X-Virus-Scanned: clean according to Sophos on Logan.com Return-Path: Received: from exhub003-1.exch003intermedia.net ([207.5.74.28] verified) by logan.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.2.11) with ESMTPS id 3434995 for flyrotary@lancaironline.net; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:14:49 -0500 Received-SPF: none receiver=logan.com; client-ip=207.5.74.28; envelope-from=jwhaley@datacast.com Received: from EXVMBX003-5.exch003intermedia.net ([207.5.74.45]) by exhub003-1.exch003intermedia.net ([207.5.74.28]) with mapi; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:14:00 -0800 From: Jeff Whaley To: Rotary motors in aircraft Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:14:10 -0800 Subject: RE: [FlyRotary] first flight - finally Thread-Topic: [FlyRotary] first flight - finally Thread-Index: Acl6tNaMpXkCFU41Sj2FUC3qBCwehAASR9ZA Message-ID: References: In-Reply-To: Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_C03ABB0A7362B84BB53D544B3C305E0ED136416127EXVMBX0035exc_" MIME-Version: 1.0 --_000_C03ABB0A7362B84BB53D544B3C305E0ED136416127EXVMBX0035exc_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Congratulations Mike, sounds like you had a good first flight; being able t= o reach 5000 ASL on first lift-off indicates that your cooling system is wo= rking well. It's a great feeling to have that first flight accomplished. Jeff From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Beh= alf Of Mike Wills Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:07 PM To: Rotary motors in aircraft Subject: [FlyRotary] first flight - finally All weekend winds were 45 - 90 crosswinds @ 10 - 15 so no chance to fly. Wa= s working on my glider in the hangar and happened to notice at 3:00 that th= e wind had calmed. Drag the airplane out, quick preflight, quick brief of m= y crew and the tower folks and away we go. Verified at 40 knots that the ASI was working this time and proceeded with = the takeoff. Pitch trim good, healthy dose of left rudder and we're off. Once off the ground everything is good. Just joined the pattern and continu= ed to climb directly over the airport. My home airport is surrounded, Mexic= o border 2 miles south, Class B 2 miles north, ocean to the west, and a 350= 0 peak to the east so up is the only way to go. Climbed to 5,000 and level off. Coolant temps are good (my mechanical coola= nt temp gauge isnt working at all but the engine monitor says 185). Oil tem= p by the monitor on the output of the cooler is 190, mechanical gauge with = sensor in the oil pan indicates 210 so I back off the power and it comes do= wn to about 190. OAT was in the mid - 70s (sorry to rub it in for the guys = that are freezing elsewhere in the country). Orbitted the airport for about 20 minutes. Still dont trust the ASI. There'= s a 20 KT discrepancy between it and the GPS in all directions. Pulled spee= d back to just nibble at the stall and the ASI is reading 30 KTS. Holding lots of left rudder in straight and level also - I see a trim tab i= n my future. No surprise since I didnt put any offset in the engine mount. = Should make it easy to upgrade to a 2.85 ratio later. Funny how you get so used to setting power by sound. I dont know where to s= et power. Especially for the descent and landing which is exacerbated by la= ck of a trustworthy ASI. So while loitering above the airport I set 4500 RP= M and see about 135 KTS on the GPS for ground speed. Seems lower than I tho= ught it would be but I need to do LOTS more flying before making any judgem= ents. Controls seem lighter than my old RV-6A. It's very nimble. For some reason = the rudder seems more powerful than the 6A even though they are exactly the= same. Pulled off a decent landing. Little bit of a skip but I'll blame the= rough runway surface. Wandered a bit left of the centerline due to the lef= t rudder I was carrying. Thought I had the EC2 pretty well programmed but found once in flight that = it needs more tweaking - no surprise. Found a few throttle settings that we= re running a little lean/rich and had to tweak the mixture some. On short f= inal pulled the throttle back almost to the stop and got the surging that I= thought I'd finally cured on the ground - bump the mixture a little and it= s gone. On roll out with the throttle at idle the engine starts to run roug= h - richen it up a little and its good. At this point for the next few flig= hts I'll just leave the programming and focus on flying. The programming is= close enough for now. Lots of things I should have noted but didnt. Sensory overload. I have a li= ttle list of things to fix before I go again. My ground crew reported that = the airplane appeared to climb well ( I was focused on speed/attitude and d= idnt think to look at the VSI - which probably didnt work anyway). They als= o noted that they lost sight of the all metal airplane, but never failed to= find it by the sound. :-) On a positive note, once away from the ground, = the cockpit got much quieter. And they pointed out that it was also conside= rably less noisy than the former George Graham E-Racer that used to be base= d here. More than enough for now. Sorry for the length - figure I'll be on a high f= or a few days. Mike Wills RV-4 N144MW --_000_C03ABB0A7362B84BB53D544B3C305E0ED136416127EXVMBX0035exc_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Congratulations Mike, sounds like you had a good first fligh= t; being able to reach 5000 ASL on first lift-off indicates that your cooling system is working well. It’s a great feeling to have that first fligh= t accomplished.

Jeff

 

From: Rotary motors= in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Mike Will= s
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:07 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] first flight - finally

 

All weekend winds were 45 - 90 crosswinds @ 10 - 15 so no chance to fly. Was working on my glider in the hangar and happened to notice at 3:00 that the = wind had calmed. Drag the airplane out, quick preflight, quick brief of my crew = and the tower folks and away we go.

 

Verified at 40 knots that the ASI was working this time and proceeded with the takeo= ff. Pitch trim good, healthy dose of left rudder and we're off.

 

Once off the ground everything is good. Just joined the pattern and continued to climb directly over the airport. My home airport is surrounded, Mexico border 2 miles south, Class B 2 miles north, ocean to the west, and a 3500 = peak to the east so up is the only way to go.

 

Climbed to 5,000 and level off. Coolant temps are good (my mechanical coolant temp gauge isnt working at all but the engine monitor says 185). Oil temp by the monitor on the output of the cooler is 190, mechanical gauge with sensor in= the oil pan indicates 210 so I back off the power and it comes down to about 19= 0. OAT was in the mid - 70s (sorry to rub it in for the guys that are freezing elsewhere in the country).

 

Orbitted the airport for about 20 minutes. Still dont trust the ASI. There's a 20 KT discrepancy between it and the GPS in all directions. Pulled speed back to = just nibble at the stall and the ASI is reading 30 KTS.

 

Holding lots of left rudder in straight and level also - I see a trim tab in my fut= ure. No surprise since I didnt put any offset in the engine mount. Should make i= t easy to upgrade to a 2.85 ratio later.

 

Funny how you get so used to setting power by sound. I dont know where to set pow= er. Especially for the descent and landing which is exacerbated by lack of a trustworthy ASI. So while loitering above the airport I set 4500 RPM and se= e about 135 KTS on the GPS for ground speed. Seems lower than I thought it wo= uld be but I need to do LOTS more flying before making any judgements.

 

Controls seem lighter than my old RV-6A. It's very nimble. For some reason the rudde= r seems more powerful than the 6A even though they are exactly the same. Pull= ed off a decent landing. Little bit of a skip but I'll blame the rough runway surface. Wandered a bit left of the centerline due to the left rudder I was carrying.

 

Thought I had the EC2 pretty well programmed but found once in flight that it needs more tweaking - no surprise. Found a few throttle settings that were runnin= g a little lean/rich and had to tweak the mixture some. On short final pulled t= he throttle back almost to the stop and got the surging that I thought I'd fin= ally cured on the ground - bump the mixture a little and its gone. On roll out w= ith the throttle at idle the engine starts to run rough - richen it up a little= and its good. At this point for the next few flights I'll just leave the programming and focus on flying. The programming is close enough for now.

 

Lots of things I should have noted but didnt. Sensory overload. I have a little = list of things to fix before I go again. My ground crew reported that the airpla= ne appeared to climb well ( I was focused on speed/attitude and didnt think to look at the VSI - which probably didnt work anyway). They also noted that t= hey lost sight of the all metal airplane, but never failed to find it by the so= und. :-)  On a positive note, once away from the ground, the cockpit got mu= ch quieter. And they pointed out that it was also considerably less noisy than= the former George Graham E-Racer that used to be based here.<= /p>

 

More than enough for now. Sorry for the length - figure I'll be on a high for a = few days.

 

Mike Wills

RV-4 N144MW

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