Posted below are the details of today's final phase one
flight. I'm truly at a loss to explain how I saw 3000 fpm yesterday,
because I sure couldn't do it today. I know I've seen 2500+ on a couple
of occasions before, but not today. Sorry to get everyone (particularly
myself) overly excited about the climb rate. I'm still not sure how I'm
getting 500 fpm less than Tracy, while running the same prop, and rpm. Oh
well, the testing will never really end, which is what keeps it all interesting.
10-31-04 1.9 hours / 40.0
total
I finished up the climb testing, and did some descent testing.
Unfortunately, I must have been seeing things yesterday when I though I saw
3000 rpm. Either that, or it was a bit of an extended zoom climb.
The real figure is 2222 fpm, which is almost depressing, but it was 85 degrees,
and I have full fuel, so I’m sure I can improve this with better
conditions. The goal is still 3000 fpm, but I’m wondering if
I’ll make it now.
The main climb test was done at 4000 ft. I started at 3500, then
established a climb at the designated speed. Once it was stabilized, and
I passed through 4000 ft, I recorded the reading from the VSI. This was
just to get an idea of the best ROC, without regard to the actual figure.
Climb testing : mph / fps climb
90 / 2100
100 / 2200
110 / 2000
120 / 1900
130 / 1700
140 / 1400
Since 100 mph was the best, I dropped to 1500 feet, established 100 mph
at full throttle climb, and timed how long it took to get from 2000 to 3000
feet. The average of a few runs was 27 seconds, which calculates to 2222
fpm. If nothing else, it shows that my VSI is pretty accurate.
I also did some descent rate testing around 3000 feet. Basically,
I went to idle, and noted the VSI descent rate at the following speeds.
Mph / fps descent
80 / 700
90 / 900
100 / 1100
I had added a trim tab to the (new) rudder, and found that it
wasn’t quite enough. It’s amazing the power it has
though. In high power cruise, I still need a little right rudder (added
more trim after the flight), but in descent testing, I had to add a bunch of
left rudder to counteract the trim tab.
I also tried to un-squeeze the trailing edge of the new left aileron,
to try to correct a little left rolling motion that was aggravated when I
replaced the aileron. It may have been a little better, but it still took
some trim. After the flight, I gently squeezed the right aileron a little,
so we’ll see if that helps more.
Finally, this concludes the phase one testing. I had to circle
around the area for the last couple tenths to be legal, but it’s
done. The airframe itself has behaved just as any RV should, and
since I did fairly through airframe testing on my previous RV-8, I was able to
get through the testing of this plane fairly quickly. Just
gotta love Van’s RV’s :-)
Now that the official time is over, I plan to pull the cowl, and do
some work on the oil temp scoop. I’m also going to vastly improve
the TB air inlet that’s in the right radiator duct.