No Airspeed??

During flights 1 and 2, as I mentioned in previous posts, I had no airspeed indication. It read zero for most of the flight duration. On the second flight, when I was much more calm, I seen the airspeed come alive on takeoff roll...and then go to zero about the time I left the ground (verified from video). When I slowed to do some slow flight...it flickered alive again, but it was clearly not reading correctly. It was reading 25-30 kts.

 

If you're reading along, hopefully what I've described has made the lightbulb go off in your head as to what my problem was. This is what I knew...at high AoA's, the airspeed came alive...but was not reading properly. At low AoA's...it went to zero. That, coupled with the fact that I have a Dynon pitot system should solve the mystery.

 

The Dynon pitot, for those unaware, has two functions. One, the obvious airspeed, and two is AoA. I suspected that I had these two lines crossed up. A call to Dynon pretty much confirmed it. I was told they had a batch of pitot's go out that were mislabeled...bam, that's my bogey!

 

Once I had that information, I spent about five minutes (I love five minute fixes) swapping the two lines at the pitot. Put the inspection cover back on and decided to fly...to test the fix.

 

After my first two flights, of approximately 1 hr 45 mins circling above the airport, I figured for flight #3 I was ready to venture away from the nest. There are plenty of open fields in my northern flight path in case of trouble. So flight 3 was a short 30 minute flight to verify my airspeed fix and get away from the airport for the first time.

 

Airspeed was now, indeed, working. But it seems to be reading about 11-12 kts slower than my groundspeed. I realize groundspeed can and is certainly different than indicated airspeed in a lot of cases. But even in a no wind situation...they don't match. I had it checked for leaks before getting my airworthiness...but maybe I need to check again? Scratching my head on this one.

 

Other than that, another successful flight in the books. We are off and running now, it was great to get away from the airport. One thing to note, if you think that once you start flying...you're done, you're being naïve. I am learning phase I has plenty of bugs to work through. The plane is not "done" yet...this is normal.

Flight #2

The second flight was almost a carbon copy of the first...without all the fanfare. The goal was to validate everything from the first flight and get a little more run time on the engine. Again, I set up an oval orbit about 500' above pattern altitude running WOT and 2500 rpm.

 

I vividly remember my first solo, as I think most pilots do. It was very unique and an amazing experience to fly an airplane for the first time...alone. Not to take anything away from that experience, but my second solo flight was actually more fun. I was more relaxed since it didn't have the "first solo" pressure attached to it.

 

It was the same deal with my second flight in Wablosa. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, for different reasons. I was completely alone, the sun was just coming up in the east, not a cloud in the sky, the air was crisp and the wind sock was limp. Aaaah, music to a pilot's ears...

 

 

I fired up my GoPro2 and recorded the entire flight. I had technical difficulties with the camera on the first flight, so this was my first time using it in the plane. It really is a neat little gadget. Here are some screenshots I pulled from the video, the first one being the takeoff roll.

 

The Rockies on the horizon...the air was as smooth as glass.

The winter terrain surrounding Rocky Mountain Metro Airport (KBJC)

 

And of course, a nice shot as I turn final for runway 29R. I would post a video, but I'm learning that this blog hosting site doesn't do well with big video files. I'll see if I can get that worked out for future posts.

 

I will tell you, at this point, my landings are not too pretty. I keep flaring too high and I believe chopping the power too soon. When you pull the power on this puppy, it drops faster than I am used to--and backfires/pops a little bit which I've read is pretty normal. I think it sounds cool since the Pitts also does this. I may try and carry some power longer and see if that helps me transition into ground effect better. For now, I am dropping right through it! We'll get there...I also had a tendency to do this during my transition training.

 

All in all, the second flight went very well. I ran it hard for about an hour and called it a day. Nothing new came up in the way of squawks, although I still didn't have airspeed. I'll talk more about this in my next post. After this flight, it started to sink in that I actually had an airplane that I could fly any time I wanted...that's pretty surreal to this guy, and way cool.

She Flies!!! HOBBS 2800.0 hrs

On March 16th, 2014, my bird took flight for the first time. I was about a month shy of five years into the project, much longer than I ever anticipated, as I naively thought 3 1/2 years and 2000 hrs would be plenty. The journey to this point proved to be much more challenging than I ever imagined and I can honestly say it is the single greatest accomplishment in my 45 years on this planet. Here are quite a few pics from the big day...

 

 

Getting a quick cockpit brief with my flight advisor, Jim Gray. We discovered that my COM2 wasn't receiving for some reason (still not sure what happened here?) and decided since COM1 was functioning well, we would continue with the flight.

 

Doing my pre-flight, adding some oil. With the oil accumulator holding one quart, I've been filling it to 7 quarts. This has seemed to work good as I haven't seen any oil on the belly yet.

 

Pulling her out into the fresh air...this trip outside the hangar carried some added significance. I felt relaxed, but pretty amp-ed up at this stage. I was prepared, but I wont lie, there were some nerves to contend with as I climbed into the cockpit and closed the canopy, knowing what was about to come next.

 

I had some engine starting problems initially. This was a nice cold morning, temps in the 20's, colder than any of my other engine starts. It kicked over on initial startup, but I didn't feed in enough mixture to keep it running. With the guidance of Jim Gray, he talked me through a little different starting procedure and we got her to kick over no problem.

 

My ground crew looks on as I taxi by. Yes, I am aware everyone will tell you not to invite a large crowd...I had about 8 people. I understand the reasoning behind it, and agree the concept does have merit. At the end of the day, its the test pilot's decision. We're all not built the same. I spent a lifetime playing baseball in front of crowds, some large and televised, I'm personally ok with spectators...are you? You have to make an honest assessment with yourself if it will detract from the task at hand.

 

These were almost all RV guys and I wanted them to experience a first flight for educational purposes. Experiencing one as ground crew can only help when you do your first flight, I didn't have that benefit. They knew the drill and were not a problem at all. They allowed me to focus on what I needed to without being a distraction and helped where needed. I also felt no added pressure to fly...to abort should be an easy decision if things aren't right. That's the key to first flight success, not the size of your ground crew.

 

I contact ground control and taxi out of the Lima hangar row for the first time. Gotta love that view of the Boulder flatirons and the Rockies beyond. I remember thinking this was pretty symbolic, my bird had finally been set free into the wild, released from the confines of the hangar.

 

 

Doing my runup on a picture perfect crisp Colorado morning, it was absolutely ideal for a first flight. Jim and I talked about the importance of making sure the prop would cycle. My first two attempts at 1700 RPM yielded nothing, the prop didn't cycle...I was thinking I may have to abort.

 

I then ran it up to 2000 RPM and it finally cycled. I don't know if it was because it was the first time and I needed to get some oil into the prop or if I actually needed the extra RPM? Either way, I cycled it three times successfully...all was good. I went through the remainder of my checklist and then set it up a little richer than I normally would to keep CHT's down. Running a little rich we lose some power, luckily we don't need maximum takeoff performance in an RV so we have performance to burn.

 

There's an old saying among test pilots that goes something like this. You lose half your IQ when the canopy closes. Shoot, that didn't happen to me I thought with a puffed out chest, I closed that canopy and was doing just fine, thank you. My radio calls were good, the runup was good, nerves were good and IQ was fully intact. Then I started my takeoff roll...unknown to me at the time, but my IQ was inversely proportional to my airspeed. As airspeed increased, my IQ rapidly decreased. I was reduced to a slobbering infant five minutes later, forgetting how to even speak on the radio.

 

To note, I forgot to check the airspeed alive, prop RPM (for a possible overspeed), engine instruments in the green...none of that registered as I just focused primarily on flying the airplane and holding the centerline. I'm not proud of this airmanship, but I wanted to bring it to light as I've been honest about all of my mistakes throughout the build...this is so you do better.

 

The takeoff is not that difficult, even in a taildragger, bring the power in slowly and you don't need a whole lot of right rudder...she tracked very well on the centerline...I could've and should've been monitoring my instruments better. Hand slapped, lesson learned.

 

 

The engine and prop were smooth as silk and she accelerated nicely. I let her fly off the ground when she wanted...held her there for a brief moment while I did a quick wing wag left and right to make sure I had control authority and then gradually started my shallow climb. With the 9000' runway, I could have easily aborted right here and put her back down, but everything looked good to climb...and so I did.

 

 

Off I go into the wild blue yonder, she is airborne for the first time and it was damned glorious! I wanted to whoop and holler, but knew better to concentrate on the task at hand. After I got up to pattern altitude in short order, I kept climbing to my orbit above the airport at 7000' (500' above pattern altitude). It was then that I realized I had the mixture too lean...as my CHT's were at 450 deg F and climbing! I was so busy flying the plane, I hadn't noticed them sooner...again, poor situational awareness on my part.

 

I had a feeling of nausea in my stomach as I thought about glazing the cylinders of my expensive engine. The first thing that crossed my mind was abort the flight...get her on the ground...time to land. Then, the fog lifted and my brain finally started to work again...breathe...enrich the mixture stupid! Sure enough...I put her to full rich and the temps slowly creeped down to 350-375 degs...#2 was a little hotter than the other three, but I'll deal with that later.

 

All the while this was happening, I had an overzealous controller that was contacting me every two minutes giving me traffic advisories and waiting for me to respond with positive contact. For the life of me, I couldn't grasp why an aircraft taking off 1500 feet directly below me was a factor? She knew it was a first flight and I had a heavy workload inside the cockpit. She could've made my life much easier on me, but instead showed me who was boss. In fact, the next controller didn't contact me once...for comparison.

 

Let me paint the picture...I'm battling my intercom, which is common on first flights...the volume was fine on the ground, but with added flight noise, it was too low so I couldn't hear her calls initially. Then it was the squelch acting whacky...the aforementioned CHT's going crazy...and oh, by the way, fly the airplane in a 165 kt orbit! That's fast if you haven't done it before. It was a heavy initial workload in the cockpit that I admit I didn't handle well. I estimate it was a good ten minutes into the flight before I finally caught up to my environment and settled in. I was so far behind the airplane in those first ten minutes, I could've been flying chase. On your first flight, be ready for this. 

 

After that it was much more uneventful as I circled around and around for about 40 minutes at WOT and 2500 RPM. You want to run your engine hard during break-in. Even though things had calmed down, I did, however, realize that I had no airspeed indication other than my GPS ground speed. Holy moly I thought, I had never landed an airplane with no ASI...no instructor ever covered one to test me (a good exercise).

 

Here I am, in an airplane I built, on a first flight...one that I had a whopping 5.5 hrs flying experience, about to land without an airspeed indicator. A little butt pucker factor settled in, all pilots know what this feels like. You can't pull over to the side of the road, hand the controls to someone else, or otherwise hit 'pause' so you have time to think about it. Decisions need to be made in real time. Its somewhat unique to flying, and part of what I love about it. 

 

I was going to call Jim on the handheld and ask his advice, but I somehow knew his response...do the best you can, use your GPS speed, keep it fast on approach and bleed off speed over that long 9000' runway. I skipped the call and did exactly that. At the end of the day, you are the test pilot, the PIC, you may be faced with a scenario like this...be prepared.

 

It certainly wasn't my best landing, I flared too high and bounced her in a little bit, but I was just happy to be back down in one piece. Style points will come later!

 

As I contacted ground control and taxied back...I wasn't smiling. Amazingly enough, the "RV grin" had not yet formed on my lips. I think I was still trying to wrap my head around the reality of what just happened...it hadn't registered in my brain yet.

 

This was the first picture snapped by John Armstrong as I finally cracked open the canopy. Although the RV grin still hasn't emerged...you can see it beginning to form. I think I just took a deep breath and sat there for a few minutes taking it all in....did that really just happen? What an experience!!! A once-in-a-lifetime experience quite frankly. This was something I wont ever forget, to fly an airplane that I created from a pile of aluminum over the course of five years. This comes from a guy that has rode bulls in a rodeo and played baseball at Coors Field in my younger years. The trials and tribulations it took to get to this point are hard to grasp for even me...blood, sweat, tears and money were all key players in this high stakes game of human flight. Its quite amazing, words just don't do it justice....and sweetly, it was all worth it.

 

Mr. Gray gives me a congratulatory handshake as Brian Beatty looks on.

 

When my foot hit the ground, it then became complete in my mind...the exclamation point at the end of the sentence, I had actually done it. Mission accomplished!

 

No flight is complete without the pilot doing some hangar flying. I am holding a bottle of Scotch that Mr. John Armstrong graciously presented to me as a first flight gift, as I talk about the flight...and smile. 

 

We pulled the cowl, looked everything over...no leaks. I had a brown spot on the cowl heat shield where the heater muff was either touching or close to the cowl. I also seen a little dab of anti-seize that had dripped off the exhaust joint onto the cowl. Other than that, no squawks under the cowl.

 

It was now time for some celebration! I opened my special edition bottle of Stranahan's whiskey that I had saved for this occasion. It was whiskey made in a wine barrel called "Snowflake Mt. Silverbell"...they only make it twice a year, and each barrel is unique, hence the name "snowflake". It seemed fitting that such a unique bottle of whiskey be used for an event such as this. Its very hard to get and rather expensive. And oh boy, did it go down my throat nice and smooth, the sweet feeling of a job well done warming me...or was that just the whiskey?

 

 

I uploaded the takeoff video...but I think the landing video is too long as it wouldn't upload for some reason.

 

This ends the construction phase of my blog, although there are still odds and ends to do. Thanks for following along all these years, I am honored if you found something useful from your visits. I will now document the phase I flight test period so you can see what its like to fly this puppy! Now the fun begins!

 

Thanks to Van's aircraft...and Van himself, for creating such a wonderful flying airplane and well put together kit. I can't imagine the general aviation world right now without Van's aircraft in it.

 

You don't build one of these alone. I had a lot of help along the way: fellow builders, VAF forum posts, Jason Beaver's excellent blog to reference, Dan Checkoway who answered all of my rookie questions with long detailed emails before I took the plunge. He set the standard for the blog sites in existence today and was a great inspiration when I was getting started. Joe Blank for giving me the ride in the factory RV8A that triggered my empennage purchase five years ago. There are many more--too many to name, but thanks all the same. I plan to pay it forward.

 

Thanks to my extended ground crew: Scott Mills for his countless Greeley breakfast runs in his RV9A to keep me inspired over the years, Sean Blair and John Armstrong for driving 120 miles round trip to be part of this and always being great sounding boards for ideas, Sean Thomas for his awesome flight video work and help around the hangar, Brian Beatty for being the first one to shake my hand when I emerged victorious from the cockpit and Diana for always being a great supporter and cheerleader. Lastly, Jim Gray, who donated his valuable time and RV experience to help me prepare for the flight, he was instrumental in its success and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

 

Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Sheryl, for keeping things in order at home while I spent long hours with the 'mistress' and completely neglected the house and her. I wouldn't have finished when I did without her help, it was a team effort. The last few months weren't easy on her and I'm glad she stuck with me.

 

Thanks to both my parents, Aurore and Ron Sr., for giving me the life skills to achieve my dreams. I couldn't have done this without their upbringing. Special thanks to my Dad, who came out multiple times over the years from his home in Washington state to help me (and we worked hard when he did) at key times on the project. My dream of building and flying my own airplane was borne out of his passion for this very same dream. We did it Pop!!

First Flight Prep HOBBS 2800.0 hrs

 

I'll start off by telling you, at this point, the first flight has been successfully completed. I will obviously devote an entire post to that special day, but first, I wanted to talk about my preparations leading up to that event.

 

If you've been reading my blog for the last five years you already know my training philosophy. This is from a "regular" guy, not a 15,000 hr former fighter pilot flying for United. I now have about 205 hrs total time and about 45 hrs of tailwheel time. These numbers are not impressive by any means, I am very inexperienced at this point in my career.

 

Ok, you've seen this from me before, but I'll put them down one more time for completeness.

 

Basic goals before first flight:

1. 200 hrs total time - this was mostly for insurance reasons, every 200 hr pilot is not the same. We all progress differently and I don't think there is a magic minimum number of hours for you to be safe on your first flight...you should be able to make that assessment as PIC/test pilot. 
2. Tailwheel endorsement and 40 hrs of TW time - again, the 40 hrs was for insurance reasons, some guys do their first flight with only 10 hrs of TW time.
3. Spin training - I'm a big supporter that everyone who is going to "test fly" an aircraft should have basic spin training and preferably a spin endorsement from a CFI. I have the latter.
4. Aerobatics and/or unusual attitude training - this will make you a better pilot and more prepared for emergencies on your first flight should they arise. I have five hours of training in the Pitts S2C and one hour in a Giles 202.
5. Transition training - its pretty hard to get around this nowadays as most insurance companies require at least five hours (some ten). Insurance requirement or not, its a good idea nonetheless and you should do it. An RV most likely flies like nothing you've experienced before...its not a Skyhawk, that's for sure. I did my training with Alex DeDominicis in Texas and it was money and time well spent.

Next Steps (just prior to first flight):

1. Use a flight advisor if you can. I did not have any tech counselors visit my build, although I had plenty of experienced builders look at it. I did, however, insist on a flight advisor. Someone who has a good amount of RV time and has done a first flight before. They don't have to be an actual EAA "flight advisor" to be helpful. I used Renegades flight lead, Jim Gray as mine and he was instrumental to a successful first flight. He just happens to be a personal friend and resides in my hangar row, which was fortunate.
2. Read chapter 15 of the Van's build manual, more than once. Its really a good source of information to get prepared for first flight.
3. Read AC 90-89A "Amateur-Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook", another good resource from your very own FAA.
4. Fly! Knock that rust off the best you can, as you've probably been a builder for quite awhile...rather than an aviator. I went 8 months without flying, so I had some rust. Landings are an obvious focus, but don't forget the smaller details like radio work if you are at a towered airport, CS prop time and glass panel time if you have those in your aircraft.
5. Get familiar with the functionality of your avionics and most importantly your COM's. Do you know how to adjust squelch, volume, isolate the intercom to eliminate an open mic, etc. Same thing with the avionics, do you know how to reboot your system if it locks up? Are you comfortable with its button-ology?
6. Do a pre-flight briefing with your flight advisor a few days before your flight so you can start thinking through it ahead of time. Cover everything from emergency scenarios to mundane stuff like exactly how you plan to fly your orbit above the airport. Discuss all details.
7. Use checklists and a test card to keep your mind on task. It is an incredibly high mental workload situation to fly your airplane for the first time....YOU WILL forget things without checklists.
8. Sit in your cockpit, with the canopy closed and your panel powered up (a 'trickle' battery charger is key here), and go through your first flight completely. Push buttons, dial in frequencies, use your checklists and visualize everything from start to finish. For added measure, do this again at home...find a quiet room, close your eyes and go through it in your mind. You should be more prepared for this flight than any other in your flying career. 
9. Lastly, can you safely land the aircraft visually if all flight instruments go dark? This is VFR flying after all so you should be able to. No airspeed indication? Ever done that before? If not, think through this on the ground so you can handle it in the air.

Too many pilots don't give the first flight the respect it deserves. This is not a NORMAL flight, this is a TEST flight...treat it as such. That means extra preparation on your part.

 

Once you have all of your homework done and are prepared to the best of your ability, take a deep breath and relax. This is important. The mind does not function well when you are tense, you need to find a way to relax as much as possible for your first flight. Although it is not a normal flight, don't make it into something more than it is, its just an airplane and the flight profile is dirt simple for this first one. Just go fly! I can promise you, with it now behind me, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience you will NEVER forget!

Pink Slip! HOBBS 2779.0 hrs

 

My hangar mate, Bill, and I have been in a friendly competition to see who would finish first. Crazy enough, we both got our airworthiness certificates on Saturday, March 8th. I asked our DAR, Keith Serkes, if he ever remembered such an occurrence and he couldn't...this has to be pretty rare I'm thinking...and pretty cool. Here is a shot of Bill doing his paperwork, as he went first and passed easily. 

 

After my song and dance, here is a shot of me...with that hot little pink slip in hand! In the eyes of the federal government, I now have an actual "airplane", rather than aluminum parts. I cant even tell you the relief and excitement of holding that piece of paper, it was quite surreal and still is. It was the culmination of almost 5 yrs (1 month shy) and 2779.0 man-hours of very hard work. There were times when I thought this day would never come, but it was, oh so sweet, to accomplish this. This is a feather in my cap, that will be hard to ever top in my lifetime.

 

My DAR, Keith Serkes, for the ceremonial picture as he offered his congratulations.

 

One with my Dad, who slaved away with me for the previous 9 days to get her to this point. Without his help, I wouldn't have been ready by Mar. 8th...that was instrumental in me getting my airworthiness and owe him a debt of gratitude.

 

After the inspection, we reassembled the plane for the most part and we did a taxi test together. My way of saying thanks. Unfortunately we didn't get a first flight in while he was here. I decided not to rush into that and wait until next weekend. More on that topic later.

 

 

Lastly, one with Sheryl, who surprised me with her presence just as we were finishing up. Fellow builder, Sean Thomas, brought down some champagne and we all toasted Bill and I's new airplanes.

 

As for my inspection, really it was uneventful. Very minor squawks...only one FWF, a fuel line could use another support to prevent rubbing/chafing. Beyond that it was non-flight critical stuff...My data plate didn't match EXACTLY to my registration, I left my middle initial off (need to get that fixed).

Really, that was pretty much it. I had several people go over it before he came though and caught a few things. I will go over it one more time myself before first flight as PIC to see if anything slipped through. But all in all, I’m feeling pretty confident she’s ready to go.

All in all, I actually liked the guy. We heard plenty of horror stories beforehand, but I thought Gary Zilik’s assessement was right on, “he is thorough, but fair”. He did a good job looking over the plane and I got the feeling he wasn't there to fail us, per se, but to help us have a safe airplane. Quite honestly, most of his input was advisory. I would recommend him to other builders in the area. He charged us a flat rate $500.

 

One last shot (taken by Sean & Diana) of Bill and I...that's not something you see everyday! I may have to get this one enlarged and framed for the office. Next up, first flight!!

First Engine Start! HOBBS 2779.0 hrs

 

After a few unsuccessful attempts on sunday, we finally got the ol' engine to come to life on Monday, March 3rd. It goes without saying that this was pretty darned cool. The engine/prop combo were smooth...it really sounded awesome from the cockpit. I did a 2:20 second engine run, CHT's were low at around 200 deg F, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about as far as break in goes. My philosophy is ground runs are fine if you keep CHT's low.

 

 

Dad wheeling her out of the hangar...

 

 

As for the unsuccessful engine starts, here is some information for you to help you avoid my pitfalls. First, it was a loose fuel line going to the spider. I thought I had checked that, but somehow missed it...why, because I was in a hurry. Slow down...check hoses.

 

Second, have a start checklist handy...one particular start attempt for example, I had the fuel selector in the "off" position. Again, being in a hurry.

 

Third, when I pulled my panel apart to paint it, I reassembled the Pmag switches wrong and I didn't realize we weren't getting any spark. If you have to pull your panel apart, check one more time, after reassembly, that you are getting spark.

 

Lastly, and this is the big one. Beware, many flywheels have two TC1 marks on them...and although they are marked the same, they are completely different. When I timed my Pmags, I used the TC1 indication on the front of the flywheel. I lined this up with the center of the engine case. That is not correct! There is a TC1 on the backside of the flywheel...and that one will line up with your engine center...not the front one. The front one will be at about your 5 o'clock position and is meant to line up with a hole in the starter case. Its used for convenience to the installer. So, if you time it like I did...expect to get some violent backfires! It will be evident you have a timing problem. Once we got that figured out, it started right up, as you can see in the video.