Personally, I'm green with envy, but not far behind..............Bobby
, > It has been a good couple of days. I for an hour and 15 minutes > yesterday and for an hour and 55 minutes today. The temperature has been > up both days for us 50 yesterday and about 63 today. Both days were spent > in cruise flight for all but the climb and even then I used a cruise > climb of 130 to 140 mph and a rate of climb of 700 to 800 ft/ min. The > rpm range is at full throttle has been about 3200rpm at this rate of > climb. The full throttle rpms are consistent at 3500 plus and I am > getting 168 mph indicated consistently with it leaned out with the sweet > spot at 1330 exhaust temps. (I do not have a mixture meter). The plane is > flying very well and handles great. The one thing that I am getting used > to is at speeds above maybe 130 mph the ailerons are heavy, or maybe a > better term would be stiff.(at least on my plane) The trim tab that I > added the other day to the left aileron is doing it's job. I can fly > hands off for some time, Although i don't know how long it is long enough > to fool with a map, radio's or anything else that needs to be done. I > know that I have already got in the habit of trying to hold a little of > right input on the stick and by flying hands off I found that it is just > making me tired and not doing anything for the airplane. Just need to > relax a little more ( that's easy to say) > This afternoon's flight was flown at 80% throttle. that is 3200 > to 3250 rpm This gave a indicated airspeed of 148 to 150 mph. I left the > settings the same for about 1 1/2 hours. I explored the outer limits of > my 50 mile radius, going around the outside edge of the circle. At times > the ground speed was over 190 mph. In fact when I crossed past Pocono > raceway I remember looking down and thinking that I was going as fast as > Jeff Gorden could go but I didn't have to go in as small of a circle. I > did have to keep playing with the mixture for the first hour but after > that every thing stayed good and smooth for the remainder of the flight. > About 30 miles from home I started a decent of only about 200 > ft/min and did not change the throttle. The airspeed increased to 165 and > the plane trimmed nice and I had gotten very comfortable by then. I was > listening to Allentown tower and heard that the winds were 180 at 8kts. > That is dead cross for home. Now the fun went out of the whole flight. I > don't have a lot of confidence in my cross wind landings. At 12 miles out > I called unicom for a wind report and they said it was 210 at 7kts and > bumpy over the numbers. Well that's better now it is only a 60 deg cross. > (and bumpy) I made a little faster circuit and it was rough on finial. > The crab angle verified that it was 50 to 60 deg cross. I kicked it > straight on short finial and was just about 70mph over the numbers. In > ground effect it smoothed out real nice and it did not take near as much > aileron as I thought it would. The rudder was plenty to steer with and I > had to be careful not to over control. And the best part -- The plane is > still useable. > Post flight -- I am still chasing a couple small oil leaks that I > just can not seem to find or correct. They are not so bad to do any harm > just makes a mess after 3 or 4 hours. > I had started with full fuel yesterday and filled up after > today's flight. Total time was 3.2 hours and total fuel burn of 15.5 gal. > The EIS -- I have been tracking instrument temp and trends. The bottom > line is that it has a temp. problem. When the instrument temp reaches 77 > deg. it starts to become inaccurate in at least 3 readings. RPM, Oil > pressure, And Outside air temp. I have a fan under the panel but it will > not keep it any cooler than 86 deg. right now. It is doing something > because the temp went above 92 deg without the fan running. More to come. > Sorry this was so long > Joe Horton, Coopersburg, Pa. > joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com > > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html >
