ok .. collated all the paperwork and forms and brought all the figures together and submitted my honest replies and figures

What I failed to spot was that my CHT figures from my 3 min test climb were fractionally over the max that Jabiru stated.

Jon, from the LAA responded pretty quickly and noted that I would need to retest that section. So it’s a double check of the connectors – still think I may be suffering from some  not very good quality crimping tools on some of the fittings. Now I have a much better crimper that applies an even crimp pressure over the whole ‘body’ of any given electrical component and am slowly working through re crimping and heat shrinking everything

The other bit that will affect climb performance AND associated grunt is the fact that I made a conscious decision to leave the wing roots off all wings – so that I could inspect the wing fixing pegs throughout early testing.

Chatting with my good old pilot friend Chris Winch it was obvious that leaving a 3-4 inch gap from leading edge to trailing edge at the root of all 4 wings will NOT do a lot for maintaining high pressure under the wing ! And so means I need to keep power high to get the associated lift rate …

Wing roots now being finalized and look v nice and this WILL make a big difference

Just need to re submit an updated LAA worksheet to Jon and then request a flying extension for Test Certificate and hopefully get cooler faster climbs

Time to collate all the figures and complete the paperwork for the Light Aviation Authority (LAA)

The LAA provide a series of checklists and forms that you need to complete so got the main form off to them early last week

Their super efficient office got back to me pretty much same day to advise that I had forgotten to send the original test authorization certificate. In all the business of test flying I’d forgotten about that one BUT had made absolutely sure that my local LAA examiner (Bob Wright) had authorized the continued testing so all was good and just needed to complete the update on what had happened since last test cert was issued

I also needed to complete a new worksheet to cover those small changes since the last certificate was issued namely,

• Increased oil cooler size
• Additional battery added
• New tailwheel

Forms duly done I checked the LAA office advice and they also require a completed Avionics checklist

This needed me to confirm that the Trig radio ( TY91) and Transponder (TT21) all operated to prescribed specification AND at a range of 20nm

Now,on an island 9 x 5 miles that’s quite tricky  and also trying to go out the LAA note on NOT operating more than 25 miles from your start base under testing …

This meant that a hope to Guernsey was the best way to do all this

Two flight plans were duly setup in SkyDemon using ZZZZ as the aircraft type and then using the ‘TYP/’ code to state it as a Sherwood Ranger.

The 21 miles to Guernsey that I have flown so so many times in a PA28 suddenly looked like a lot of water away !

Having spoken with the great team at Jersey Air Traffic I advised them it was a final radio test and could I have 2000′ and also switch frequency early .. they switched me from Jersey tower 119.45 to Guernsey Approach 128.65 almost on take off .. so test done !

Still well worth the trip over to the other island  though and great service from my friends in ASG over there

Nice touch as I taxied out for the return when the crash crew drove their land rover up alongside and jumped out to take a picture !

Been a very busy Easter weekend 😀

Filled her up to the top and set off for the endurance test .. the wind was a cool breeze varying 12-14 and around 30 degrees off the 26 runway

Knowing how cold I got in the stall tests the other day I had my full ski gear on underneath.. long johns and top as well as a T shirt plus a fire retardant top I bought ..Same one Williams used for Bottas last year and then a jumper and then the flying suit !

Feeling a bit like Michelin man I clambered in .. some people pay a lot of money for gym membership .. I get in and out of this ‘plane in seconds exercising both legs, arms back full upper body .. and not a trainer in site 😀

The breeze made the tail lift in a nanosecond and airborne in 2 nanoseconds …

Up and away to the SE corner of Jersey and decided to re run the power climb tests .. the sea looked Caribbean (shame I hadn’t cleared the go pro down as the next 2 hours of wing over shots to show the island in all its glory were lost as the camera stopped before I actually started taxying ! Doh ! )

Climbed up to 3000 and then decided to throttle back and just ‘mooch’ I think is the word at around 2600 rpm and she just floats around and around almost losing no height at all

I then thought I could use the descent to check the VNE handling … so wound down a bit … told the tower my plans as I didn’t want them worrying me suddenly dropping off radar !   Then pushed gently forward … I eased the throttle back so as not to overspeed the prop

As usual .. first attempt .. I was too timid and she went down but nowhere near fast  enough .. the ground .. well sea .. loomed and at 800′ I abandoned it and elected to go back up and try again

Back up to 2000′ and pushed again .. it needed to feel more vertical and the classic view of the world filling the screen ! Lots of rocks and sea !! The speed wound up and she felt absolutely solid .. the Stampe used to whistle as it had solid aero shaped bracing wires and these used to ‘sing’ as you plummeted .. it’s not something that I particularly enjoy .. as you start thinking of those dinky little wing bolts and those bracing wires you made 2 sometimes 3 times .. until you were happy but THIS is the moment that you made and re made them for … this 10-15 seconds !

I eased out of the dive and the ‘plane felt a dream .. my EGT had gone haywire and I need to check with PHS why that might be .. one theory is that the mixture leaned on the dive ?I did get a face full of fuel on the initial pushover as the nearly full tank exited through the breather hole but had that happened once before and it’s no big deal as it stops as soon as you level out

I then proceeded around the island to crank up the 2 hours …so around and around I went.. the EGT eventually settled down and all other indications were fine

About an hour in the tower asked if I was wanting to come in from the NW corner for landing but advised another trip around was needed. SkyDemon says I did 86 miles .. ok a lot of it was straight up and straight down vs flat in line 😀

At the 90 min mark I couldn’t feel my toes as it was pretty cold so pulled my legs back in turn to flex them and get the blood moving !

Eventually I thought it might be prudent to get back into the circuit – even if not to land – as I don’t know the exact fuel burn yet

Did a go around and then as the 2 hours came up called for landing .. guess what .. you are number 5 to land ..

Its not often I have made the next call .. in fact never ! I didn’t actually call a fuel emergency but said that this was an endurance test .. it was now at the END of that test and pretty please could I NOT be 5th !

Tower were great and I got bumped up to no 2 and asked to follow the ATR in … i was zigzagging to make the 4 mile vortex spacing but stay as close as I could to the beach ..

Rolled onto final as the ATR vacated at the end and purred down the final approach .. tower kindly gave me two wind checks as the wind was now a steady 14 slightly off

Side slipped down hoping my toes would not behave like the blocks of ice that they felt and I could get her in wing down and hold off for the landing .. on checking I reckon I had 30 mins fuel lefT

Footnote – 24 hours later – got her fillled and she took 30 litres .. proving I had 10 left in the 40 litre tank .. so looks like endurance of2.5 hours although will probably normally do 1 hour stints then fuel up 😀

Many many months ago , when I first performed taxi testing I found I had trouble getting around some of the tighter angles in front of the hangers at Jersey.

The way around this was to disconnect the steerable tailwheel and this has been absolutely fine and let me turn the aircraft on a sixpence for parking

There was one slight issue i noted ,, when looking at a go pro footage in November when I spotted that if I let the tail down super gently on landing and it touched then left the surface then it had a propensity to spin around

In November it simply snapped straight on the next touch …

Last weekend .. it appears the same happpened  except this time .. as the tail wheel touched a second time it was at 90′ to the direction of travel

The wheel then jammed and my 1/4 mile taxying flattened the wheel at one side eventually ground through the securing bolt as I pulled  into the aeroclub

Continue reading “Free castoring tailwheel – Considerations” →

After landing following the last hot running circuit I contacted Paul in Norfolk

Paul kindly got a couple of other builders with the same (Jabiru) engine .. Charles (UK) and Rool (Holland).

The cooler fittings looked very similar but, on checking the sizes and also getting some pictures from Danny B it was clear that my cooler size was hopelessly undersized.

I thought back to why I had sized the cooler the way I had … It was the thought that I wanted to try to fit it into the under belly scoop … This sent me down a route that left me with an oil cooler that was nearly 4 times too small …. My surface area was around 11,000 sq mm … Danny and Rools were over 45,000 sq mm !

Danny sent me a link to the one he bought and I ordered it that night .. Duly arrived 3 days later

Rubber grommets for anti vibration

Fitting it was fun as the lower cowl needed opening up a little more

Now to work out pipe new routing

Will have to do some lower cowl patching and filling before tidying up and then re spray

Ready for test run and then build a shroud to protect and shield the new radiator