Smart glide tested

I finally got around to make another flight to test Smart Glide. I will update this post with a video as soon as I have gotten a approval from the authorities to share this video. (it should not contain anything secret but you never know ;) )

Basically it works as advertised but I´m not so sure it is useful in most scenarios. I will use it if I have engine trouble at high altitude in IMC, for a short while, while I organize myself before manually setting up for an approach.

It has a lot of potential for improvements that could make it close to as useful as Auto Land. The system has all information needed to create and let the autopilot use a visual approach guidance to a runway threshold, using the sink rate you have programmed and accounting for wind. All the pilot would have to do then is to make a final flare :D 

Updated with video:

TOGA button installed

Decided to yet again redo some radio wiring, I will shorten the headset wiring by placing the jacks in the panel instead of the standard RV-14 position (beside the seats). This is still work in progress as I did not bring all needed tools to the airport.

I also installed the TOGA switch and configured the GTN 625 for "remote go around", works great.

Twilight flight, panel version 2.5

Spent many hours with improving the wire management, wrapping the center panel section and installing the new Garmin G5. Below is panel version 2.5 (version three will be with the soon to be installed iPad flush mount)

 I was tired and local time was way past 10PM but I could not skip testing out the G5 and this was also a great opportunity to check the landing light height adjustment.

Twilight ended at 23:26 at ESSU last night, I landed at 23:16, perfect! This was also the first flight with a working pitot heat. I turned off the heat when vacating the runway, it was still warm 6-8 minutes later when I had gotten out of the cockpit and checked it.

I need to tune the back light settings in the GMC507 and the ICOM. In real life, it is the G5, 625 and 470 that has a good brightness setting.
 

Flight 20 Noise test training

Flight 20 was a flight to train for the upcoming noise certification test. For the pilot, the test is mainly about performing several repeatable max performance climbs.

What I did was to set the autopilot in FD (flight director) mode already on the ground, with the runway heading set as the horizontal mode and IAS climb at Vy spped.

I then started, established myself in the expected attitude and turned on the autopilot who then smoothly fine tuned the climb until my set altitude of 1500 feet (for the test I will climb higher.

Test was very successful. I also made two landing where I set to land just at the numbers, I could easily stop within 300m of the numbers and I touched down within 25 meters of my target.

 

Autopilot installation, flight test

Finally everything lined up and I could perform the autopilot testing. I could not get the trim to work properly thru the autopilot but as it is recommended to do the first test without autotrim, I performed the other ground tests, disabled the autotrim function and then went flying.

First I flew around with just the flight director enabled, after being satisfied that it guided me correctly I climbed to safe altitude.

At 3000 feet I had one finger on the cws/ap disconnect button, the other at the AP controller, I took special care to where the AP servo breaker was and then activated the autopilot. At first I just had it in heading and alt mode. verified that I could disable the AP with a push on the AP/CWS button on my stick.

I then tried some turns just turning the heading knob, did some VS climbs and descends, happy that it captured my set altitude. With these tests done, I flew with less concerns and got down lower.

I have now done altitude captures from high and low, altitude hold directly. only done VS climb and descents so far. For the horizontal part, I have done heading and nav from the GTN625.

All have worked great. The autopilot is precise and very smooth, I think I will set it to be a little more aggressive later on, but for a first test with just the recommended values from Vans I think the result was amazing. It is already better that 90% of all other autopilot equipped aircrafts I have flown :D

Autopilot installation, wiring almost done

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Not only have me and my family moved to a new house this spring, I have also been more busy at work due to covid-19. And as if that was not enough to shift my focus away from the RV, I have started a new demanding position at another company this monday.

This evening I finally found time to continue my autopilot installation. At first it was a complete mess, the roll servo did not even show up on the configuration screen and the rest of the system showed huge amounts of canbus network error:

It stayed like this for weeks, I did some improvements in my wiring, installed a shielding ground but nothing helped.

I began suspecting that it was a canbus termination problem as the instructions from Vans did not clearly indicate that the servo harness was designed so that pin 3&4 on the servos were connected (this makes the servos use the built in 120ohm canbus terminators)

After posting on the Vansairforce forum this afternoon, I quickly got some trouble shooting assistance and this evening I went to the hangar to check.

I could quickly determine that the canbus termination was as specified. I then disconnected the roll servo as that LRU showed the biggest problem (not showing up at all)

With the roll servo disconnected, the bus was fine again. I went back to my documentation and after reading the relevant documentation several times and scratching my head, I finally found my error. Due to this mistake in my documentation, I had switched the can-hi and can-low wires.

After redoing this part of the wiring harness, I was presented with this pleasing screen:

 Time to put everything together, set some values in the configuration and go out testing...perhaps on Sunday.

Flight 16, a "Q-moment"

Did flight 16 today in an amazing blue sky with light winds. Some minor turbulence but all in all a very enjoyable flight.

There was some spice in the beginning. I used the heating pads to give the oil a better starting point, in was about -6c when I arrived at the airport, +4 when I left. After a normal preflight, start and all the normal taxi, run-up and take-off, I leveled out at 1500 (1400agl) and quickly accelerated, the stick force got heavier and heavier until I realized the trim acted in the opposite way.

Only thing done since last flight is installing the pitch autopilot servo. So be aware that when installing the autopilot servo, the trim might reverse. (the trim commands goes thru the AP-servo)

In the cozy3 that I am a part owner in, we actually have the trim set opposite to normal so adjusting to having the pitch trim going against the stick movement was no problem at all.

I had forgotten that I had the gopro set in pro-mode with iso min-max set for low light mode, all footage outside of the hangar was completely washed out.

Tail cover in place again

The tail cover plate with it´s new EXPERIMENTAL sign is in place again. More import is that behind the cover, there is a fully installed pitch servo.

None of the servos have their wiring done. I have not decided on how to do the can-bus connection. One alternative I am thinking about is to have one end of the chain start at the pitch servo i the tail, going to the Magnetometer in the left wing, from there to all the LRUs in the panel and then ending at the roll servo in the right wing. Another is to keep one end being at the Magnetometer, going to the panel LRUs, from there to the roll servo and from there to the pitch servo.

Pitch servo

Pitch servo in place, The actuator arm and the cables are to be done... 

Roll Servo

Either it is to windy or cloud cover below 1000 feet. Not conditions I am willing to fly my RV in at this stage of the flight test period.

The hangar is cold but I have been there a few times, checking things out and I have finally gotten the roll-servo in place. Roll trim still works, good to know that the servo does not need power for the trim commands to be relayed.

I hope to get it connected during my next session. It is now almost exactly one months until me and my family will move to a new little city/suburb. This will turn my 1:15 one way drive to the airport into a 28-33 minute drive :D

Panel version 2

Started on the next version of the Panel. I think climbing with the AP set on IAS will become my favourite.