A mile of runway can take you anywhere
So .. today was a different day … with the great help 2 of my boys Sam and Will …and a myriad of Airport Security, Fire and Rescue services, Jersey Air Traffic and the Jersey Aero Club, we managed to blow the dust off the trailer after 2 years .. and make great use of the fantastic alloy / carbon fibre wing supports … really steady …
Just tidying some photos up to make sure I don’t lose them … you can see these are minus the root fairings … so pretty early flights ..
Nice bit of crosswind .. around 10 knots … Wills pretty much flew the whole thing and brought it in nicely .. also helped as he counted down the airspeed on approach … probably landed a shade too much speed … and a fair bit of rudder at the end … this ‘plane certainly teaches you good use of rudder
As mentioned in a previous post the cowl is a ‘re use’ of the original that I discarded after over trimming. On this flight (just under 90 mins) I was keeping a close eye on engine performance and temps … it takes a while to ‘settle’ any aerodynamic change and switching your cowling isn’t just a paint job !
Turned out to be quite close .. but did run a little warmer than usual .. and at one point reached 97’ on the oil temp … that turned out partly to be the cowl and partly Will was flying slightly cross controlled … “Ball in the middle” sorted the airflow and we dropped 4 degrees almost straight away.
I’ll double check the baffles at the front are not inhibited and that the cut out openings (which look fine) are indeed as large as the original cowl.
Plan to fly with this one for a few weeks on and off
(Another thing I noticed … in the sun .. the Matt black gets super hot compared to the plain white … really absorbs the heat)
Squeezing in amongst the Red Arrows for airspace
A little tight fitting but managed to align all existing intakes
Many years ago .. late one night .. i was making final adjustments to the top cowling and manage to over trim it …. now it’s not easy to put back fibreglass that you have just carefully trimmed off .. so I trashed it, bought a new one and vowed to measure twice and cut once in future!
I could never bring myself to dispose of the now smaller top cowl so kept it
Now .. I’ve found a reuse … extended the over trimmed parts and plan to paint it to reflect the time or event ….
This part has certainly not been easy … to stress various values ends up putting parts of the aircraft at risk of being damaged if you don’t do it really carefully…
Given a max weight of oil tank, plus pump plus a full load of (baby) oil… the all up (unit) weight is 19,7kg .. you then need to cater for Forward factors of x 9 … side to side of x 4.5 and vertical of x 6
So Forward is a mere 177.3 kg
Side to side is 88.65 kg
And vertical is 118.2 kg
Will and I decided to removed the front windscreen to prevent any accidental damage caused by a straining strop moving and cracking !
And the 4 stainless turnbuckles that secured this so tightly held rock solid …
Also checked none of this impedes any control movement or even getting in and out !
With lots of people being taken for the odd little spin up and around you are bound to get the occasional problem …
Last weekend we had a short lean forward in the front seat to get comfortable before I strapped the passenger in and crack .. front screen cracked .. top to bottom
They are quite resilient .. but press them just in the centre a little too hard and …
Had the pleasure of a short trip and some circuits with one of our Senior ATC guys today .. Alan Moss …
He is also a keen photographer as you can see and flew some lovely tight circuits over Havre de Pas and Green Island before heading back for a touch an go followed by a close bad weather left hand circuit off runway 26
And the video of the return into the circuit and a quick bad weather circuit
Ok .. it’s my first attempt at a voice over video ….
Quick view of the Sherwood cockpit …plus a noisy compressor butting in towards the end 😊
Jersey Sherwood Ranger 