Another fuel calibration and two more flights and I am up to the necessary 50 hours :D
POH and test protocols are written.
Left to do is:
- a mandatory extra annual/100-inspection
- mark all the switches again (ordered small 20x10mm signs yesterday. Before placing these, I will paint the center and right panel as I liked how the left panel turned out)
Then I will send in my material and request for a permanent permit to fly, our EAA organisation will send out an inspector to do a final certification inspection and then it will be done.
Got a visit from fellow RV builder Calle, joined him an his daughter on the first part of their flight from Eskilstuna to Håtuna. To bumpy for close formation.
After that I flew around for another 35 minutes and then made turns in a good area near Katrineholm airstrip at 3000 ft AGL, waiting for the left tank to run dry. Spotted the fuel pressure going down from 28 to 18 before the engine really quit making power. Switched to the right tank and stayed in the area for another 30 seconds to make sure all was fine and then returned to Eskilstuna and did the fuel calibration by first calibration for ground at 0L, then put it in flight attitude and calibrated for 0L.
Then fueled up to 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and finally 90L. Storing calibration points after each fuel up.
My radio transmissions and reception looks to be good now, while at Katrineholm, I could hear Calle who was probably pretty far away, activating his flight plan and getting the first clearances towards Visby.
The plan was to first do a one turn spinn and if that went well, a 2-3 turn spinn. What happened was that at the break my body shifted about an inch forward, bumping the stick so the spin almost automatically stopped. As my stomach started to tell me that I had enough of aerobatics for the flight, I decided that that was a good enough test of spinns.
Continued with an hour long flight, flew over my first airfield ESCN (Tullinge) and made a simulated approach to the old runway 24, care full of not getting to low as the have build houses on the old runway :(
The RV14 now has 43.1 hours in the air and the draft POH is almost done.
Another great flight today. This evening i realized that I had 997.6 hours in my logbook. Time for a longer flight!
And an amazing flight it was, started with some formation flying, then 30 minutes of IMC followed by a tour around ESSB (Bromma) control zone, got 2.5 hours block time so my total flight time is now 1000.1 hours :D Tested in the flight was the new iPad min flush mount, worked great!
Update: another video for nerds only, now that I got the external camera home:
Another video, trying out some pic in pic video layouts:
The flush iPad mount will not fit next to the 7´´ G3X Touch screen without major modifications. I give up and will place it next to the G5 instead. Removed the left panel after the flight, at home with me now for the mount installation.
Sat myself in the car a few minutes after 5am and headed for the airport. Block off at 6:03 and airborne at 6:14, living closer to the airport is great! I am now in the air before I would have arrived at the airport if living at my old adress :D
Today's flight was just a another flight to verify that the G5 works as it should. My radio interception is now much improved and I listened to Sweden Control for most of the flight, happy to hear some traffic again, it sure has been silent on the radio for many weeks now.
I was hoping to do some IMC flying but I am not sure the cloud flying I did at the end of this video even qualifies for logging IMC... When flying in IMC with the pitot heat on at 11 degrees Celsius with all normal equipment on and a camera on the USB interface, my total system draw is only 15 Amps. Flying at -40 celsius should make the GAP 26 draw a maximum of another 6 amps, feels great to have lots of marginal :D
Was home at 8:05 the kids had just woken up and my wife's greeting included "...perfect tajming, the coffee is just ready to be served". Life is great!
To-do/squak list
Done
- Install Garmin G5
- Wrap center panel
- Clean up the wiring behind the panel (some minor stuff left to do)
- Fix/replace the non working canopy fan
To-do
- Install new TOGA switch
- Re-label the center panel
- Forgot mounting the light regulators in the panel, a 5 minute job
- Connect the canopy warning switch (not sure if I will)
- Provide a USB connector at, at least one external camera postions
- Install the new access doors/covers
- Install Wheelpant access doors (to be able to fill up the tires without having to dismantle the fairings)
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.
When installed I will feel comfortable flying into IMC.
Squak/to-do status:
Done
- Flip the flap switch
- Fix the co-pilot trim down switch
- Install Pitot heat switch (and breaker)
- Complete Pitot heat wiring
- New tail wheel axle
- New Tail wheel stearing link
- Connect the canopy fans, Done but one fan does not work...
To-do
- Install Garmin G5
- Install new TOGA switch
- Wrap center panel
- Connect the canopy warning switch (not sure if I will)
- Clean up the wiring behind the panel
- Provide a USB connector at, at least one external camera postions
- Install the new access doors/covers
- Install Wheelpant access doors (to be able to fill up the tires without having to dismantle the fairings)
- Install flush iPad mini holder in the panel
