While I like loose chains when landing, I decided to replace the ugly (and draggy?) chains that keep the rudder and tail-wheel connected with a much neater solution. I also changed out the axle bolt for an axle that allows you to use a Cessna type tow bar.
I have now tested landing with about 6kt crosswind, to taxi is great and I felt no jinx when the tail wheel touched down.I have also used a tow-bar to drag the RV-14 100m to the cleaning place, some day I will make or buy a motorized towing solution!
Another great flight. During the pre-flight I took greater care than usual to make sure that all stuff in the RV was secured or put back in the hangar.
As I already have the basic data needed for Version 1 of the POH/Flight manual, it is time to start thinking about less essential things to verify. One of these things is to test some basic aerobatic maneuvers.
I don´t plan on doing any competition aerobatics or other types of advanced flying, I do not have a fuel pickup that can handle negative Gs, nor an oil system capable of sustained inverted flight.
I decided to start with two of the most classic maneuvers, the barrel roll and looping.
After reading about other RV-14/A pilots doing aerobatics in this model, I decided to follow their suggestion and use a higher speed than what I think I will use when more experienced in this aircraft. This means using 155-160kt IAS as entry speeds for these two maneuvers. It is stated that one does not have to use the normal IAC 4G pull for the looping entry and pull out (less is ok), 4G was anyway what I aimed for.
Reviewing the log shows that my feel for G forces are not way off but not great either, during the entry pull i maxed at 4.88G and for the pull out I used a max of 3.79G. Other interesting numbers is that I left the looping at only 100 feet below the entry alt and my speed only dropped 3 knots. The top was about 800 feet above the baseline, max/min vertical speed was 9670/-10232, all these figures are from the 1/s G3X log, I will review the internal faster updating log later.
The left and right barrel rolls was done by doing 2G pull up to place my shoes at the horizon and then about 75% aileron inputs while maintaining between 0.5 and 1 positive G. No rudder inputs (at least not deliberate) was made. during the rolls, the altitude went up by 165 and down by 134 feet compared to the starting altitude. Logs are great to have!
My external camera got tilted, I made the best of it :/
Today I finally got around to connect the two fans that wents the avionics and also help with getting fog of the canopy.
I also fixed the co-pilot trim up function, as last time it was the micro molex connector that had come loose. Last thing done was to set some squelch and mic gain, and other settings in the ICOM220.
Fueled the aircraft and then washed it for the first time. Take off video with the cleaned RV:
Got out to the airport to continue dismantling the radio, I got out the tray and decided to just try it in my lap before removing all wiring. I then realized that I could push the radio in another millimeter into the tray compared to when it was in the panel! Now I got reception from inside the hangar :D
I then tried turning on the intercom using the key on the radio (hold in dual for 2 seconds), I had not done this before as I have a dedicated intercom switch, another win, the intercom is working.
With this, I reconnected the G3X sound into the radio, mounted the tray into the panel, further out and went for a test flight. I am still not happy with the sound quality but everything is much improved.
Made two touch & go, all three landnings was good today, basically no bounce on any.
Flew to ESKU Sunne for the noise certification test. When I review the track I can clearly see that I was not cheating. I was both low, slow and initiated the climb late.
Consistent paths :D
Could have initiated the climb about 10m earlier :/
My radio problems are back, I am planning to make a new harness without reusing any of the old wiring.
The plan for yesterday was to get the noice certification tests done but the weather did not cooperate.
I then decided to install the new center section of the panel so I would no longer have to fly with the GMC 507 autopilot controller in my lap.
I managed to flip the flap switch upside down so I will have to correct that at the next session.
A squak/to-do list to make me remember:
- Flip the flap switch
- Wrap the center panel
- Label the center panel
- Fix the co-pilot trim down switch
- Connect the canopy fans
- Connect the canopy warning switch
- Install the Pitot heat switch
- Clean up the wiring behind the panel
- Provide a USB connector at, at least one external camera postions
- Install the new tail wheel axle
- Install te new tail wheel staring link
- Install the new access doors/covers
Flight 25 was a flight to verify that all still worked well after the annual service including oil/oil filter change. During this flight I also did some cardinal heading&track runs at 4000 feet to use for airspeed indication verification.
Flight 26 was a familirazation flight for my second observer and controller Jan-Erik. After the upcoming noise certification tests, I need to focus on solving the intercom problem.
Flight 27 was a great evening flight, I got a rainbow on camera, it looked much greater live. I also adjusted the autopilot, I made a small increase both in gain and torque, getting nearer to what I consider perfect.
Yesterday I got around to enter the data from flight 25 into the excel sheet provided in Kitplanes to help calculate IAS correction. The result was an amazing -0.29 knots!
