Atom news feed of Kevin Horton's RV-8 Project 2008-07-20T19:48:36Z http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=2008072019461270 2008-07-20T19:48:36Z2008-07-20T19:48:36Z Kevin Horton I had hoped to be able to do my final inspection and first flight this week. But, I ran into a scheduling problem with the guy who is doing my final inspection. The way our respective schedules line up, I won’t be able to get the inspection done until sometime after we get back from Oshkosh. And to add insult to injury, I learned that while some inspectors give you the Special Certificate of Airworthiness when they finish the inspection, so you can fly right away, my inspector follows the official process to the letter, and sends everything to MD-RA headquarters in Hamilton for their audit, and they send me the paperwork later. This can apparently take weeks :( Unfortunately inspection the process in Canada is very bureaucratic, with inspectors being assigned by MD-RA headquarters, and no possibility of changing inspectors.So, it looks like first flight no earlier than mid-August, with a significant risk of a delay until late August. Drat. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080720192557437 2008-07-20T19:33:00Z2008-07-20T19:33:00Z Kevin Horton I spent several hours reinstalling everything on the aircraft - spinner, plenum chamber, cowling, ELT, landing gear leg fairings, wheel pants, first aid kit, rear seat riser, seats, seat belts, all missing screws, etc. On Saturday I borrowed a very nice set of Intercomp ACII scales from Ron M., the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer based at Smiths Falls, and weighed the aircraft. Intercomp’s main business is making race car scales, and they apparently are the official scale supplier of scales for many automotive racing leagues. The scales I borrowed were appropriately calibrated for use with certificated aircraft, so I am comfortable that my weight and balance is accurate.I had to close the hangar door during the weighing, to ensure that any wind did not affect the results. It was really, really hot inside that closed hangar, so I was really looking forward to a cold beer when I got back home.The aircraft weighed a bit more than I hoped, but the same could be said about me. I was hoping for a weight around 1150 lb, but it weighed in at 1177 lb. This is with the oil sump filled to capacity (8 US quarts), all fairings, etc. I forgot to remove the pitot tube cover, but it’s weight is negligible, and counterbalances the ELT antenna that I had forgotten at home. My aircraft has a lot of extra equipment, which helps explain why it is so heavy - full IFR panel with second navigation radio, heated pitot tube, wing leveler, heavy IO-360-A1B6 engine, Hartzell constant speed prop, inverted fuel and oil systems, firewall thermal insulation, leather seats, cockpit sidewall upholstery, baggage compartment tie downs, etc.I weighed the aircraft with and without landing gear leg fairings and wheel pants. It weighed 1162 lb without all the fairings, which is the configuration that it will be in for the first few flights. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080713202122986 2008-07-13T20:34:46Z2008-07-13T20:34:46Z Kevin Horton In Canada, we need to do a fuel flow test before we can receive the Special Certificate of Airworthiness for the aircraft. The aircraft is supposed to be at the maximum climb pitch attitude. The crafter of that requirement has side stepped the question of how one would know the maximum climb pitch attitude before doing any flight testing.It was raining this morning, so I cleaned up a few odds and ends, then did a big inspection of the engine installation. I found a few loose ends, which I tied off. This afternoon the rain stopped, so I called Jim M., who conveniently lives in the town of Smiths Falls, and made the mistake once of telling me to phone him if I ever needed some help. He didn't seem too upset when I asked him if he could come out to the airport - I'm guessing he used it as an excuse to beg off working on his "Honey Do List".I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel injection servo, and put the end in a gas can that Jim held. I ran the boost pump for 60 seconds, and then weighed the gas can with a set of fishing scales. I subtracted the weight of the empty gas can, and determined that the fuel flow was about 45 USG/hr. The fishing scales were calibrated against several known weights - they have an error of 0.1 lb or less.The official fuel flow test description is silent on the pass-fail criteria, so I decided to use FAR 23.955 as guidance - 125% of the fuel flow at max take-off power. I figure the fuel flow at take-off power should be no more than 20 USG/hr, so I set the pass-fail criteria at 25 USG/hr. The actual result of 45 USG/hr is way more than enough, so I am happy.I did two sets of tests - one on a flat taxiway (11° pitch attitude), and one with the aircraft at 21° pitch attitude. The results were essentially the same for all conditions, so I am comfortable that there would be no problem at even higher pitch attitudes.I had minimum fuel in the tanks. In fact, the first time I tried the left tank, I sucked the tank dry before getting 60 seconds of fuel - I had to add a bit more. The last time I tried the right tank, the fuel pressure fell after 55 seconds, as the tank started to run dry. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080712214948330 2008-07-12T21:50:56Z2008-07-12T21:50:56Z Kevin Horton In years past there have been one or two RV-8/8A builders meetings during the EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh in the Theater in the Woods. Several other builders who frequent the Yahoo RV-8 Group have expressed interest this year, so there should be at least a handful of builders at the Theater in the Woods at the following dates/times:Tuesday at 10:15Thursday at 10:15Both meetings would be at the Theater in the Woods. If it is raining, we will meet under the roof. If it is not raining, we can meet just outside on the end away from the stage. I’ll bring stick-on name tags and markers, so we can identify the people who belong to the names we’ve seen online. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080712205250962 2008-07-12T21:28:53Z2008-07-12T21:28:53Z Kevin Horton It’s been a busy ten days. I was in Montreal for a few days the week before last, and my sister and family arrived for a week last Saturday. It was great to spend time with them, but it was a bit tiring, as we aren’t used to having three children around 24/7. They flew back home this afternoon, so after they left I zipped out to Smiths Falls for a few hours.One of the big items that was on my To Do list was to get some sort of RV transition training. I have flown a wide variety of aircraft types (around 90 types, at last count), and one of the things that test pilots learn how to do is to quickly adapt to the unique characteristics of new aircraft types. But, I don’t have a lot of tail wheel aircraft time in the big picture. I did my initial flight training in a Piper Cub, plus the occasional flight in a tail wheel aircraft since then, and hadn’t flown any tail wheel aircraft since my Dad and I flew his Fleet Canuck from Nova Scotia to Oshkosh and back in 2001. Originally, I had planned to get some transition training from one of the recognized RV flight instructors. But my schedule has been so fluid that this was difficult to organize. I finally gave up on that and went with Plan B. Three weeks ago I did a flight in a Maule M-4-210C - photos with Andrew B., an instructor based out of Smiths Falls. The M-4 is an early Maule, with the small tail, which makes it quite loose in yaw, and you definitely need to use your feet. It was a good way to reawaken the connection between my eyes, brain and feet. It was fairly ugly at first, but Andrew doesn’t scare easily, and things went progressively better as the hour progressed.This afternoon, I did a half hour of circuits in an RV-6, thanks to Lee F., a coworker. There was a bit of a crosswind, which added to the training value. The first take-off wasn’t pretty, as I was overcontrolling a bit on the rudder, but it was safe. Subsequent circuits were much better, once I figured out what gains I needed on the feet. Each circuit was better than the last, and the fourth landing was perfect, so I stopped there - I learned a long time ago that there is no point to attempting to see if you can repeat a perfect landing.I’m satisfied now that I am ready to fly the RV-8, once we get to that stage. Thanks Andrew and Lee. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080701202956773 2008-07-01T20:31:34Z2008-07-01T20:31:34Z Kevin Horton After I got home yesterday, I tried to contact Grand Rapids Technologies to ask for assistance with the fuel flow activation problem. I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone, so resorted to e-mail. Tim, the EIS technical support guy, e-mailed back with some advice, but that didn’t help. It looked like the engine monitor would have to go back to the factory, so this morning, I zipped into the hangar to carefully record all the configuration settings, then removed the unit. Today is a holiday up here, but I planned to courier it out tomorrow. Tim, the tech support guy, e-mailed me back mid-day today with another possible fix - he had dug into their records, and found that the unit had been calibrated twice. The activation code was changed when it was calibrated the second time, but they sent me the first, out-of-date, activation code. I tried the correct code, and it worked. It was a wasted trip to the hangar, but it did force me to update my record of the configuration settings. I’m going to put them in the POH, so they are handy in case the unit ever loses its memory somehow.This afternoon and evening I got two rounds of fibreglas work done on the cowling to plenum chamber transition. Things are coming along nicely, but there are at least two more days required to finish that off.I’ll be heading on the road for most of the week, and will have family in town for a week starting on Saturday. So I won’t make any real progress until the week of 14 July. If things go very smoothly, I could possibly have the final inspection late that week. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080630154925816 2008-06-30T15:49:25Z2008-06-30T15:49:25Z Kevin Horton I took the day off work today, and spent the morning at the hangar. I had noted yesterday that the idle mixture was very rich. At 700 rpm, if you pull the mixture back very slowly from full rich, the rpm should increase 10 to 50 rpm. I had over a 200 rpm increase. I wasn’t sure whether this was simply way out of adjustment, or whether it was a symptom of some other issue. The idle mixture should have been set during the engine run in the test cell after the overhaul, so I wanted to be sure that there wasn’t something else going on. A web search indicated that a rich idle mixture could be caused by an internal leak inside the fuel injection servo. Such a leak, if present, could be seen by removing the air induction “snorkel”, and putting a cap on the metered fuel line going from the fuel injection servo to the “spider” on top of the engine. Then you select full throttle and rich mixture, and pressurize the system with the boost pump. An internal leak will cause fuel to come out of the small tubes that can be seen in the throat of the fuel injection servo. There was no leak in my system.Another possible cause of too rich mixture could be too much oil on the K&N air filter. So, I put the induction snorkel back in place without the air filter for a quick test. I still got more than a 200 rpm rise when I pulled the mixture back at 700 rpm, so the air filter was not the cause. After putting the air filter back in place, I adjusted the idle mixture and idle speed to be approximately correct. As a point of reference, I needed to turn the adjusting wheel about one full turn to get the mixture approximately in the right range. I’ll do the final adjustment after the engine is broken in.I chased down two small brake system leaks in the cockpit, and spent quite a while looking for, but failed to find, the source of a fuel smell in the cockpit.I’ve got some sort of problem with the activation of the fuel flow option on the EIS 4000 engine monitor. You need to enter two codes to activate that option, but my system refuses to accept the codes. I couldn’t raise GRT on the phone, so sent an e-mail.This afternoon I did some sanding on the transition ducts I made to connect the cowl air inlets to the plenum chamber on top of the engine, then applied some more fibreglas filler. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080630153836500 2008-06-30T15:49:17Z2008-06-30T15:49:17Z Kevin Horton Sunday I spent most of the day at the hangar. I redid the magneto timing, and now the engine sounds happier when running on mag only. I tried using my ancient automotive timing light to confirm the mag timing, but it didn’t seem to be working. I bought a new timing light, and found that while it worked on the electronic ignition, it would not trigger the strobe on the mag. Maybe the shielded plug wires are interfering with the inductive pickup. Maybe that old timing light was serviceable after all. I had Dale Lamport, a local multiple RV builder sit in the cockpit while I tried to check the EI timing, but the sunlight was so bright that the timing marks were only very dimly visible. The timing appeared to be fairly close, but I probably should try it again just before sunset some day.I also put safety wire back on the prop flange bolts. I installed the compass error placard, and corrected some setup errors on the EIS 4000 engine monitor. And, I did a test of the data recording from the engine monitor, EFIS and GNS 430. I found that I had somehow managed to delete a critical function in the engine monitor recording script - fortunately I use a version control system, and was able to dig back into the earlier versions and repair the damage. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080628090105440 2008-06-28T09:02:56Z2008-06-28T09:02:56Z Kevin Horton Yesterday afternoon I got the compass swing done. In principle, it should be done with the engine running, but I need to minimize ground running time as the engine is not yet broken in. So, I did it with the engine off, but the avionics system, strobes, etc powered. I’ll do another compass swing with engine running once the engine is broken in. The flux valve for the Dynon EFIS is in the rear fuselage, so I’m convinced it would not be affected by the engine.The Dynon EFIS compass had extremely low errors after doing its calibration procedure. The errors on most headings were either zero, or one degree, with only two headings having two degree errors.The standby compass was not so accurate, as it is apparently badly affected by magnetism in the steel roll bar. I have a line on a degaussing tool, and I will give it a try sometime after first flight. CAR 605.14(d) requires a magnetic compass or a magnetic direction indicator that operates independently of the aircraft electrical generating systemFor now, the way I read CAR 605.14, the magnetic compass in the Dynon EFIS is sufficient to meet the requirements, as I have the internal battery, which allows it to operate even if the aircraft electrical system is dead.There was a C172 doing circuits, so I was able to get a radio check on both the GNS 430 and the Microair 760. The Microair 760 is hooked up to an antenna inside the left wing tip, which will provide less than optimum performance (but zero drag). I was encouraged that the pilot in the C172 said the signal was strong and clear. It will be interesting to hear how it does with longer range reception and transmission. I'm relieved to get the radio checks out of the way, as there would have been an awful lot of wiring to troubleshoot if things hadn't worked - two radios, each with several wires going to the intercom box, several wires between the intercom box and the headset jacks, plus two antennae, etc. http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8/article.php?story=20080626193133759 2008-06-27T07:10:37Z2008-06-27T07:10:37Z Kevin Horton Success! The engine runs, finally.I took the afternoon off to make yet another engine run attempt. I put the new battery charger on the battery for 90 minutes to make sure it was fully charged. Then I did a fuel flow test to be sure that I had adequate fuel flow at the fuel injector. I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel injection servo, and put it in a gas can. I ran the boost pump for one minute, and used a calibrated fishing scale to determine the weight increase - 4.5 lb, which equates to a fuel flow of 45 USG/hr. Way more than enough. I need to do the official fuel flow test later, with the fuselage pitched up to the maximum climb angle - but I am certain that it will make the requirement of 125% of the fuel flow required at take-off.Then I pulled the aircraft out of the hangar and chocked it. The engine caught on the second cranking attempt. All the engine indications looked good, except the alternator load meter - it showed 5.2 amps load with the alternator switch OFF. I need to review the settings in the EIS for that one. The bus voltage did not increase when I selected the alternator ON, but I later discovered that the alternator field fuse was not installed, which almost certainly explains this snag.After warming the oil, I ran it up to 1800 rpm and cycled the prop. It took a whole bunch of back and forth on the prop control before the rpm would respond. But, that was expected, based on reports from other builders.The engine ran smoothly on the electronic ignition only, and with both the magneto and electronic ignition ON. But it ran a bit rough on magneto only, and the EGTs were higher. It seems probable that the mag timing is too retarded. Talking with Ron M. (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer based at Smiths Falls), it seems that perhaps I erred by trying to do the mag timing without having the pin that Slick calls for to lock the mag internals in place. I had assumed that as long as the mag breaker box light goes on and off at the correct crank angle, that everything would be OK. Ron gave me a spare Slick mag timing pin, and I’ll have another go at setting the mag timing tomorrow.Life is good - I flew the mighty C182 this morning, I got the first engine run in this afternoon, and now I’m sipping a glass of wine and watching the first Canadian Football League game of the season (real men only need three downs to get it done :).Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and phoned with advice on starting procedures. I appreciate your support.