Flying

Flying & Performance – First report Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Flying on July 2, 2023 by Peter

As of today, I’ve logged 7.3 hours in the aircraft. The airplane is flying well, but there have been some maintenance issues. So lots, to cover. We’ll cover things one topic at a time. First, lets take a look at engine performance so far.

First up, CHTs. Unfortunately, I did forget an SD card on a couple of my flights, so they are not all represented here. But we’ll start with first flight on June 13. You can see the maximum CHT reached is 383 after takeoff. The spread between highest and lowest is 52 degrees. Cylinder 3 is running the hottest – with the cylinder directly in front of it, running the codes. There is only 9 degrees between the two cylinders (2 & 4) on the left side of the engine.

I missed logging the date from a 1.1 hour flight on the 16th. So the next flight shows the engine after it has 2.2 hours on it. I have also added some metal foil tape to cylinder 1 to try to decrease its airflow, and increase airflow to cylinder 3. The CHT spread is now 41 degrees but between cylinder 3, and cylinder 4. The spread between 1 & 3 has dropped to 23 degrees. I also added some tape to cylinder 2, which was a mistake. All in all these numbers are really really good for an engine during break in!

I did two flights on the 18th, and you can see the CHT trend remains the same.

I missed the SD card again for a flight on the 19th. I did do a compression test after the flights on June 18th. Cylinders 1, 3, & 4 got 78/80. And cylinder 2 scored a 76/80. Removing all the bottom plugs showed them to be mostly dry, with cylinder #2, showing a little bit wet.

Now the plane went into a maintenance phase to correct several issues, that I will cover later.

Here is the CHT data from today, July 2nd. CHT max is 353. The maximum delta is 35 degrees. Cylinder 1 to 3 is now 17, and Cylinder 2 to 4 is 5 degrees. The numbers are all trending in the right direction. I’d like to get CHT 3 a bit lower, so I’ll play with that. Either way, what I take from these numbers are 2 things. First, this engine is cooling very well. Every flight has been maximum power for takeoff and initial climb, followed by periods of 25 squared or 24 squared. The engine has been run hard, and she’s running very cool! Second, as the CHTs are coming down, this is a good indication that proper break-in is occurring.

Now lets take a look at oil temps. I’m not going to do as many graphs for this one, as oil temps have remained solid, and are not indicative of break-in. Here is the latest flight. Oil temp basically between 176 and 189. 180 is optimum, so oil temps are right where I want them. Angle valve engines are known for running cooler CHTs and hotter oil temps. For this reason, I installed the bigger oil cooler, and so far that decision seems to be good all around. This baby shouldn’t have any problems with temperatures!!!

I have some preliminary speed data, but all the while I’m screaming around rich of peak for engine break-in, they should be taken with a grain of salt. Here are the speeds from a flight where I did the airspeed box.

At 25 squared I was getting about 181 to 184 KTAS, and at 24 squared I was getting right around 170 KTAS.

I have done a couple of stalls, and collected that data. Here you can see a stall series I did on June 18th. Stall with full flaps was at 53 KTAS, and 48.5 KIAS. I’ve only done a couple stalls, really just to establish safety of flight for the landing pattern. I will return to much more in-depth stall testing, when I’m comfortable that the majority of engine break-in is complete, and going to lower power settings will not harm break-in.

Ok. Now some fun photos and reports.

Some views from the cockpit on June 18th. It is such an absolute thrill to have my own airplane in the air!

And from today, July 2nd.

Last note on in-flight performance. Between the last flight on June 19th, and today’s flight on July 2nd. I did a lot of maintenance items, which I will cover in a subsequent post. I did do the on-ground configuration of the auto-pilot. So today was a good opportunity to give that an initial test. There are some procedures for doing in-air setup. Mainly centered around gains and torques. Today’s testing seemed to show everything working perfectly. I did heading and altitude holds, as well as turns, climbs, descents and even let the flight director pick up navigation to a direct waypoint. I don’t think much, if anything, will need to be tweaked in terms of gains, or torques. Auto-trim is currently turned off, so we’ll circle back to that at a later time too.

First Flight!!!! Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Flying Maintenance on June 15, 2023 by Peter

The first flight of N22UP was on the evening of June 13th out of KDMW in Westminster, Maryland. My planned flight was 45 min of basically engine break-in. I was fortunate enough to be assisted by Mike Bullock flying his RV-7 as a chase plane, and Mike Rollison running a ground safety vehicle.

I spent the day replacing access panels and doing another final inspection on the aircraft. I fueled up with 13 gallons per side and did some basic flight planning. My intent was to take off, climb to 4 or 5000 feet and basically orbit the airport at 25 squared for engine break-in. My transition training instructor, Bruce Bohannon, had really focused my attention on oil pressure and CHTs – so my goals was to make sure I had the former, and I managed the latter. I was expecting high CHTs due to initial engine break-in. Mike Bullock and I did a final walk around of the airplane, then we took a flight around the pattern in his plane to recon potential off field landing locations in the event of a low altitude engine failure. Once back on the ground, it was time to jump in the plane and take it flying.

I was cautious on takeoff – easing the power forward I kept it nice and straight. She shot down the runway and was airborne in no time. I pulled power back quite quickly and was in a rapid climb in no time. My engine temperatures stayed excellent throughout the flight. I did a little slow flight, a full flap power off stall, and then returned to the airport for a low pass followed by a long wheel landing.

Afterwards, review of the airplane reviewed the following squawks. There was some oil in the cowl. Some we suspect from the breather tube, but there also might be some leaking from the prop oil return line. The nose seal also might have a small leak. The propellor governor maximum rpm will need to be adjusted down. There is some rubbing of the cowl on the horizontal induction snorkel. All in all – a great first flight!

I will post more with engine data analysis later!

Video on Instagram

Bullock flies the R-44!

This entry was posted in Flying Helicopter on February 23, 2020 by Peter

Mike has had the misfortune of flying in the helicopter with me several times. I’m not yet a CFI in the helicopter, so I could never let him try his hands at the controls. Luckily, my CFI Sean, was willing to let Mike try his hands at the controls. I have never sat in the back seat of the R-44 so it was fun all around.

Naturally, Mike had to get a SFAR 73 brief and endorsement before being allowed to put his hands on the controls. For those that aren’t familiar with Robinson helicopters they are subject to Special Federal Aviation Regulation 73. In a nutshell, SFAR 73 places additional requirements in terms of currency and training on pilots above and beyond those of other aircraft before they can operate a Robinson R-22 or -44. If you’re interested in the specifics a good synopsis can be found here. Helicopters aren’t necessarily less safe – but they are definitely less forgiving.

Mike got to do the startup procedure.

Sean took us out of the airport and then Mike got his hands on the controls for the first time. The helicopter is not that different from an airplane in straight and level flight. It doesn’t have any stability, and you can’t trade airspeed for altitude in quite the same way – but otherwise holding heading, altitude, and airspeed are very similar skill sets.

After Mike got to do some work at altitude including turns and climbs etc, we went back to the airport for some hover work. Mike said to Sean as we were entering the pattern “Peter had me believing this was hard!” I chuckled silently to myself as I knew the fun was about to start. Sean gave Mike the controls of the helicopter one at a time. The typical drill is to start with the anti-torque pedals (like the rudder pedals) while the CFI controls the collective and the cyclic. Then Mike did just the collective. Then he does just the cyclic. Then eventually all three together. Sean was pretty fearless in giving the Mike controls quickly. The sensation from the back seat was – well – like a carnival ride. The windscreen would show nothing but sky one moment, followed by nothing but grass the next moment. After awhile working on the hover – Mike started to get the hang of it. Hovering for the first time is a humbling experience, and Mike picked it up quickly. He was definitely sweating!

After the over work was complete we headed toward Baltimore for some sightseeing and to make our way over to Sugar Buns cafe at Easton Airport (KESN). If you’ve not been – its a well above average airport cafe and I highly recommend it. I’ve not had a bad meal there, and the eastern shore is always a pleasant flight.