Radio flight tested OK :D

 Finally some good (well not good but in an IFR capable machine there was plenty of room for worse without affecting saftey).

Needed to set the intercom squelch level to the max 30 setting to keep the mics from staying open. The ICOM220-Sennheizer combo seems to be a bit tricky.

Great to have a fully working RV again :D

ps. this was my first flight using the checklist in the iPad. Not perfect as I would like to keep the chart/map in that screen. Once I find the screen rotate setting on my phone, I will try using that for the checklist.

 

  

Reinstalled the Radio

Received the radio yesterday. Today I installed it and did a good ground check (it was snowing with a cealing of 3-400 feet so I did not perform a flight test today.

Great to read that the found an obvious problem and solved it :D

The intercom and G3X sound good, receiving from a handheld radio also checked out good and receiveing on the handheld from the reinstalled ICOM also sounded good. 

Expect to need to tweak the mic gain and squelch in the air to get the best result. 

Radio failure (on the ground)

 Lousy weather but good enough for a short IFR flight. The goal was to confirm or adjust the Intercom squelch level in preparation for a planned flight with my wife next week. The radio just died during the run-up while programming the GTN....

At least it is the best season to be grounded on...

LEMO-jack

Got around to installing the LEMO-jack for the right side. I decided to keep the traditional headset jacks as a backup. I also found the intercom squelch settings, now working perfectly on the ground, I hope to do a flight test tomorrow. 

Radio working properly :D

Last evening provided some great weather. I took the oppourtunity and made an early evening flight. On my last flight I made some radio checks with a tower and got the response that reception is fully understandable (even at significant distance) but that it sounded like I was flying in an open cockpit aeroplane.

For last evenings flight, I had reduced the mic gain setting a lot, now I need to keep my mouth really close to the mic to break squelch but I got only positive feedback regarding my transmission quality. Finally a fully working radio, I will try to increase the mic gain sligtly but now I know I have a setting that works in case this recreates the noice problems. :D

I got a nice picture from my area, the pool will be installed this week.

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.

RV formation and left fuel tank calibration

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. 

A morning flight, Flight 42

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)

- Install flush iPad mini holder in the panel

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 34, Fixed radio

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.

Noise certification test

Flights 30-32

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.

Flight 10, radio check

Bad weather, a one week business trip... today it was finally time to verify that the radio is working. Last week I finalized reinstalling a completely new cable harness for the radio. It sounded good on the ground but I did not have time to take a flight that day.

Today I arrived at around 10, taxied to the fuel station and performed a successful radio check with the tower. With a general cloud base of 1100-1200 feet and with small clouds even lower, I decided to park the RV in the hangar again and go for lunch.

After lunch the cloud base was now at 1400+ and I decided to fly. I was asked to take the grass strip, and why not so that was another first for the aircraft. The radio worked great so I flew over the construction site of our new house. The I decided to calibrate the AOA, I was a little bumpy and I could not fly higher than 16-1700 feet so I did not insist on a crisp stall, will redo it in smoother air and with some ballast in the back. lowest IAS was 57.6kt according to the logs.