After my current tally of 5 hours flying and 25 take offs AND landings ! I have a few small snags to complete
An intermittent loose wire causing the Infinity engine monitor to trip out occasionally and immediately re boot .. It’s fine but disconcerting .. Prob just a bad crimp
Tailwheel flat spot – Now done
Front harness trim down to remove excess – plan to do the tests with ‘human payload’ to get up to weight as it’s more ‘useful’ than just weight
Re check tyre pressures
Re check engine oil – done every flight – but need to check overflows etc
Have re greased all wing bolts and fittings
Probably easier to get a Velcro stopwatch to help on timed climbs
Full ski gear underneath – if it’s going to be nearly 2 hours continuous it’s going to get cold !
During early taxi checks a couple of months ago I was trying to turn off the aero club ramp and almost back on myself up a short taxi strip to the grass parking – the angle was about 120′ so quite tight … The attached steerable tail wheel went as far as the cables would pull it but not far enough
The net effect was that the wheel skidded sideways and dragged across the Tarmac … Effectively flat spotting the hard rubber wheel.
I tried a heat gun to bring it out a bit back to its natural shape but it was too far gone.
Contacted Paul and Ivor at TLAC and ordered a replacement
This duly arrived last week so jacked up the rear .. Removed the old wheel which was pretty grubby by now but very nicely greased !
Noticed the new axle pin was somewhat larger diameter so drilled out the Tailwheel support mounts and de burred then greased the new one and in place. All in the space of 15 minutes
One thing I will need to do is add a nyloc or split pin for additional security.
Post the round island flight it was time to add some weight …
The cable ties that have been securing the main straps of the front harness were cut away and the lap straps retrieved from inside the hanger and clipped into place …..
Will had duly arrived in his full flying suit and hat and was busy running around the pre take off checks along with me. We soon found that the intercom switch I had fitted – which had worked – seemed to have packed in – maybe a bad connection .. so we decided on a series of stick shakes and his acknowledgemet by hand as a means of communicating – along with shouting !
Take off with his 11+ stone on the front was virtually identical to lifting off with just me .. the only thing I would add was that with the now slightly gusting 18kt+ the whole thing felt more stable with the gusts having less effect.
Handling equally was great two up and Will flew some gentle (although unbalanced) turns
This is definitely an aircraft that teaches you co-ordinated use of aileron and rudder .. Howards voice ringing in my ears .. get the ball in the middle !
You can ‘feel’ she is out of balance before you look at the ball … but a quick glance down to confirm and then get it sorted … it will take a bit of time to be as instant on this as I would like ..
We went into a normal right hand circuit which involves flying just offshore around the southern cliff edges and then right back over Corbiere lighthouse to land . we opted for a touch and go – tailwheel all the way down.. speed uder control then up and away again.
The tower had asked if we could go into the left hand vs right hand circuit as there was parachute dropping in progress south of the centreline. This gave us an opportunity to ‘say hello’ to the house and neighbours who had been asking to see the plane
What had promised to be a very clear calm day turned out to be certainly clear .. but the F2 was 10 going up to 18+ Easterly. Not a problem down the runway (08) but was going to be interesting taxying …
Having opted to disconnect the steerable tail wheel option very early on in the taxy tests – I could sure use it today to assist in preventing ground looping ! I removed the two cables (spliced into the rudder cables) but only removed at the turnbuckle – leaving me the option to reconnect if I change my mind. I found that the relatively tight manoeuvring area outside the aero club meant the rudder on full deflection didn’t give the same tail wheel angle and so it dragged and flat spotted … I now get a dunk dunk on taxying – if you know what I mean .. new wheel on order from TLAC.
Engine started nicely and the go pro seems to have settled – well I have learned how to use it more like ! This footage is really handy for learning … when you are flying by yourself there is no one to critique you … sharing the video usually invokes a few comments and very useful feedback
I sent a link to Howard Barbour (the very kind gentleman at Little Snoring ) who kindly sat with me for an hour of the most fun, active, banked circuits I have ever done .. everyone should do it .. whether you buy a Sherwood or not
Anyway, Howard said all looked fine but then noted that I wasn’t pulling full stick back on taxying .. he popped a note on the end and said ‘All the way back to the buckle on taxying’ then apologised for nagging !! Not at all … as I said to Howard .. one tip up and the £800+ nice wooden prop would be dust .. nag away Howard .. nag away 🙂
I had decided on this flight to brave the full ’round island .. everything had been settling down and it felt good time for a longer flight.
Duly lined up and the tail was up immediately – 18kt down the line … I had mounted the go pro on the rear of the wingtip this time (a la Little Snoring) so you can now see bothe Elevator and Aileron movement. .. doesn’t move much at all !
I opted for my (now usual) bad weather close circuit .. I have used this technique for the last few flights as a sort of warm up and is everything still ok …. the tower are very supportive and happy to let me do it .. slotting in or widening out for inbounds … this time it was a small one coming in to land vs the Gulfstream jet last time doing touch and go’s
That cleared I opted for a wheeled landing to just start the tail going down then went around to prevent blocking the runway for too long. off and over St Helier and into a full anticlockwise around the island …. hugging the coast and varying between 700′ and 1000′ … quite bumpy crosswind and possibly the effect of the wind over the 300′ cliff edges … mental note for landing on 08 .. keep the speed up over the threshold.
After the full around island I opted to land and check everything over before my next flight which was to include my middle son Will as checker of all things front cockpit and also to see what effect his weight would have ahead of the full LAA checks in a week or so.
Another clear day , temp about 10′ and as per usual around 7-8 knots varying NE/E
Start up fine again and the 7-8 mins to get oil up to around 35′ so good to start the taxi as it’s the opposite end of the runway for 08 from the aero club
Brakes holding well now on power checks .. Was creeping a little before .. Maybe the newish pads are bedding in.
Following some great input and advice from Paul HS at TLAC and Danny’s feedback I re shaped the input holes and also scaled up the exit.
Having a long frustrating wait for both workload – which included a pop from Jersey to Fairoaks and back – such a friendly team at Fairoaks and so helpful .. Where else can you order a taxi 5 miles out ! … Workload AND weather ! Been pretty breezy in Jersey over recent weeks and just too much for early flights.
Friday 21st October .. Planned to finish work early and get up to the hangar … Of course that didn’t work and got stuck in meetings meaning I didn’t get up until pretty late. By the time I had the wings out and pegged (that’s getting easier each time as the pegs bed in) and then climbed aboard after the full walk around check .. Air Traffic advise me that it was 2 minutes to sunset !
It was certainly feeling cool and moist …
I used both carb heat elements on start up and this was pretty un eventful .. And sat .. Whilst negotiating a slot – which Jersey ATC give without hesitation ..
Outside temp was about 10′ so it would be interesting to see how long the engine oil temp takes to come up to 50′ .. Used to be about 5 mins .. Has now extended to 10 mins which is absolutely fine … But THIS evening I hadn’t got too long .. Don’t have lights (yet !)
Started the roll and it was def starting to look dark as the effect of 100’s of runway lights made the sky look pretty gloomy
Pulled away and straight up to 3,200 rpm … And all fine temp wise. Kept a fairly tight (bad weather) right hand circuit off 08 runway at Jersey which put me close to but south of tower… First touch and go .. Waited for tail to settle and speed to come down then up again … The oil temp was now settled at 90′ and stayed put all the way around , regardless of throttle .. HAPPY DAYS … As Paul says .. Don’t get cocky 😄 As if !
seriously though .. This means I can take the next steady step … And run a few more circuits like this and then plan for another over the runway power climb test .. See next blog entry …
On landing the tower very kindly said “Looking great” which is nice .. I then slowed her down and managed to mess up breaking again … Done this twice now .. So she suddenly starting heading left as I couldn’t get right breaking.. Managed a full ground loop .. Embarrassing but calm, settle .. Turn her around and get off the active runway back to base
Many thanks to another Sherwood builder (Danny) for sharing these pictures with me …
Shows I’ve got a few more hours work to perfect the re-modelling of the top cowl.
Looking at these – Danny has made a great job of modelling the intakes and make a very smooth entry … I now realise what’s involved to ensure a SMOOTH intake flow rather than the abrupt angles I have which I guess cause turbulence under differing in line speeds !
I can also see, from Danny’s measurements that I am about 5-6cm smaller in BOTH height AND width !
I was feeling that I shouldn’t ingress into the part where the top and bottom overlap but Danny has made an excellent job of re-shaping that.
Time for some careful dremel work and tape up tests … then off with the cowl for filling and smoothing and re-painting once my temps are back where they should be under power.
OK .. So it looks like my first stab at cooling was way too conservative … My start up and warm up are pretty short term affairs .. Getting up to temps (50 ‘ oil temp) in about 5 mins of taxiing
The cooling however, is not brilliant after my first (tentative) hole cut
The problem at the moment is that initial climb out power at around 3200 is fine on first run .. Subsequent circuits it starts to get hot.
As Paul HS advised .. Do small things in steps so that you can monitor the effect of each change in a controlled way.
First step was to open my neat but woefully small cheek inlets (cheeky .. But hey .. It has to be done !)
Started to widen this out proportionally
Good old gaffa tape comes into play as a temporary air dam
Not particularly elegant … YET … Plan to open it out and neaten the entry duct .. Also investigate NACA
If these are being opened I should enlarge the lower exit hole which was largely blocked by the oil cooler matrix and pipe work.
Just getting around to adding some text to earlier posts .. this one, taken by the local BBC camera crew captures the first very tentative circuit lift off and the very first landing …. very very soft …. holding off to the last moment
Leading up to the day I had a lot of people asking if I would let them know exactly when I was going to do the first test flight .. dilemma .. so many people had helped me over the years and been so supportive I wanted to involve them … but not if anything was to go wrong ! I kept it fairly low key but in the end the Jersey Aero Club had about 100 people there plus BBC and ITV camera crews and they all wanted to talk before and afterwards and BBC radio Jersey wanted a radio interview on landing.
Just to add to the pressure but there was no way I could have omitted him … I’d flown my Dad over a few days before .. in a PA28 Jersey to Earls Colne …
He can be seen in the footage standing very close to the taxiway with a great supporter Graham Nears .. engineer .. who was no doubt saying everything would be ok ..probably !!
Quite how he was allowed to stand so close … anyway a retrospective thanks to airport security for letting my mentor be so close on such an amazing day …
I managed to talk to ITV after the flight which they televised and also BBC radio Jersey .. then it hit me … just couldn’t talk to BBC TV as the tears flowed …..
Jersey Sherwood Ranger 