it. It does seem to be a couple knots slower than the 2 blade hartzell I was running, but I'll trade that for smooth. I have duel electronic ignition from Light Speed and airflow performance injection, 10:1 pistons, engine built by Performance Aero. Slope windscreen. OAT was 58F at 10.5 All runs full throttle( about 20.8 inches), leaned 100 rich of peak, Yes I know I can run leaner, buy why. 2100 RPM, 11.8GPH, 201 knots. (231MPH) 2100 RPM, 11.8GPH, 202 knots. (Repeat point for confidence.) 2400 RPM, 14.2GPH, 209 knots. (WOW that's 240MPH) Winds were consistent on all three runs, I like that Excel calculator! Guys I really don't know why my ship is so fast. If I knew I'd tell you. Maybe that electronic ignition is working pretty good, or maybe its something else. Greg Nelson N144X -----Original Message----- From: owner-f1builders@lists.cc.utexas.edu [mailto:owner-f1builders@lists.cc.utexas.edu]On Behalf Of Bob Japundza Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 9:38 PM To: f1builders@lists.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Re: More Speed Data Hey Bob, just for grins next time you do some speed runs put some weight in the baggage compartment. I'd bet a cold one you would see a little bit of difference. Heres an example, when flying with a RV-8 buddy of mine, same engine/prop setup as my RV-6: solo, full fuel, no pax, at 2400 rpm it takes me an additional .5" of mp to run with him at the same speed. When both of us have pax, it takes 2" more for me to run with him. Regards, Bob Trim For guys flying: 1. What's the slowest trimmable airspeed you can get before you run out of travel on the electric motor? I know you can set the 'center' of the mac servo so that you can get more travel in one direction than the other, just wondering what is practical since we have a pretty wide cg envelope, a bit wider than the RV's. 2. With aft cg, does the trim get touchy? In other words, if you have a trim speed control and have it set slow enough that it is not too slow or too fast when solo at cruise, does it become touchy if you have a pax at cruise speeds? I know that it changes with airspeed too...Thanks in advance. Regards, Bob I have a MAC trim motor with no speed control. The speed is very slow, perfect for our application, never twitchy or sensitive. The jets I fly all have pretty sensitive trim and they are best used in short blips, not held and run, and that is the way I use the rocket trim also. I set it up as you said, with more travel available for up trim, less for down. I got lucky, with a pax and bags, at high airspeed, I am near but not at the full nose down trim stop. At the other end of the spectrum, solo, landing configuration, I can trim to approach speed no problem and I even trim in the flare and do not max out, but it gets up there when I do that. I would say set your trim up to give more up trim than down trim, then fly and see if you run out of down trim in the worst case, if not, your good. If you do, then re-adjust it a bit. Greg Nelson
Bob Gross #19 Hi all, Well this morning at 0700 I pushed the throttle to the wall with my neighbor Tony klopp passing over in an RV-8 to fly chase. It accelerates quickly reaching flying speed within a few seconds. Raising the nose to a bout 25 deg starts the ears popping as I eased the Rocket into a left climbing turn to prepare for a quick landing should the need arise. I leveled at 3000 feet and reduced to power to keep the CHT under control. Accelerating was the ticket and blowing air of them slowly started to cool things off. As the F1 accelerated to 150 knots, the temp came down to 425 deg and stayed there. The oil which had stabilized at 195 deg began to come down and settled at 180 deg. I kept the F1 in a lazy left turn over the airport while the Rv-8 hopelessly turns inside of me trying to get close enough for an inspection. Finally I had to slow to 100 knots so he could take a look. Everything was fine. At this power setting, each time I looked at the gps speed it was around 172 knots. More speed checking in the future. I did a stall series to validate the airspeed indicator at low speeds and it seemed right on. The stall is very sharp with no warning, breaking straight ahead. During this slow flight, the CHTS fell and the oil temp rose quickly to 200 deg F. After this, I accelerated to cruise speed again, played with the toys a bit, engaged the Navaid and put it a left turn and it held perfectly. briefly engaged it into GPS ground track hold which it did. The moving map computer was moving perfectly, but didn't get a chance to play any mp3 tunes this flight. A did a 2 G turn to check the BMA efis G meter with was working normally with the newly upgraded firmware. All in all, it was so uneventful, that I actually enjoyed it, and a looking forward to the next in a couple days. I am following the EAA's flight test plan, which was provided to me from the EAA flight adviser. This program was required by the Insurance company (Falcon) to get this bird insured. BTW, they lowered my rate to $2580 which I was told is the lowest rate one can get on an F1 ($80K hull). Here is what I observed. Altitude Sea Level. OAT 27 deg C Rate of climb at Vy (87 KIAS) about 2500 fpm Takeoff weight with 30 28 gallons fuel 1668 lbs. max cht at top of climb 3000 feet 475 deg F yikes! CHT during 75%cruise 435 deg F. max oil temp 200 during stalls. max oil temp at 75% power 180 deg F. EGT 1200 deg F. max oil temp during climb 195 deg F. Stall flaps down 48 KIAS Stall clean 52KIAS Speed at 20" 2100 rpm 151 KIAS. Speed at 24" 2400 rpm 171 KIAS It flew smooth and straight other than the slightest roll to the right about 1 deg per second. Yaw was straight at cruise speeds ( I set the VS LE with no offset) Pitch trim was normal and the elev/stab was nearly faired (slightly TE low), no adjustment needed. Landing was easy and it tracked straight, doing a little wobble decelerating thru 15 knots. Getting off the brakes stopped the shake. All in all no squawks other than the wing trim. So the oil cooler is working well. I hope the CHTs come down as the engine breaks in. Yippee!! now get back to work on yer F1 so I'll have someone to fly with! Warmest regards, Bob Gross You know, after letting this magnificent event sink in thru the day, I forgot to mention something...how it flies. Well, The ailerons are light as a feather, with dizzying speed. The rudder is stiff, but effective, and the elevators feel real firm, yet responsive like a P-51. Flying it fast gives that great feeling where just a tiny pitch change results in a high vertical speed. I had the opportunity to fly an RV-8 last night to get warmed up. I fly's very much like an '8 except for the following: Obviously the power seemingly gives 10 times more acceleration (whoosh), the ailerons feel the same only faster, the rudder is the same, the elevator is solidly heavier (in a good way), and the thing requires every bit of up elevator to get the tailwheel to stick to the ground during landing. I imagine it does beautiful wheel landings. I took my headset off in the '8 and sampled the deafening racket. I did the same in the F1 and noticed it was WAY quieter, not much more than my Cherokee. The soundproofing really helps along with the fuselage side panels. That's it for now. Next flight should be on Wed if tomorrows inspection goes ok. Warmest regards, Bob Gross Flight test continues, 13 hours so far. No major problems other than a clogged injector at 8.5 hours. I am gathering performance data. Other than high altitude cruise, it all looks pretty good. Last week I put in a 6 channel EGT instrument. I always said I'd never do it but....I was wrong. Probably will do the same with the CHT now. CHT runs hottest leveling at 10500 feet at 120 knots at 420 deg. Cruise temps run around 170. Don't forget it is HOT here, about 35 deg F warmer than std. Temp runs at about 380 during climb at lower altitudes. Oil runs hottest taxiing in hitting 210 deg. In flight it runs 170 at 55% cruise to 195 at 75% cruise. I did see 220 once in the pattern doing Touch and Go's. I noticed my exhaust pipes are banging on the crosstube between the lower engine mount pads. It seems the thrust from the down turned pipes is pushing the pipes upward and causing contact. I put some firesleeve on the tube for now and will watch to see what happens. So far my regret list has the mentioned EGT and CHT gauges. rear rudder pedals will be redone, and I'll never paint one again. MY "oh yeah baby that worked like a charm list"... Air vent on center console. Perfect. It blows on my cahones and upward to keep me cool. Doesn't trip intercom squelch. At high cruise speeds, I can hear the air blast thru vent as I move the little butterfly valve. Glad I got this one right! Heater vent on center console. Same as above. Don't know how it will work for rear pax in winter. Insulating firewall. No heat blasts ever from between my feet. The sound from the engine is quite low as well. Floors don't get hot either. I used cheapo insulation from JC Whitney and glued thin carpeting on it to match the rest of the ship. Fuel flow. Put in a JPI FS-450. Did one calibration step. Last fillip called for 38.0 gallons, the pump metered in 37.93 gallons. nothing's wrong with that! I use two stock Bendix mags with "Shower of sparks" booster. Works fantastic. Starts easily when hot. no impulse couplings. The little Skytec starter spins like mad powered by a $32 gellcell (#2 power cable). The Suzuki alternator is working flawlessly. I'm using the instruments from Vans. I took apart the EGT last night. To my amazement, they are very well made. So far they work as advertised, except the MAP reads a bit high. I'm going to try and adjust it. Baffling and oil cooler. Seems to work fine. No complaints especially considering the warm WX here. Interesting observations.... 1. The canopy is WAY easier to lock now. Bob - I got up early before the rain built up and did the speed test you requested. At 8000', OAT 59 degrees F, 2400 RPM, wide open 22.3" MP, EGT 1404 max / 1354 setting, Fuel Flow 14.7 GPH N 203, W 195, S 193, E 199, avg. 197.5 Knots or 227 MPH At 10500', OAT 53 degrees F, 2100 RPM, wide open 20.4" MP, EGT 1305 max / 1255 setting, Fuel Flow 11.9 GPH N 189, W 186, S 176, E 186, avg. 184.25 Knots or 212 MPH I have an IO 540 C4B5 with high compression pistons, Airflow Performance, and Lasar Elect. Ing. Standard Windshield Jack #70 Hey Mark...FWIW, I ran it again this AM. Of note I got exactly 200.0 knots at WOT/2400/8000'/13.9 gph/69%pwr/1480 lbs. I ran 2400 rpm at 10500 as well and did WAY BETTER. D twist blades seem to suck at 2100 rpm. Weird huh? Saw 197 knots average over the triangle crs at 11.9 GPH (1458 lbs). Was able to get 193 knots real lean at 10.7 gph. I can live with this...code broken. Ran the nozzle tests today also. I saw a lean peak spread of .3 GPH on this run at 10500 feet. Need to run it again as # 2 might have peaked earlier than my first fuel flow set. Wanna go faster? Lower your ailerons hehehe. Got me 4 knots (no sh*t). Warmest regards, Bob Gross How much lower? Are you saying that they are below the level of the wingtips? > > scot Abut 3 turrns of the pushrods which moved them down about 1/8". This acutally is how much they floated up inflight so now they are pretty colse to faired with the wingtip. I'll try lowering some more and see if it make any more difference. Warmest regards, Bob Gross A couiple of thoughts on the multi channel stuff. 1. Bundle the CHT wires together and the EGT wires together. Keep both of these bundles separate from other stuff to allow for easier maint. in the future. I ran all the thermocuple leads thru one firewall shield. It's already paid off as one of the probes was bad and changing it was much easier this way. I folded the excess wire length on the pilot side of the firewall so all the instrument to thermocouple connectors would be close to each other, and left them in a very easy to access location behind the panel. Changine a probe takes about 15 minutes this way. 2. Be carefull where you drill the exhuast pipes so the protruding probes wont hit the cowling. Seen that before on a RV-8. He had to weld all the holes closed and re drill. 3. I just bought a new unit from a company called aerospace logic. Seems to work fine. Not too expensive and the brightest display I've ever seen. www.aerospacelogic.com Warmest regards, Bob Gross They didn't find me this morning before I got away and got some flying in. Doesn't take long to get to 10500 feet. Alt: 10500, OAT: 57 degrees F, MP: wide open @ 20.2" RPM: 2100, FF: 11.0, EGT: 1320 / 1295, 185.25 Knots, 213.04 MPH, 19.37 MPG RPM: 2200, FF: 11.1, EGT: 1366 / 1340, 188.00 Knots, 216.20 MPH, 19.48 MPG RPM: 2300, FF: 11.9, EGT: 1365 / 2340, 189.50 Knots, 217.93 MPH, 18.31 MPG RPM: 2400, FF: 12.1, EGT: 1416 / 1390, 194.60 Knots, 223.78 MPH, 18.50 MPG RPM: 2450, FF: 12.3, EGT: 1450 / 1425, 195.50 Knots, 224.83 MPH, 18.28 MPG I did the 2100 & 2200 last and took a little more time on the mixture control, it's very sensative, so maybe the higher RPMs may be a little better.. Prop vibrations are bad at 2200 RPM and run from 2100 to 2300 RPM. Jack #70 Hey Bob, just for grins next time you do some speed runs put some weight in the baggage compartment. I'd bet a cold one you would see a little bit of difference. Heres an example, when flying with a RV-8 buddy of mine, same engine/prop setup as my RV-6: solo, full fuel, no pax, at 2400 rpm it takes me an additional .5" of mp to run with him at the same speed. When both of us have pax, it takes 2" more for me to run with him. Regards, Bob I'll try it but still need to finish flying off the 25 hrs etc. before carrying pax. Got the airplane torn apart for inspection, changing more probes and tuning the nozzles. FWIW, my left hand gear nut was twirling loose this time saved by the safety wire. The RH nut needed only a bit more torque. Still waiting for the new exhaust hanger system from Vetterman. If any of you guys have the green tubing hangers from Vetterman, better call him to get the new kit. Did you know there is a 6 deg C ram air temperature rise from friction at cruise speed for the F1? That the airplane sees 1.1 psi (149 Lb/sq foot) dynamic pressure at WOT sea level, 1.35 psi at Vne? WOW..those fuel tanks puff up nicely from all that tank vent pressure. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ REQUEST FOR MORE SPEED DATA: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I'd like to extend the request for speed data to all F1 operators. We need to collect data from all types of props at this point. If you can help, please provide the following test points... Three speed runs: 1. Fly a three sided course, triangular, noting the GPS Track and GS for each leg. Important...note outside air temp. 2. Fly three profiles: (No passenger, about 30 gallons of fuel if possible) 1. 8000 feet, WOT/2400 rpm, leaned to best speed. 2. 10500 feet,WOT/2100 RPM leaned for best speed. 3. 10500 feet, WOT/2400 RPM, leaned for best speed. 3. Note fuel flows (optional) for comparison only. Include notes such as engine mods, windshield type, prop type, weight or anything else you think might be important. Note IAS if you want to know how much error your instrument has (IAS should be the same for all three legs) The triangular course gives better speed averaging. I will crunch the numbers in a spread sheet and return the results to you. Flying this profile eliminates errors in the MAP gauge and airspeed indicator. OAT is important! You should see about 22.2" MAP at 8000 feet and 20.2" at 10500 feet, compare this to your MAP gauge for giggles. After getting the cruise performance established, We'll got after the induction system and check for ram air rise and different injector bodies. Warmest regards, Bob Gross I guess I should of elaborated. If you get the CG data from Mark and his airplane, you can mimic his cg condition to see if the additional weight of the Hartzell has an effect on speed. If you put some weight in the baggage compartment (25 lbs or so) I think you'd see a speed increase. Maybe 2-3 kts. BTW, good link for TAS computations: http://www.reacomp.com/true_airspeed/index.html Regards, Bob There are actually two effect to consider here, one is Mark's different CG and the other is Mark's different prop. Marks CG is clearly a benefit to him. Time will answer these questions as data from F1 pilots come in. I'd like to see data from HRII pilots as well if you can forward the previous "request for data" EMAIL to HRII guys! My dad has written some analytical software tools that are getting this rocket performance down to near science. Lately we've been hagling over the recovery coefficient of the OAT probes as it affect the calculated speed by up to one knot. We're that close now. Any of you guys on the Rocket list at Matronics that can fwd the previous request for data to it? All will benefit. Of note... any of you guys know of volumentric efficency charachterisitics of these IO-540 type engines. I'm getting close on estimanting HP produced, but need info on this subject to refine calculations. The end result will be quantifiable BSFC numbers for accurate fuel planning. Warmest regards, Bob Gross SNIP I think that I can get a little more speed. I will try the aileron thing since I am going to have to adjust the hinge about 3/16" anyway to get the proper alignement with tips. Jack #70 SNIP All the recent aileron comments made me go and check the alignment of mine. I am busy trimming and rigging all of the wing stuff this week anyway. I was just getting ready to floxpoxy the left wingtip (from Van's) which had to be split to correct a nasty droop at the trailing edge when I read about the aileron droop giving a speed increase. Anyway I checked my ailerons and found them to be about 3/16 low at the leading edge. WHAAATTTT???? How can this be? I spent about a month checking and rechecking the @#$%ing alignment while building the wings. Everything is perfectly aligned along the entire wing trailing edge (except the wingtip warp mentioned above) and the flaps are nice and even with the belly skin. So, I pulled a wingtip off and checked the tooling hole alignment and this is what I found. With the tooling holes aligned perfectly, my aileron leading edge seems to be too low. When the aileron is drooped by turning the rod end about 2 turns, the bottom skin/leading edge seem to be in good alignment, but the tooling holes are WAY off. Raising the entire aileron by 3/16" would screw up the top skin, so I don't see that it is a simple building error. Is this the normal? Opinions? Don't forget, I'm using brand V parts. I don't know if F-1 parts are different in this area. Vince Vince Using the tooling holes works, sometimes. I have two thin pieces of wood that I slide over the trailing edge of the aileron. I put a clamp on the end of them and then I line the aileron up so that it lines up with the top and bottom skin, centred between these two sticks. The sticks simulate what the air sees. If if does not line up then the brackets are in the wrong place. One of my f1 wings needed to have the holes in the aileron bracket slotted a bit to bring things into alignment. The next step is to line up the flaps with the ailerons and the wing tips with the ailerons and flaps. I had a bit of a problem with one flap as the tooling holes on the flap brace were not in the correct spot. That flap ended up a tiny bit high, but it flies well. Tom My ailerons front edge is about 3/16" high at the tips and about 1/8" high at the flaps. Lui told me his were the same way so he sloted the holes to get the the correct highth and then drilled a third hole between the two sloted holes to lock them in place. This sounded like a good idea to me and that what I am going to do when it cools off a little bit. At the same time I am goint to readjust them to have a slight droop with no pressure on them and to be even with all the slop removed in an upward possition. Jack #70 The tooling holes are not correct. Marl told me to use only the holes aft of the spar and that changed the alignment quite a bit. Stick to Tom Martins advice. He knows. Since this isn't my first RV either, I guess I should have known better than to go with Brand V dimensions when putting it all together prior to putting the wings on the fuselage. Hmmmmm, I guess the bottom line to this is that I should have skipped drilling the aileron brackets until the wings were installed! Haste makes waste.... but indecision never finishes an airplane! I used Van's wing template, wood strips, steel rulers, eyeballs, and the blueprints to decide where to mount the control surfaces. I'd say that it was the Van's airfoil template that caused my problem as it seems to hold the aileron TE down too far. That causes the LE to be too high. But when everything is on the fuselage, then the LE is too low when aligned with the flaps, and with the tips installed. YMMV. I suppose that it's easy enough to fix this by moving the aileron bracket. It will possibly make the top aileron skin bump up into the airstream though. Guess I'll have to take a hard look at that too. OTOH, I seem to recall that some airplanes have control surfaces that are purposely built thicker than the rest of the airfoil so that airflow reattaches. Makes my head hurt just thinking about it. It will be interesting to see how Van's prepunched RV-7 does in this area. There's one of these in my shop. The QB fuselage should be here this fall. I'm also gonna go look at 2 RV-8s and an RV-6 at my home airport next time I'm out there. Curiosity compels me. Woooo heeeeeeee, it's always something! :-) Vince Flight test is done on my F1. Performance seems ok considering the hot temps. Still have cylinder 2 peaking early, but Don Rivera wants to wait for more break in time before tuning it one last time. Fuel flow still better than before. Went to real oil at 31 hours. Oil was still golden. Oil filter pretty clean now with only a few flecks of metal. The suction screen was completely clean. CHT still warm but small changes to baffles etc have brought it down a few degrees. Have attached temp probes to the mags and alternator to see how hot they run in flight. Will report later. The real key to lower chts seem to be running at 50 deg LOP. I see 350 deg in cruise when doing this. 375 in climb and 410 when in cruise leaned to peak. Oil still happy at 170-190 deg. Not much new with the ship. Canopy is easier to operate now. Gear still shakes during rollout. Gear nuts still loosening. Had to replace a 30 amp automotive relay used for the starter as it became jittery. Cranks real nice again. Cleaned all the crud from the belly today. The lead stains are significant. It took auto paint polish to get the stuff off. Residue extends from the under the passenger seat all the way to the taillwheel spring and rudder cap. Per Larry Vetterman, I put monel pop rivets in the exhaust ball joints to keep them from twisting which was causing the pipes banging into the engine frame. Maybe this will finally fix it. Under the cowl all was well at the last maint. Had to replace one baffling rivet. The silicone seal tore where the baffling seals to the oil cooler, yet the oil temps remained cool. I've noticed the upper right engine mount bolt is making a hole in the baffle at it's fwd tip, not worth fixing at this point. The vans fuel pressure transducer is dying, as it only drops to 7 psi...won't go to zero unless I tap on the sender housing. My Vans MAP gauge failed and went to zero. So far not too happy with the vans gauges, but for the price, they looked hard to beat. Time will tell. As of today.... tach reads 50 rpm low, MAP failed, fuel quan is ok, fuel pressure is sticking, CHT is ok, egt is ok. A new software change is coming for the BMA efis lite. This one is needed as the thing goes stupid during loops (GPS lost). The new acro fix will allow the unit to operate without GPS data.. a major improvement. Service from them remains good. Taxiing with canopy open is real windy for the passenger. Trips the headset intercom. Can't seem to fix it so I open the intercom squelch when taxiing as the steady racket is less annoying than the in and out noise. Have fun and fly safe!! Warmest Regards, Bob Gross Just got back from a nice flight. FWIW, the mags, which have no blast tubes, ran at 135.9 deg F in cruise at 5500 feet. The Alternator ran at 112 deg F. in flight. After taxi in and shutdown, the Mags warmed up to 179.9 deg and the alternator went up to 180 deg, from heats oaking. Do any of you experinced builders have knowledge about mag temps etc? I'm am trying to determine what size balst tubes if any are needed here. Warmest Regards, Bob Gross Bob This might be pure speculation on my part buy I expect you are the first person to have measured these independent temperatures. Considering the temperature of that 400 lb chunk of metal that they are attached to I would say that these temps would be normal. I am surprised that they are as cool as you report for the flight temps. Tom Martin Attached is a chart I've painstakingly made from the data in the Lycoming IO-540 performance manual. It is specifically tailored to 10500 foot cruise at 60 percent power. This chart allows any F1 driver to get performance numbers that can be compared to others for whatever reasons you like. As you know, the published cruise speed is 230 mph at 60% at 10,000 feet. As not many pilots actually cruise at 10,00 feet, but more likely 10,500 feet I made the chart for that altitude. It is accurate for most normally aspirated aircraft engines. To use it, you note the OAT in degrees F and then determine what RPM you must run to achieve 60% power for that temperature. Ignore MAP, you should be at WOT anyway. Set fuel flow to around 12-12.5 GPH to get the power. Running 50 deg LOP (10.4 GPH) will get 10 less knots but 1.9 more NMPG. Simple. No more wondering. I'm working on a high speed cruise chart as well. It will be a 75% chart. I've made more strides lately getting a few more knots from my airplane. Today I made 226.8 MPH (197 knots) at 10,500 feet 60% pwr. Getting closer to the goal, but don't see any more improvements. I'll write it off to the three bladed prop. Probably could make 230 with this airplane if I had a two bladed prop. Winter temps might yield a bit slower speeds as the power will still be there (at a lower RPM) but the density altitude won't. I'll report that later. Warmest Regards, Bob Gross Scot Stambaugh Well, I did it on Saturday. I'm struggling to find the words to describe
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