Test flying continued – Hot

Sunday 2nd October finally brought some lovely calm clear weather .. The 30+ westerlies of the previous day were met with a F2 albeit from the North .. So yet another cross wind sequence if flying tests !

initial runway was 08 then switched to 26 (over the cliff and bay)

Having now cracked the RPM gauge and battery charging – located to one mislocated wire on my part ! this was going to be a good test day.

Start up was its usual burst into life and taxi out fine and line up. Straight off, getting the ball in the centre … Nice and straight climb out catering for the 8-10kt from 90′ left.

Felt brave enough to do my first wing over left turn into the bad weather close circuit .. And sailed downwind for a nice wide normal approach and touch and go over the cliff. Around for a second as soon as I had let the tail come down and settle true and straight.

Powered away and checked pressure and temps as temp looked a little high .. Around 110 … I noticed as I eased off the temp went back down but when I applied 2600 or more it went up proportionally … Eased back and levelled off at around 700′ and then downwind and fine .. Offered to orbit right a couple of times to let other traffic away and 2 departed .. Then back for landing.

Short stop for coffee and cool down and check everything. All looked fine so up and away again. This time the engine was already warm so went through 70, 80, 90 in the climb quite quickly, then onwards.

Called the tower and said I would make this one a shorter .. And they said ok call final .. And I opted for no .. Like really shorter and they asked if I wanted to declare an emergency !

As she was still clearly flying and on pulling throttle back she instantly cooled I declined the emergency but landed on a tight left turn with no drama …

Back at the club, cowls off and started to check .. No loose pipes, no oil signs, level fine … One pipe to matrix hot, the other quite cool .. So checked the temps on a static ground run for 20 mins and all fine .. So maybe this is the first time the TOCA oil thermostat has opened ?

Back for another run and this time flew for around 30 mins watching the temps and pressure like a hawk !

The temps would climb rapidly as soon as I put in a chunk of power but stabilises when around 2,500

Elected to do 2 bad weather circuits then a wider around the bay and back. I felt I was nursing a heat problem so elected to land and investigate further.