… until I decided what colour or style would blend in .. nothing too sharp and angled but something that might reflect say a 20’s era
Picked diamonds
A local company (Signcraft) asked for a paper template and I mocked up a diamond design based on a model that TLAC had kindly provided …
slightly enlarged the diamonds as my wife said they would look squitty at a distance !
.. and hey presto .. 72 hours later they had colour matched decals .. paper thin for weight and then added a UV protection film over each diamond ! Amazing quick professional job
Having been asked if I would show the Sherwood at the Jersey Air Display I thought it would be good to have a pre practice in the general display area
The display team have advised that there is a general practice day the day before ! But as I am a newbie I thought it wise to at least get some orientation in advance
Called up Jersey ATC on a lovely clear Sunday morning and asked for two circuits and then a possibility to run at 700′ between Elizabeth Castle and the Grand Hotel – pseudo display line
The chap queried it but the ATC team granted it straight away – so helpful !
This was also post the first 25 hour oil change on the engine .. kept 100 oil in for now …
The footage below shows some of the tight turns simulating keeping well within any crowd lines and the like
Well .. it’s just got to 24 hours engine run time .. a whole ‘day’ of engine running ! And about 18 hours of actual flying
I’m getting comfortable with the engine as I get to know it’s handling .. when something is brand new and you have no experience of it you vary between instinctive confidence – IE it’s brand new so what can possibly go wrong to an element of mistrust – cos it’s brand new ! And lots can go wrong with it !
You end up .. hopefully with a healthy mis of BOTH and so each flight you learn and pick up the sounds and handling bits
Last Sunday I flew her around the island for 58 minutes .. mostly over a beautiful blue but deep sea .. still focuses the mind and ears on all those noises .. and she sounded fantastic .. didn’t miss a beat
Anyway … time to change the tyres .. I’ve been running them at a low pressure to prevent too much bounce on the tarmac at Jersey – so about 10-12 psi – they do slow me down quite quickly on the surface but it’s all becoming reasonably predictable
Getting the tyre off however wasn’t !
I thought it would be a quick job having watched my sons factory (Williams F1) do 4 in 2.1 seconds last week !
After 2 hours of sweating and heaving using a proper tyre remover kindly leant by CIAS it still refused to pop off the bead at the hub
After cutting it off and eventually cutting the rim wires it parted company
I realised afterwards it was the first thing I did over 4 years ago so they have probably age hardened AND I didn’t use talc or anything when putting them on ! Now rectified
I had left the rudder and fin plain or is that ‘plane’ yellow on the basis that I wanted to settle on a design once I had got used to how she looked
Im quite happy with the nose colour and lines as this had the effect of making her look quite sleek at the front .. but the mass of yellow at the back could lend itself to some sort of rudder or fin design
Remebering the old biplane decor applied back in the 20’s where you had ‘art’ of some form either on the rear fuselage or on the tail I opted for a tail pattern
A call to Paul HS and he kindly cut a template to my draft on PowerPoint !
Just trialling on a test panel I have made up before committing to full rudder job
I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of popping over to the UK in the car with my wife … This time on the overnight boat .. This takes a snip at around 11 hours from Jersey to Portsmouth ! But pretty much always runs come rain or shine or gales or whatever
Paul HS had kindly put my in contact with another builder during my ‘hot oil’ period and it was this chap along with another in Holland who kindly sent me pictures of intakes and oil cooler sizes that delivered the knowledge I needed to fix the problem
Charles (Blount) is a fantastic character and kindly arranged to meet up with us at a very small grass strip just North of Andover.
G-YELP has flown many more hours than mine so it’s good to share experiences and ideas on little tweaks that have been made.
I particularly liked the fitting of the top wing roots to the wing vs fitting them to the cabane .. I had found that mine were catching as the wing swung through its arc to seat and this easy change means there won’t be that catch .. And it looks like I can trim down the width as well using this method which I think will be neater .. I will add pictures later when I have switched their fittings
Charles had also put a small rubber edge on the lower wing fittings to soften the joint between alloy edged root and the side covering of the body… Will get on line and source some of that.
Charles cockpit seemed much roomier but I think that’s because his panel is the square type which gives much better leg access .. Mine is still very F1 type access and I was watching last weeks F1 from Azerbaijan where the drivers support their upper half whilst sliding their legs in then bum down but have to raise both arms skyward to then bring them down into the the cockpit 😄
I also spotted a 12v socket mounted on the left with wires running under the seat … Under and rear seat back heating ! How ‘cool’ is that ! !
We had great chat about loads of other bits before departing … Many thanks Charles and look forward to flying mine over sometime
Having re submitted my newly double checked max straight and level speed of 75MPH Jon at the LAA was still curious as to why it had been 80 originally and then I had reported 70 after adding the wing roots when, to all intents and purposes, it should have got faster !
I too had been thinking this was a bit odd and we wanted to work out what had happened or was it simply a Mia read on my part ..
Eventually I remembered where I had got the original 80 reading from ..
When you are taking these readings and noting them down you have a few problems … You are in an open topped biplane with a very small cockpit and, although she does generally fly hands off .. It’s not something that you do for very long and I like to sit with right hand on the stick and left in the throttle .. That doesn’t leave many hands to write with !
So I hit in the idea early in the test programme of taking my mobile and activating Skey Demon just as I started up … This would give me speeds and times and routes which I could note and tie in with go pro footage later.
On one of the early flights where I noted speeds I duly put this in my LAA papers and carried on flying … Of course I now realise that was giving me GROUND speed not air speed ! I remember one early flight I had well over 100 ground speed ! DOH !
Jon was happy and has now sent all the paperwork off to the CAA with a cautionary note saying .. ” .. We understand your eagerness to fly .. But .. Await the full paperwork – earl or electronic – before flying ” !
Its only a few more days to wait THEN I have officially built a REAL aeroplane !!! 😃✈️
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 😄✈️
After some re work of sone original crimped connectors and ground checked I took off today to run a secondary climb test as the first one had proved unsuccessful due to a slightly warm running CHT- 207′ reading
The problem was located to a bad crimp that allowed the unsheathed wire to move fractionally
The offending item was re crimped – along with a few others and re heat sealed
The crosswind today (10 June) was 10 gusting 14 but tomorrow is forecast to be BKN 300 at times ;(
Took off and went into the climb at 1000′ just downwind
Climbed steadily up to just over 4,000′ and CHT didn’t top 167 ‘C !
On topping out I throttled back to around 2,600 and the ‘plane just putted around and did not lose any height for around 10 mins !
Slight problem above – my second crosswind landing in 14kt at 90′ had a wing tip down and a slight scrape ! Embarrassing but I now know my limit !
Jersey Sherwood Ranger 