First Flight. June
2, 2003 06:30
AM
Everyone is place. The F1 is already covered with morning dew
First flight.
Aircraft was positioned to the runway at 06:30 AM. Engine was shut down to
allow it to cool. Why? Recent taxi test had shown an undesirable tendency to
get hot very quickly during ground operations. After taxiing about 3/4 mile
to the departure end of the runway, the CHT would be around 325 deg F. This
certainly seemed warm and I attributed it to the new tight cylinders, tight
cowling and unknown baffle performance. It only seemed logical to get it to
the runway, shut it down, cool it off, and then after a cooling period,
crank it up and haul ass. This technique would give me a thermal advantage
of time so I could climb quickly a little longer and get that precious
altitude to make a safe return landing should the unthinkable
happen...ENGINE FAILURE!.
After carefully and repeatedly rehearsing the mornings flight profile, it
was time to separate the boys from the men. The profile would be flown like
this..
Max power takeoff, climbing at 90 knots to gain altitude as quickly as
possible. I figure all I needed was 25 seconds of power to safely make it
back in the event of an engine failure. At 400 feet a turn to the left down
wind would be started. Once reaching downwind and runway assured, the
airspeed would be increased to 115 knots to get some cooling for the hot
cylinders. Flight path would be a slow left circle around the approach end
of the runway eventually climbing to 4000 feet.
At 06:55 the chase plane, and RV-8 taxied by me and took off to position
himself overhead. To my amazement, a crowd of supporters had formed even at
this early hour despite my sincere attempts to keep this event a secret. 13
people showed up.
After the RV-8 took off, I cranked the big Lycoming up and taxied into
position. After doing the checklist card AGAIN, then quick run-up, it was
time.
I ran the engine up to 1500 rpm, eased off the brakes while straightening
my left arm. The little plane accelerated rapidly, pushing me firmly into my
seat. I held a little bit of back pressure on the elevator so it would fly
when it was ready. Oh it did that just fine, lifting off in a few seconds.
Holding the back pressure a bit longer, the nose came up to about 25 degrees
and up we went. I don't have any recollection of needing much right rudder,
or for that matter, much else, other than the smooth drone of the
engine/prop coming from up front. The big heavy Hartzell three bladed prop
was slow to accelerate to 2700 rpm, with it pushing me harder into the seat
as it got up to speed. It was missing was the whooooosh from the prop
governor kicking in, rather it gently stabilized at 2700 rpm. This was a
relief because there is no way to test the setting on the ground and what
RPM it would actually end up with was a mystery. I had however, a
contingency plane in the event of a drastic over/under speed situation.
Once airborne, after a few seconds passed, 400 feet went by and a small turn
to the left was initiated. Speed was steady at 90 knots, my ears were
popping from the high climb rate. A quick look over my left would confirm
that I could easily make the runway if the engine quit. A brief look at the
engine instrument confirmed that the CHT was real high already, 450 deg and
climbing. Damn, i thought. something is wrong. I made a power reduction to
25 squared hoping to cool the engine, but it was no help. Temp no was 475
and rapidly approaching the 500 degree redline. Damn.
At about 3000 feet I pulled the power way back to cool the engine. Back to
20 inches. No real help, other than the temp stabilized at 475 deg. At least
it was stable. I took a look around and all else seemed well. The engine was
smooth, the other gauges were in the green and the airplane was flying
straight and smooth.
My chase plane joined up and confirmed every thing looked good, so I put the
power back on and let the speed build. THIS was the ticket. The CHT dropped
quickly to 450 then 425 degrees. Still WAY too hot, but ok for now. I set
the power to 24"/2400 rpm to keep 75% power on. The speed built up to about
170 KIAS. Temps were in the green and to my utter amazement, the oil temp
was only 180 degrees. I was not expecting this as most rockets have oil temp
problems I thought the instrument was wrong, especially considering the
scorching cylinder head temperatures.
The flight test plan called for flight control evaluation and near stalls to
confirm air data accuracy. The controls were fine, a little right wing
heaviness noted. I slowed to near stall speed and did a beautiful full
stall. There was no detectable buffeting or warning, just a clean break. IAS
was 52 clean and 48 dirty. Right were it should be. By now it was rime for
landing. I made a slow descent over the airport until traffic pattern
altitude. Always turning and staying with gliding distance of the approach
end of the runway. Reaching pattern altitude, a big power reduction got us
slowed to 90 knots and the flaps were extended fully.
A steep left descending turn to the runway was made, the engine burbling
nicely at idle power. IAS 80 knots, a little slip on final to piss away some
extra energy and right over the numbers at 20 feet. A big flare to slow the
high descent rate brought the F1 to a smooth touchdown slightly tail high
from a three point stance. Ground handling was typical for this size
airplane, feeling very similar to a Citabria.
After pulling off the runway and shutting down the engine, I enjoyed a
moments peace before the dreaded chatter of my knees knocking began.
Yes I was having fun today!
Flight duration :36
Brakes released at 07:00.
The morning sun glint visible on the cowl as the F1 departs to the east.
Not visible in the picture, the cool swirling white vortices from the prop
tips,
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Flight test 1