Happiness is flying inverted!

Absolutely gorgeous weekend logged a 0.6 snapped a photo while I was inverted.   The plane is running great.  Life is good!

Frame Touch up paint and cowlings.

I did some touch up paint to those places that had some paint chipped for one reason or another. I just painted it on with a small hobby paint brush. Removed the temp. installed prop to installed the nose bowl. I torqued the prop IAW Owens Composites ( now Twisted Composites) owners info. I also checked the track of the prop to make sure it was tracking perfectly true. All checked good. I fab’d a bracket for the RH gear leg fairing just like I did the LH gear leg fairing so as to keep it from rotating during flight.

I started installing the cowling’s and the hundreds of screws that go into this plane. Man there are a lot of screws. I had to do a little cutting on the lower engine cowling to make room for the gear leg that now come through the lower cowling. Installing the cowlings takes forever. I was able to get the plane outside and take a picture just before dusk.

Time spent 8 hours.

Would you believe it my fiance’ spent the entire day out at the airport with me! She is a real keeper. She has been working on a wedding cake topper out of clay. She spent a few hours at the airport and came up with this:

I of course have some modifications to make to it. We are going to move the tail back to its proper position the clay being soft just wouldn’t support it unless it was up further. And find a way to keep the bottom wing in its proper place. I will keep up updated on its progress. Oh and BTW the plane Idea was not mine, it was hers. And our guest book is going to be a pilot log book. Like a said a real keeper.

Final fit check prior to powder coating

Today I cut the slits for the pinch bolts and did a final fit check prior to powder coater having his way with them. I snapped a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Time spent today 0.5 hours total time spent on the mod 45 hours

Flying

I worked on my freestyle again today and yesterday I logged 0.5 each day for a 1.0 total. This will be my last flight prior to taking the plane down for the annual and the gear mod.

total time today and yesterday 1.0 hours total time since rebuild 61.50

Flying

Another beautiful day, calm winds blue skies so I just had to go get my G on.  I practiced my Intermediate Freestyle several times.  It was pretty cold again and I have been practicing sequences starting at 5000 ft just so that I had time to recover just incase I botched up a maneuver and needed the space. Truthfully I am always discovering how to better fly my plane so any extra altitude is always helpful thankfully I have never needed it.  Also Eve has been whining about how she has never seen me fly even though I have taken her up to go fly aerobatics in a Super Decathlon year ago. So I remembered I fly very near a baseball field. I told her to go out there and watch. It turned out well she was able to go and and watch so we were both happy.

Flight time today 0.5 hours Total time since rebuild 60.52 hours

Flying

I spent some more time working on my Intermediate Free. I ran through it completely 3 times and worked on trouble areas of it after that. Then I worked on the Intermediate Known sections for a bit. I then went back to the airport and did some stop and goes about five total. Today is a great milestone. My goal the first year I had this plane running was 60 hours. With all the problems I have had and the flight testing of the new superior sump I’m happy and the plane is running great.

Flight time today 0.8 hours Flight time is rebuild 60.02 Hours

Flying

Friday and Saturday I flew 1.3 hours total.  I spent the entire time working on the intermediate known and my freestyle.

Total flying time 1.3 hours total Time since rebuild 59.20 hours

Flying and New Gear

Today I went for an afternoon hop after work. It was an epic day nice and cool clear blue skies a very light breeze you know epic. I flew my intermediate free and intermediate known twice I was pretty tired after that I flew a 0.6. Afterwords I got home and found my Aircraft Spruce parts for the new gear and the wooden crate with the new landing gear and various brakets and fairings. I weighed the gear each leg was 11.4 lb. I not sure how much a stock Pitts landing gear weighs but my estimate would be about 7 lbs. So after they legs get installed I will probably have a net gain of 13-14 lb with the addition of the gear leg sockets in the mount. We will see after I get it installed.

Total flight today 0.6 hours Total time since rebuild 57.80 hours

Flying

Went to work earlier today so I could get off and fly after work. It was a beautiful day high was 68 deg and clear blue skies. I was able to get some more work done on the intermediate known and my intermediate free. I think I figured out how to keep from sleeping on figure 2 in the known. I have been pulling to hard throughout the 7/8 loop. This time my made the loop larger and only pulled 4 G’s instead of 5.5 G’s. This made a bit of difference as I could pretty much stay awake with a small effort at straining. Anyway there was a wicked winds aloft today around the 35 -40 mph.

Flight Time today 0.5 Hours Flight time since rebuild 57.20 hours

Canopy During Snaps and More Flying

So I have had a problem with my canopy sliding open to the 1st stop during snap rolls and high G’s. I finally got sick of it and took my canopy rails apart to figure out why this occurred. It turns out that when the canopy is all the way forward the glide that holds the ball bearing in place are near the back of the canopy. This allows the canopy to flex down in the front which releases the tangs out of the groves on the rails and allows the canopy to slide back to the 1st notch. I referenced the plans and it shows a screw with a nut on the very most forward portion of the inner rail. This screw helps support the rail in front so that it doesn’t flex during high G. So I put the screws in there and it works great.

 

Anyway I got some good flying in this weekend loads of my intermediate Freestyle and the new Int. known. That figure two on the know is a pain in the ass. You really need your G tolerance up to do that figure and stay awake. I was able to figure out straining technique that worked. Screaming was not helping me at all. I got two 0.8 flights in today so good progress with the free and known but both still need some work.

Flight time today 1.6 hours total time since rebuild 56.70 Hours