Sonex 815 - Continuing the Kitlog - 4
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3/9/10 Panel
Yesterday spent a little time making up a rear view mirror bracket. Today stopped by the airport and added a spot of velcro for the OAT gauge, and to get the hand seamer to form up this bracket. Need a rear view mirror? No. But I was curious to see what could be seen in that direction.
3/13/10 Flight 121
1.0 flight time, 6 ldg. Flight review w/ Rusty Green. Did some steep turns, lazy 8's. Let Rusty fly for a few minutes - excellent pilot - one of his previous planes was a Pitts S2-B. Did some slow flight, power on stall, returned to airport and worked the pattern. Rusty recommended doing power off approaches, as in a way to simulate engine outs. At 500 AGL, abeam the touchdown point, pull power. This would simulate the end of a real engine out. That was pretty good practice. Did one with no flaps and got the long, long float as expected. Wasn't doing too well with the wheel landings.
3/26/10 Flight 122 - Aileron Rolls
0.6 flight time, 1 ldg. Forecast is for wind to pick up today, and aloft, GPS to AS differential was about 20mph, but only reporting 3-4 kts on the ground. Went over to the I-10 project, circled once and took some photos. They have really built up a lot of the off ramps on the West side. Probably can open that first, since it connects to the bridge over the river, and if the East side of I-10 isn't available - well, there isn't any commercial development over there now anyway. Then flew west to my usual practice area and did some aileron rolls. 3 to the left, 1 to the right. Went up to 6500', about 2850 rpm, about 140 mph indicated. Figured out they take about 150' of altitude. Process: straight and level 2850 rpm, 140 mph indicated, 150' above the desired ending altitude. Push over to 150 mph, pull up to 45 degrees nose-up. Neutralize elevator, apply full aileron with coordinated rudder in the direction of roll. Ends up level at the ending altitude. Very smooth, I'm guessing about 4 seconds for the whole roll, or a rate of 90 degrees per second. After doing that, did a steep descending turn back towards the airport (steep enough to pull power back to idle). Normal wheel landing, rolled out long to taxiway B (closer to my hangar). Landed w/ about 9 gallons indicated, saw 11 just after circling I-10, so about 2 gallons burned.
I-10 project progress.
Bridge over I-10 and the railroad tracks.
My house is in there, towards the right.
3/27/10 Flight 123 - Aileron Rolls cont'd
0.4 flight time, 1 ldg. Went out to 7000 MSL. Did 3 rolls to the left, 1 to the right. Pushed over to about 1500 fpm down @ 170 mph (pulled throttle way back) to return. 1 172 in the pattern, 1 more calling inbound, a Bonanza in the runup area (pulled out while I was rolling to the turn off), and one more called overhead as I taxied in. Saw a bunch of planes pulled out of hangars as I was leaving. I guess everyone is trying to get their flights in before the wind picks up (or there's a breakfast somewhere). Seems to be a vibration at low rpm 800-1300 that wasn't there before. Only notice it on the ground. Will pull the cowling prior to next flight to investigate.
4/6/10 Engine Maintenance
Torqued the prop. Rolled it out. Started up, taxied down to the turn-around area, sat for a minute or two, taxied back. Still noticing the vibration. Now that it's warmed up, rolled it back in and did a compression check. (add record here). All very good. Pulled it through and checked that the ignition modules were all secure as were the flywheel magnets. Hand threaded the plugs back in a little just to not leave open holes, closed the doors and went to work.
4/7/10 Engine Mtce cont'd
Since the baffles were already partially off, pulled the valve covers and torqued the heads. Next thing to check is to pull off the distributor caps and check the rotors.
