More flying
Back out today, I decided I’d run the engine hard for awhile to take care of any break in, though it’s probably finished by now. Because of all the troubleshooting stuff, there’s been a variety of low-power operation to test various things. So, off to explore the perimeter of the phase I box. About an hour’s worth of flying time took me around the edge, from Red Wing down to Winona, up to Menominee, Boyceville, and back home. Overflights only this time, no landings…keeping the engine at high power.
When she’s up and going, it’s quite nice. Still stumbling on final & taxi, but nothing noted otherwise. I burned some fuel out of the left tank to see how heavy the left wing is; the amount of fuel it takes to correct the imbalance is about 9 gal. A thread on VAF with the math suggested that ~8 gal would be the predicted amount to compensate for lack of passenger weight in a side-by-side RV. Maybe it’s not that far out after all. It does require a constant pressure on the stick, though, so I need to sort it out so I can get the roll trim installed.
After refueling, a second quick flight around Lake Pepin before sunset. The interior lighting works nicely with the dying sun, though obviously I haven’t tried it in actual dark yet. I need to adjust the wig-wag speed to be slower, as I want the lights alternating on downwind; they don’t need to go steady until on final. It’s so neat to come into the airport with the field lights on, and to see people’s lights turning on as the sun goes down.
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