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First Freedom from gravity

sbalmos

Well Known Member
It was more than a first flight. It was first freedom. Freedom from the tyranny of gravity. Today, my plane celebrated its Independence (from Gravity) Day! Kind of appropriate, right?

The first flight was much shorter than planned, just over 15 minutes and one time around the pattern. Definite extremely high CHT issues, especially on #2, to work on with the baffles. And I think I have a loose pitot tube fitting somewhere - lost airspeed indication some time after I passed 25kts and switched my attention back outside to lifting off. Oh well, no biggie. Everything handled smoothly and engine sounded fine. Fly with your senses, not your sensors.

What little time was spent in the air was incredibly smooth and stable, and even a great first landing (albeit a bit shallow).

A huge amount of thanks to Scott Hersha, who flew chase in his RV-8 and checked for anything flapping around or pouring out the underside (thankfully no). Thanks to Steve Melton for snapping the exhausted RV grin pic that I'll get and post up some time soon. Thanks to Tim Ribble for great transition training out at Chesapeake, VA in his RV-6A. And to everyone else in the RV Community, both at HAO and online here, who's lent assistance at any time during the past 6.5 years, THANK YOU.

Runup, with Scott Hersha off to my side
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A beautiful, but incredibly hot, day
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Coming back in to HAO
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congrats Scott! a last minute modification prior to takeoff set you back a couple hours and put you into the heat of the day. the heat index was over 100F. there are several new tech features on this bird that will be interesting to follow on your phase 1.

the unspoken word: respect

IMG_20180704_113341_zpsnreqyoly.jpg


IMG_20180704_113641_zpscow3j1yp.jpg
 
Last edited:
Congratulations Scott! Nice cowling! Work those bugs out while in the test box. Time to fly somewhere cooler :D

 
Well Done!

Scott,
That?s just fantastic news, Sir. Now knock out that Phase 1. :cool:
 
Test flight cards

Had the same issues on my first flight, high CHT's and no airspeed indication. Flew the pattern a little hot based on the 496 GPS ground speed which was one of the "what if this happens" items on my first flight flight test card.
I did the EAA test flight program where you sit down with an experienced "test" pilot before the first flight and run through what if scenarios and then develop test cards for each phase of the phase 1 program, I thought it was well worth it.
Congratulations you will love the plane.
Figs
 
Congratulations Scott! Last spring you were gracious enough to spend a couple hours with my wife and I showing off your plane and answering all of my questions. Hopefully in the not too distant future there will be another 9A with James cowl and Catto 3 blade prop gracing the skies. Your plane looks great! Your panel was one of the coolest I've seen as well.
 
Congratulations Scott!

Good heavens I was out grilling yesterday afternoon and it was so hot I barely needed to turn on the grill. I'd be curious what the density alt. was when you slipped skywards.

I think this weekend will be much cooler - the better for additional debugging, diagnosis and flight test.


Best Regards,

-Paragon
 
S.J. cowling/Catto prop/spinner....crush plate??

Congratulations Scott on the completion and first flight of your new bird!! I'm building a -7 with the same S.J. cowling and Catto prop setup that you're using. Can you tell me what prop extension/crush plate setup you used? I don't have mine actually mounted up yet but from measurements that I've taken it looks like I'm going to need a little bit thicker aluminum crush plate so that the front and aft spinner bulkheads will have proper spacing to allow the spinner to bolt up.

Mark
 
I'll have to check in the mess of receipts when I get home tonight Mark. But from what I remember, there was nothing non-standard for either the extension or crush plate. 7" diameter, and I think the extension was 2.25"? I just ended up emailing Saber with all the details on the prop and engine, and they figured it out. Sounds like if you've got a question of length, you're going backwards. Fit the cowl to the length of everything mounted, not other way around. Should just be a bit more to chop off the back of the cowl.
 
Spinner/bulkhead/crush plate fitment

Hey Scott,

Yeah, it's really not a cowling issue that I'm having, it's more of a spinner/bulkhead/crush plate problem that I'm having. I stacked everything up on the workbench starting with the 4" extension, then the aft spinner bulkhead, then the prop, then the 7" aluminum crush plate, then the forward spinner bulkhead, then the 8" 20lb. crush plate. Then I took my measurements between the two bulkheads then slipped the spinner on over everything. The bottom line is that the forward spinner bulkhead isn't nesting far enough forward into the spinner so it's looking like I'm going to have to get Saber to machine a new aluminum crush plate for me that's about 1/4" thicker than the one I currently have or add an additional 1/4" crush plate to the stack. Regardless of how it's done I just need the forward spinner bulkhead to go forward about 1/4" so that it nest into the spinner properly. I had Catto drill the holes and mount the plate-nuts on the aft portion of the spinner, so I know the spinner is located properly in relation to the prop and the rest of the assembly. Even though you just had to used the 2" prop extension, all of the other measurements should be the same between yours and mine. In other words, our spinners and bulkhead measurements should be exactly the same. I mentioned the 8" 20lb. above, but it really doesn't come into play regarding spinner/bulkhead fitment because it actually sits forward of the forward bulkhead and it clears the inside of the spinner just fine.

Mark
 
Ah! Well, what's worse is I have Catto's carbon fiber spinner, so I don't have any forward bulkhead or additional 20lb crush plate. Only the normal 7" crush plate on top of the prop. Don't think I can really help ya there. :/
 
One or two spinner bulkheads?

I have the same Catto carbon fiber spinner as you do. So are you saying that you're only using the one aft spinner bulkhead? Is that giving you enough support? My spinner came with both a forward 13" bulkhead (but the spinner isn't drilled for the forward one yet) and the aft bulkhead that the spinner is already drilled for and the plate-nuts installed on the bulkhead.

Mark
 
Mine is one of the first-gen carbon fiber spinners Craig put out. It has the cross-hatch outer weave as opposed to the honeycomb weave pattern, if that helps. And no, there is no forward bulkhead, used or provided. The spinner inside has an integral forward section with a "plug" that fits into the prop hub central hole.
 
Congratulations on getting that -9A in the air. Mine is possibly next - first flight planned for 2 weeks from now, weather permitting.
 
Oh, ok....gotcha! Yeah, mine requires the front bulkhead so I guess I?ll just have to maybe get a custom 7? crush plate made to push that front bulkhead out just a little bit forward. Thanks for all the good help!!

Mark
 
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