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Another flying RV

Flying Canuck

Well Known Member
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Shortly after 9:00 this morning, on a beautiful day, RV-9A C-GCPT did what it was designed and built to do - fly! I rode along in the left seat as my engine builder - who has 14,000+ hours in about 170 different aircraft - handled all of the flying. We backtracked runway 17 here at CYQF (Red Deer, AB) to have all 7500' available. We only needed the first 1000' and then we were off and flying. The aircraft flew true hands off on the climbout and handled very well through the hour long flight. As expected, the new engine ran hot (CHT ~425F) for much of the flight but settled down near and below 400F after 40 minutes or so. Flight was done at or above 75% power.

We ran into an engine issue as we started our descent that resulted in losing power in cylinder #1. This was quickly diagnosed as a leaking injector line and we mitigated the fire risk by keeping the airflow high in the descent. Power came back as we landed without incident. A quick check after the cowling was pulled revealed that the nut at the flow divider had completely backed off and slid down the line. The flared end was still firmly against the fitting, so the worst it got was leaky. Certainly a serious issue that should have been caught by either of us.

Not much else for snags, we'll get it fixed up and back out for flight number 2 later this week.

Not much luck with video, but here are a few pictures from just before the flight.
FirstFlight01.jpg


FirstFlight02.jpg
 
congrats. beautiful airplane. you are going to like it.

I watched a Cirrus video fitted with the IO390. 150 kts cruise at 11.5 gph. I did that speed on the way home this weekend at 6 gph at 11,500 ft.
 
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Re: Osh Seminars

This year in Oshkosh I attended a pre-test flight safety seminar that was taught in Canadian EAA tent : ))) The instructor was stressing the fact that 50% of test flight incidents are related to various fuel delivery failure modes!
 
This year in Oshkosh I attended a pre-test flight safety seminar that was taught in Canadian EAA tent : ))) The instructor was stressing the fact that 50% of test flight incidents are related to various fuel delivery failure modes!

I can believe that. It's pretty much second only to the electrical system for complexity (at least in my build). This one should certainly have been caught - my engine builder installed the flow divider, injector lines and nozzles and failed to tighten the fittings and when I checked all of the fuel fittings I neglected to check anything past the flow divider. Very glad that this didn't result in anything serious, but it sure had potential. I don't know what temperature 100LL will ignite at and I don't want to use a test flight to find out. [Just found an internet reference that suggests that the auto ignition point of 100LL is 443C (829F), a lot higher than a cylinder will get, but well below typical EGT]
 
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Congrats!

well done Claude, on the completion, and safe end to the first flight!

....and nice to see that you now have one of about 3 ( three) aircraft in Canada with the registration marks actually done correctly!

( ok, if they are just tape, you can always go for the fancy ones later!) :)
 
....and nice to see that you now have one of about 3 ( three) aircraft in Canada with the registration marks actually done correctly!

( ok, if they are just tape, you can always go for the fancy ones later!) :)

Good catch! They're almost correct - I designed my own "G" as the italicized one on the template sheet looks stupid. They are painted on, including the massive under wing letters. To be honest, I went with that letter style because it's much easier to tape than the much better looking rounded letters.
 
Flight number 2 in marginal VFR (an iffy 3 miles in smoke) went this morning. I handled the majority of the flying, up to the landing which got stretched on account of a coyote parked on the center line. While I had ground visibility, forward visibility wasn't very good but this turned into a good immersive way to get used to my SkyView's attitude indication view (and synthetic vision). Also made good use of the maps. Overall an excellent flight, this is a very solid flying platform. I love the light touch handling and the stable hands off flying. I have an ever so slight heavy left wing, but that is probably mostly because of the heavy guy sitting in the left seat. Since the first flight wasn't trouble free, the 25 hour clock for the test phase ticked off its first hour today.

Next flight will be with my engine builder again, we'll work on a few landings to make sure I have them solid before I finish out the testing solo.
 
how are the CHTs?

With the mixture ROP (leaned for best power) and 11.7 gph, we saw CHTs around 428 on #1, 419 on #2/#4, and 406 on #3. That's at WOT, about 24.5". We leaned it out a little (10.7 gph) and those temps went up by about 15 degrees. Got a ways to go for break in, hope to see the FF and CHTs come down, especially the FF - the book for 75% power at 2400 rpm with best power mix says 10 gph.

Savvy Analysis is awesome.
 
....and nice to see that you now have one of about 3 ( three) aircraft in Canada with the registration marks actually done correctly!
Only if he has 20" letters under one wing!

Flying Canuck said:
...They are painted on, including the massive under wing letters...
Righto, never mind then... :)

Congratulations on the first flight!
 
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