Following my last submission of the full Flight Test Schedule – some 14 pages of statistical information gleaned from test flights – I had noted that the max Airspeed was now about 70 mph

This showed a change from my original submission of 80mph and Jon at the LAA wondered why – given that the addition of the wing roots should make it better if anything ?

I duly did a single flight re test last Thursday evening to re check

Just after take off and level at 1000 I pushed forward on the stick to stop the climb and pushed full throttle and let it all settle down

Now, with the wing roots on she just wants to climb at full power but holding her there the airspeed began to climb steadily up the dial and guess what .. smack in the middle – 75mph

Having thought about the reason long and hard I realised that my 80 had probable been me using the SkyDemon app on my mobile to record each flight and noted down ground speed ! It was easier using this device than all the paperwork in an open cockpit

At the end of my successful power climb retest yesterday I brought her back into the busy circuit at Jersey for a touch and go and once circuit then land.

The principle idea of the first circuit was to get a feel for just how much crosswind there was .. Forecast was between 10 and 14kts mostly at 90′ but sometimes swinging from 180′ to 210′

The first touch was pretty much just that .. Wheeled on and felt the gust so straight on he throttle and up and away .. Lots of rudder to make sure I got a nice (in line with the runway) departure … You see so many (and some commercial) veering or drifting off 20 or more degrees !

The second arrival (to land) was interesting .. And I’m writing it now to share knowledge and how not to do it !

As it was a little choppy on the approach – will add the video shortly – you can see I’m having to use a fair bit of aileron BOTH ways to maintain a nice approach path. Even when I got into ground effect it was still a little blustery BUT …

On reflection my approach speed was too high .. Higher than i normally do in the Sherwood .. I use his technique in the PA28 on days like this and it all works nicely .. Trying to bleed off that speed in a light skippy biplane with the associated gusty conditions was not good

Now, holding off just above the runway to lose some of the excess speed AND also trying to get it down before the next gust I managed to get her smoothly into the main wheels BUT still had too much speed … The INTO wind wing lifted .. And your instinct is to aileron correct it but the problem now is that your ailerons are pretty much none effective .. Should have gone around

She then starts to be driven into the start of a ground loop … Luckily my over speed wasn’t that much .. So the starboard wing tip touched the runway …. Scrape …. Powering right off calmed everything down … Felt awful in the ‘plane and you can see me shaking my head !

2 mins 10 into this you can see the aileron work to keep her straight and level and 2 min 30 the tip down …

The go pro footage shows the ‘event’ … Not particularly elegant … The scrape was about the size of a 50p piece

LEARNINGS

– 14 kts is beyond my current skill limit with the aircraft

– Have done similar with the Stampe but had 80 hours on that and had a better (more current) method of crabbing vs wing down

– Need to practice and build up my techniques again

– Don’t use excess speed to overcome approach conditions

Footnote – having done this rubbish approach and taxiing in with my head down … A Flybe commercial taxiing was told to hold short and let me depart the taxiway and taxi behind me ….he then asked the tower what aicraft type the little Yellow Biplane was and was very complimentary about it .. Finishing with .. “We have all done that .. ” .. Nice touch 😄✈️

Following lots of grotty weather over the recent months my test certificate provided by the LAA ran out so I needed an extension. Also, my slightly hot running engine meant I needed to review and run a final test of the climb  and (as suggested by the LAA Deputy Chief Engineer Jon Viner) a stall test.

Duly got my new certificate signed by the local Engineer (Bob Wright from CIAS) and took off 15 minutes later ! – not like i’m keen or anything ….

Having added the wing roots the take off and climb out were amazingly different and found myself trying to stop her climbing so much .. throttling back gave me a good rate of climb and a much calmer engine !

Flew down to the South East training area of Jersey .. idyllic as the tide was out revealing lovely beaches and rcoks and shallow clear blue water. Slow turning climb and more  power but still running a little warm so decided to end up having a fun 30 mins handling and then redid the stall test. Again – she just wants to keep flying .. 40 and she is till reluctant to go … finally full back and around 1,000 rpm and the nose bobbed down…

Back into a lovely sunset and slow landing. As the handling had changed significantly I suspected it was going to behave differently and I managed my worst landing to date in the 42 so far ! .. touching poss a little tail first … NOT the ideal … It was gentle and stayed put on the first arrival.

I then created and fitted a temporary gurney to see if I could coax more air to suck out of the lower cowl by providing a pressure drop in front of the lower exit hole. Quick circuit test proved it didn’t work ! running much hotter BUT it did prove I was in the right area 🙂

Plan now is to increase through flow through the top cowl by checking air dams in the top cowls (forcing more air over the rear cylinders) and also block the front area around the new oil cooler to prevent ‘Leakage’ through the lower cowl and hence devaluing the high pressure in the upper cowl ..

Wow .. the stuff you have to learn ! Whish I had my own wind tunnel !

Hello all

I was looking at the site access statistics today and it looks like a lot are still reading the site which is nice …

I saw that someone had looked at the wing covering post and re read it myself and realized that I hadn’t written it particularly clearly – so took the opportunity to re write

If anyone reads anything and thinks – I would like a bit more detailed explanation then please please feel free to just pop a reply 😉 be delighted to review and update for the benefit of others

Cheers

David

07797 717340

dsbreflex@gmail.com

After a couple of quick tests at stalling I thought I would setup a proper session and remember to turn the go pro on this time !

The weather was pretty rubbish but I had a 2000′ base and then a solid bank of cloud above. There was also broken bits of cloud lower around the North of the island and boy was it cold !

Powered up to just below the cloud base faced her into wind and partly closed the throttle .. now I probably left a bit of power on .. it’s still relatively early days and closing the throttle so far offshore over so much sea doesn’t really appeal 😉 anyway … she just didn’t want to stall.. in the end the stick was so far back hat it reached the stop and then she just floated on with an indicated airspeed of about 40 then about 35 !

By then… with the associated Northerly breeze AND the fact that I had started from the South I was getting a bit close to the 08/26 centre line of Jersey’s runway so broke off for a retry

The second one I did cross wind so I would run out of space but decided to be a bit more ‘manly’ with the throttle .. down to around 900 this time … I keep forgetting that the Jabiru spring loading on the throttle wants to keep it open so you have to tickle it down but hold it down, against the ‘return’ spring

This one did remind me of the old Stampe days where, through 100’s of these you get to know the characteristics and ‘feel’ braver or I guess just more experienced in how to handle things

Pulling back positively she slowed much quicker and, although I could have taken a few more RPM off she slowed nice and steadily and then just bobbed the nose .. I almost didn’t notice it it was so benign !

I did a few more and, with a bit more breeze up there managed to get 2 of them to fractionally drop a wing … again not something you want to overly push over the sea but she is just so so gentle .. minute move of the aileron and push forward NOT in that order and all is restored.

I lost the RPM signal a couple of flights ago and have been going through and through the wiring trying to locate what might have come loose or what continuity might have been lost but nothing seems obviously wrong !

I then went to test fly on Sunday and got as far as the threshold and then my Trig radio flashed up a very small warning saying ‘Warning – Low Voltage’ …. Now, I didn’t realise the Trig even had this feature but, as we had a very very busy circuit with the local spot landing competition in full flow – I though the last thing they want is me having a radio failure in the circuit … so abandoned the planned flight and went back to the hanger to investigate further.

On putting the rear battery on charge it sure did indicate it was down .. so then put 2 and 2 together and suspected that a failure in the RPM readout (which splits from the regulator feed) and no charge could only be the regulator …

Changed it to the spare I had – took about an hour as the lead adaptors in my wiring harness I had made to be handshake connectors for ease of removal .. the new one was car bullet type connectors.

Popped it in situ and test ran the engine … BINGO .. nice fat RPM reading and voltage now looks good but will monitor over next few weeks