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So much talk about gear ratios I thought I would relate my
flight today {:>).
Beautiful day today, no early morning ground fog, so
decided to go flying.
Area in front of the hangar has been torn up by
construction work around the airport and nothing but mud after a rain.
But, today it was dry enough to support an RV.
So took off and immediately hit the old spark plug SAG,
EGT drop down from 1600 to around 1450 on rotor #1, rpm decreased, same old
stuff - but always makes the seat cushion pucker when it happens during take
off. Aircraft still climbing at 750 fpm so not any danger - just NOT
FUN. This was with the new spark plugs (the ones I had just installed when
I had the apex seal failure on way to Sun & Fun last April), I finally got
up the nerve to put the back in the aircraft - they lasted 31 hours vs the
nominal 20 for the stock plugs before Lead gasoline induced fouling(i.e.
SAG).
As is usually, once your throttle back, the SAG goes away
and it did. Then turned east (into the sun) to stay out of the Charlotte
class B airspace. It was starting to get warm so I opened one of the
eyeball ventilation vents (did I mention that the construction had stirred up a
LOT of dust) and the cockpit was immediately filled with dust and debris
(straw mostly) blown out of the duct hose. The dust immediately (static
electricity?) coated the inside of the canopy which facing into the sun dropped
visibility to near zero. Immediately turned 90 deg to the direction of the
sun and could again see out the canopy.
Finally the dust and straw stopped flying and I had
a soft cloth to wipe off the canopy. So continued the flight. Then a
few minutes later I notice the vinyl cloth I had covering the top of the
instrument panel was starting to balloon up (apparently after 7 years the glue
had dried out) due to air apparently leaking in from the front of the
canopy. Put a water bottle and few other things on top and that held it
down.
Are you getting all of this Laura Crook?
Well, I guess the gremlins decided I was really committed
to flying today (checking out the accuracy of the new EFI monitor) and ceased
their activities.
Flew for an hour and found 0.01 gallon difference between
the gauge and what I refilled the tanks. So that part turned out
good.
All in all, a great flight - good landing and no damage to
aircraft or pilot, but a few things to clear up before flying to the RV Flyin
next week.
FWIW
Ed
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