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In the continuing saga of the baffling events taking place in
my hydraulic system here is what I think is a LuLu.
Went to the hangar today to change out a fitting on the up
side hose of the nose gear cylinder. The down side pressure gauge showed a
pressure of 700psi. Upside zero. Opened the emergency extension cock
and the pressure vented from the low side apparently into the high side until
the pressures balanced at approximately 200psi. At this point nothing
further happened even with the cock open and in order to get rid of the pressure
I had to crack open a union nut on one side of the cock to vent the pressure
down to zero. This is not the first time this has happened to
me.
I will put the plane up on the jacks tomorrow to test the free
fall, which has always worked. But it begs the question as to what might
happen if you selected gear down and it failed to operate. If you then
opened the emergency extension cock and all that happened was that the
pressures equalised then you would really be up the creek. I will include a 9/16
wrench as an essential cockpit tool until I understand what is going
on.
Any wise men got any ideas as to why the pressure will not
bleed to zero. Is it the fact that the gear is already down and
locked? There must be some valve somewhere preventing the freeflow of the
pressure to atmospheric pressure.
On Friday I flew the aircraft on a long series of touch and
gos and upper air work.. Whoopee! I love it. It handles as if
it is on rails in steep turns. 60 degree turns are easy with your feet on
the floor and little or no back pressure, depending on the speed. Power
off stalls are a total non event clean or dirty, enough warning and no wing
drop, relax the pressure and it is flying again. Even in a 45degree turn
at 85K no problem. The stall speed at 1900lb IAS is clean 65K and dirty
60K. . This at least gives us some target for our landing
speeds. At 1900lb we are using 80K over the fence which is 1.3 x
V/s.
Clean there is a robust buffet and dirty it is not so
pronounced.
Landings are not difficult after practicing flying down
the runway at 5 to 10 feet. It is very tender in pitch and the first
landing or two were a little interesting. 15" MP give me a smooth final down to
the touchdown point with a gradual reduction to idle once over the runway
and a hold off to match the power reduction. Anticipating the pitch over
onto the nose wheel is harder but once I got the hang of it I can hold the nose
wheel off longer. The trailing link gear with Ong's debongers make an
average landing smooth. Worth every dollar I paid for them
The one thing I find more difficult is the tendency of the
aircraft to head left on both take off and landing, it seems to need good solid
applications of right boot and even a little brake to keep it on the centre
line.
Overshoots, even with 40 degrees of flap
initially, go well with 200 hp dragging it. Once cleaned up you had
better get the gear up before you are through the gear speed. It is not hard to
get behind this machine.
I do not know what I thought I was getting when I bought the
kit but I can see that this is going to be a lot more fun than anything I have
ever flown before.
My check and test pilot who has instructed on jets in the
Canadian Airforce drools every time he gets in the plane. He flies it a
little differently than I do, as you might imagine, but to say the least of
it is exhilarating with him doing the flying.
I still have to be signed of and get my high performance
rating endorsed on my licence but that should be fairly smooth sailng from
here. I am very encouraged by the relative ease with which I have started
to master this aircraft. It is over 30 years since I last regularly flew
reasonably sophisticated aircraft and I wondered how well I would do. As
you get older your level of confidence changes!!
I hope I do not start the stall controversy again but slow
flight at just above the point of stall tells you a lot about the way your plane
will handle and it is our experience that you would have to really work to make
this particular aircraft quit flying on you. Also having done the stalls
you at least know the best and the worst that can or will happen to you.
Maybe the quick build kit with its factory installed fastener locations for the
main spar assures the essential symetrical geometry which helps to keep the the
beast level at the stall.
I hope that I do not get jumped upon by my more professional
brethren, but I would like to hear if anyone sees anything downright dangerous
in what I have said. I would not wish to misinform others. Please go
easy guys, I am all wound up over this machine!!!
Regards
Ian Crowe
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