Ive been tracking all landings since the build and its approaching 500 … but not quite there yet !

As at this morning I needed 54 to make it to the 500

Planned some teardrops out and back to speed up the circuit times but then realised id be passing a couple of houses on both outbound and loop back to the opposite approach.. so they woukd get the noise both ways ..

Rather than attract some adverse feedback I opted to do around half and mix with some full size .(normal) circuits..

Just as I got in i discovered that a mouse had managed to chew it’s way through my cap that I leave in the aircraft ! So, a very cold flight of 26 circuits with a blast of icy cold air and only a small headset to fend off the blast !

Id organised a group fly out .. not too far .. just Tibenham (literally next door) and Great Oakley

As it was Rememberance day and a memorial service at Tibeham we needed to be on time

For the first time ever i think … the Jab refused to even fire

Not one cough .. just cranked until.the battery eventually went flat .. leaving it to cool between cranks !

Subsequent return a few days later .. batteries recharged and a heater used ro chase away moisture and damp PLUS a small singe squirt of easy start amd BOOM .. into life !

Clive (James) one of our super helpful and friendly club members .. also very experienced in Jabirus .. offered some useful.fine tuning advice

On a Bing carburettor (commonly found on BMW Airhead motorcycles, Rotax engines, and some snowmobiles), the idle mixture screw controls the air-fuel ratio at idle by metering fuel into the idle circuit. • Turning the screw IN (clockwise) restricts fuel flow → leaner mixture. • Turning the screw OUT (counter-clockwise) allows more fuel → richer mixture.To make the mixture richer: Turn the idle mixture screw OUT (counter-clockwise).Standard adjustment procedure (for reference):

1 Warm up the engine fully.

2 Set idle speed slightly high using the throttle stop screw.

3 Turn the mixture screw in until the RPM drops (too lean), then out until peak smooth RPM is reached.

4 Typically, the richest smooth idle is found ¼ to ½ turn out from the peak RPM point (to avoid running too rich and fouling plugs).

5 Reset final idle speed.Note: Some Bing carbs (e.g., Type 53/54 on BMWs) have the mixture screw on the side; others (e.g., Type 64 CV) may have it underneath. The direction is consistent: out = richer.

Waiting for the full permit .. BUT LAA have signed off and approved the repairs and the test flying that accompanied it !

With a hefty storm (Benjamin) on the way .. there was a smallish window on Sunday to get a last flight in before wind and rain spoiled the next 7 to 10 days 😞

With the new (front) battery in the start was pretty much instant .. but drizzle was definitely just a few minutes away ..

Decided to make it a pretty quick and short session.. once pul temps were up to 50 and the preceding aircraft had landed (such a quiet strip.. and you go to line up and someone’s on long final!).

So, with 2 teardrops from 01 (take off) and 19 (loop back) to land back the other way, and repeat the other way … managed 4 landings in 9 minutes .. bringing the total landings for the Ranger to 436 to date.

I conducted the air test recently. A cockpit full of cut down LAA air test forms (14 pages therein) .. all reduced in side to A5 and clipped onto the clipboard so that the open cockpit flight didn’t spray it over the Norfolk countryside like confetti !

This gave me all the 100s of checkpoints for the flight test that I could capture for the subsequent manual form completion on the ground (quite why we havent got an editable version of this or an online Database escapes me)

Strapped in and headed off for a tight climb up to 3,000′ and then power back and into the dive ..

I remember the first one of these i did in a Stampe SV4C over La Rocque on the SE corner of Jersey, my inspector Bob Wright sitting in the front with a big checklist .. shouting what he wanted next.

I started at 3,500 over the sea and actually ran out of height before we got to VNE as i chickened out of the hard push required and we had to do it all again .. Bob laughing away up front !

This one over the flat Norfolk countryside i pushed over and altimeter started to unwind.. the noise builds and wind rushes ever faster as you tuck yourself behind the windscreen and keep a good eye on engine revs to prevent overspeeding.

I started to ease out at 87mph and felt that was fine.

Im never going to go that fast between now and the next flight test in 12 months time.

Dutifully submitted all the numbers to the LAA only to have pushback on the VNE. Why handnt I done it and yes, I needed to reach manufacturer’s VNE of 100.

Today, on a pretty cold October day, ive just nipped up to 3,000 .. pushed harder and reached my paint marked 100 on the ASI

Updated details sent in, hopefully for the reissue of the FULL permit (currently flying on a temporary one to allow test flying)

As you may surmise .. im not a great fan of the VNE test

• Yes the manufacturer has set this limit to demonstrate a ‘top end’ limit
• Do I EVER fly anywhere near that limit in all my general day to day flying
• NO
• Maybe just over 50% of that speed is normal and achievable cruise speed with the current approved engines.
• So why do we expect pilots to push the airframe to that once per year ?
• Is artificially stressing the aircraft once per year deemed a good thing ?
• Its not like a benign stall test that you can do at height and have loads of margin for recovery
• At the bottom of the dive you have the potential for significant things to happen
• Your margin and recovery options are, by virtue of that round out speed, limited
• Recovering needs to be gentle and controlled and I would argue that recovery is another significantly critical phase of this manoeuvre
• If a pilot does this only ONCE every 12 months surely we are failing the ‘recency’ measure the LAA put so much faith in ?

Anyway, rant over, one whinge isn’t going to change the world.