16th October 2012

Flight testing wrapup

Posted in Flight Test

To close out the flight testing, I juggled ballast around the cabin to explore the range of CG loadings.  With all the typical loading scenarios that I worked out, I can’t put the plane outside the envelope unless it’s over-gross; it never really gets close to the edges.  So, I worked weight back into the baggage area for aft CG testing, and repeated the stall series for good measure.  No surprises.  She really flies nicely.

With the temperatures turning colder as winter comes on, I put a strip of aluminum tape on the top of the oil cooler, to try and raise the oil temps up.  Since the variability of fall is unpredictable, I want to approach blocking it off in increments, so it doesn’t get too hot.

With just over 40 hours on the clock, I brought the logbooks up to date with the various engine maintenance, oil changes, replumbing, and so forth that had been done during the test period.  Then, wrote out and signed off the Phase I completion entry.  Free at last!

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