Log 108 - 80+ hrs, Mustang Show, Arlington and other fun

Flight#..heck, I don't know. 80+ hrs in the glasair. Today, I flew to the Props & Ponies show at Skagit Regional Airport.

2013aug17 - My glasair at Mustang show, Skagit Valley

I ran into my Friend Jake Schultz who introduced me to Bill Anders. Bill is an astronaut on Apollo 8. He's famous for his photo taken back at the earth and saying,"We went to the moon, and discovered the earth". He was the pilot on the lunar module and the first manned lunar orbit mission. Jake was helping out with the show. It was also good to run into Bob Summers, old hang glider pilot friend, and see friend, Kevin, Comanche Pilot of Arlington.

I did a fly-by and headed for the hills. Near the Canadian border was the Can-Am hang gliding and paragliding event I was missing near Abbotsford, BC. Launch was cloudy so I flew a few passes by the landing field then headed to Anacortes. They had a little get-together just ending so I headed to Arlington to top off and to visit Bill, Terry, Dan and a few other friends. They were having a potluck so I stayed for a short time to visit than headed home.

2013aug17 - Terry's hangar at Arlington

The glasair is flying great. I adjusted the ailerons and still tweaking to make it fly straight but almost there. A few other issues to work on but all is great with the plane.

Log 107 - More Flying

Over the Cascades westbound from Chelan

Arlington Airshow at Paraphernalia party

Portland International Airport northbound

So, I haven't written for a while but been busy flying. I've flown to Prosser fly-in, the Fantasy field fly-in, Chelan a bunch of times. I go to the islands (san juans), Sequim, Pt Angeles, Tacoma Narrows and other places often. I just go cruising around locally sometimes and many trips around Arlington. I've taken a bunch of friends including Aarin Rinn and Kurt Hartzog lately. The Arlington Fly-In was really fun too. Lately I flew with Rodney Tong in his Rutan Long EZ and we got some pics here. Other than that, the plane is flying great! I have some cleaning and checking to do but all is good and will save some of the work for when the weather turns worse.

Log 106 - day in the life of...

A little sore from last night's Seattle underwater hockey practice, struggled into work at Boeing. Sometimes a little sore feels good! Some walked in with sunshine, some got wet as the weather  changed by the minute today. Work was good.

After work, invited coworker, Brian Jensen for a flight. We saw a cloud with ominous virga and I mentioned hoping it wouldn't change our plan. On the way to the airport, it poured and the wind went sideways the wrong way. I called, talked with paine ground and anticipated the wind correcting. Within 5 minutes of arriving, the wind switched back, sun came out and we were off for a half hour flight up Camino Island, Arlington, south Snohomish and back to Paine field. I've a few passengers since the 40 hour fight test was complete. Most have enjoyed the way the Scalded Dog flies!

Hit the ymca for a short swim on the way home, watched my daughter, Maddie training a horse, blasted the Honda quad around the track, dinner with family and enough time to download a few pics, listen to a couple mellow Frank Zappa songs like this and this, and write this post! Not too tired but its getting late.

Brian and I in the glasair

Log 105 flights and mods

It's been a while since I've posted and numerous flights since the last post. I've taken at least 4 passengers now and a little night flying, all not allowed till flight testing phase 1 was complete, 40 hrs. I crossed the cascades last weekend to the Tonasket fathers day fly-in and this week went to the Fantasy Field fly-In, then to Lake Chelan to pick up my friend Steve Alford. Steve is camping in Chelan for two weeks but wanted his 1956 Cessna 172 there so he can tool around. I may go over since the 2013 Chelan Classic hang gliding and paragliding competition is going on. My flight and the Fantasy Field fly-in is here with some explanation on each photo.

The plane seems to work thermals around 100 mph. I still have cooling issues to work out, need to learn the take off and landings more in cross winds, and for some reason, cylinder 4 temp goes up when I turn on the headlight :) . I'll figure it all out.

More posts later.

Log 104

40 hrs of flight testing complete as of 2013june11! Phase 1 flight test can close soon.

Before the flight, I took Ted Setzer's advise and created inlets in the baffling in front of cylinder 1 and 2. I took off and climbed with engine running very low temperatures! I'd been trying to resolve this for a long time but didn't expect to modify the factory baffling. I just didn't see that solution till now.

Beautiful evening flight with a few rain shower in the distance and a few nice landings at Arlington and two at Paine field.

Log 103 - More Flights, More Fun

I hadn't written anything since May? OMG!

I never really wanted to be a test pilot again, but all's good. It's a somewhat private experience. The people who do it know exactly what I'm talking about. That's part of why I don't post so much lately but it all has been going very good.

Flights:
Last post was May 27th and I've flown almost every day since then. I go to Pt. Angeles, Pt. Townsend, Sequim, Arlington, Bellingham, Skagit Valley, Orcas Island, San Juan Friday Harbor and a few other places. I've been testing CG, fuel mixtures, all instruments, speeds, turns, climbs and what ever else I can think of. I will continue documenting after phase 1 is complete. As of yesterday, I have 39.2 of 40 hours complete!!!

Landings:
I want to give landings there own discussion. I started out with two point landings and have been experimenting with three point, cross wind and downwind landings. None of it is easy. Even when the wind is straight down the runway, it's not easy and there is NO time to quit paying attention. It can get squirrelly, difficult to see, get a little sideways, not easy to see the runway. I've been dealing with this, learning and getting better but lots of practice. Pilots with high tailwheel time are highly respected in my book!

Experiences:
Most has been good but it is a lonely road. You hear every noise, any knocks in the engine or the wheels as you taxi, take off or land, any smell. I've flown by a few hang glider sights and seen friends flying. I visited with a few experts who's shared there knowledge. Terry Birch and I visited and he had advise on landings, general flying, the engine, my modifications so far. Jeff LaVelle and I discussed some of the flight characteristics. I landed at Arlington yesterday and the doors were open at the Glasair shop . A few Glasair employee's greeted me when I taxied up including Ben Watson, who I met recently living at the Whidbey Langley Airport and was working at Boeing till he found a better rounded opportunity at Glasair. Ted Setzer introduced himself, another legend in my book who worked Glasair for 32 years so far. I knew his brother, Tom from Boeing but first time meeting Ted and he had lots of advise and loved to discuss how things are going. Of course, the Scalded Dog is a Glasair 1 and I don't know if there is a lot of these flying around. I'm starting to see a few around though.

Mods and fixes:
Just off the top of my had, I have a small mod on the front of the engine to cut holes for better air flow on #1 & #2 cylinders. My Van's airbox secondary air door keeps breaking the opening cable. I'll find a new design for this soon, but its not to critical. I will test my air lines again and possibly lengthen my pitot tube away from wing. It may be causing my airspeed to read about 10 mph too slow. I'm finding the fuel management to be interesting and always looking for ways to improve that..including when to use the header tank, what 'full' really means, air vent and expansion overflow, general measuring level and tail down..... I have a few other things documented to clean up but all else is going very well.

Log 102 - Sometimes boring is good

More like, no incidents or accidents, all testing is moving along, all modifications seem to be working. I had a small ground spin out after landing but there was no damage and I was going very slow. Normally called a ground loop, I had slowed and was trying too hard to make an exit to the taxiway from the runway. Next time, I won't try so hard to slow down and will not release the tailwheel lock so early.

During inspection, I discovered a small fuel leak in an aluminum line from the firewall fitting to the filter. The internal flange was too small so I fabricated another line and seems to be perfect.

Bled brakelines again and changed oil yesterday. Tightened oil filler post and added a quick drain system.

Fuel System:
Previously, spent an afternoon draining all fuel out except 1/4 gallon or so to get to the gas pumps. I fabricated a tailstand for 'plane level', and calibrated my fuel level sender units to the Dynon indicators. In short, main tank is 33.61 gallons conservatively. Main tank indicator only goes to 21 gallons because of the dihedral of the wings. In flight, noted that roughly 18 gallons shown with tail down means 11 gallons in level flight. I will double check these numbers. Header tank is more straight forward holding 5.6 gallons. Saving sensor values in yellow notepad.

Flights:
Flight around the San Juan Islands two days ago was good but winds were too switchy to land at Orcas. Friday Harbor was good. Yesterday, flew to Port Townsend and Sequim with Steve Alford, flight of two.

To Do:
Compass needs to be reset during flight, check right wing strobe at powerbox, camera wires review and inspect, check passenger left rudder brake pedal, check header fuel vent for full 'high loop' behind instrument panel, temperary baffling change behind cylinder #3, engine and airplane log update.