Foggy flying!

Flew in medium fog this morn.  Too low to do my dirty birdy...did it once and the plane almost disappeared on one half loop back to me.  Flew the x5 twice.  Getting more relaxed with side flip to inverted, due to sim time.  Die hards Don, Bill, Ken, and Gary were there, but only Gary and I flew. They didnt like not seeing my dirty birdy in the fog at times, lol.

INTRUDER!

The Intruder performed flawlessly yesterday.  Only Ken, Bill, Don, and I showed up to fly.  That was likely due to the fog in the area.  It was a thin fog that had less ceiling than distance ,but it was flyable  so I was up first with the Intruder.  No problem but I did purposely stay closer for safety.  All my landings were on the mat...only the third one ran off the west end just a few feet.  The plane flew well.  The engine was fine except for a slight burble at the top of loops, which at that point put the OS90 four stroke upright.  Bill and I surmised that the engine is leaned out to run most of the time inverted, thus tends to be too lean when upright at the top of the loop.  I richened the engine one click and it seemed better on the third flight.  So I richened it one more click for the next outing.  Even though we were just four in number, it sure seemed to be one of the best days I have had there.  It was calm, the fog cleared but never went away, which probably helped to shield us from the sun which has been a PITA low in the southeastern sky, over the east end of the runway.  That resulted in the freedom to fly as far East as we wanted, a rarity.

Helis in the fog!

Well crap, it was foggy enough to screw my plans to try more inverted forward flight(FF) this morning.  At least i got to fly close in to psyche myself up, and as the fog thinned some, i did right roll flips to inverted, which I had not done before.  Easy peasy after doing it on the RF sim at home the last couple days!  I did the first couple on the X5, then a handful more on a  couple flights of the 7HV.  With the 7HV, i attempted left turn inverted FF, but the fog still was bothersome enough to make me chicken out.  Got 3/4 of a circle done once.  So its a good bit of progress for me...been plateaued a long time.  I was trying to start the inverted turns from my half loops to inverted, but for me that put the heli high where its harder to see.  Right flips are quick, so i dont begin the inverted turns as high as the half loop entry.  Anyway, now i am anxious to try the inverted turns with this new entry and based on getting the RF simulator working again and practicing there more too.  The year is not done, maybe i can make my goal of Learning inverted FF this year!

RV day

Yesterday, Ken, Bill, and I decided that today would be RV day, so they both brought their RV-4’s by Great Planes, while I brought my RV-8 by Hangar 9.  Virtually the same size planes.  I got in two flights, both good on takeoff and landings on our new mat.  Invariably I end up sitting with the guys and talking so i just don’t get many flights in like I used to at keizer.  Lotsa fun with this group of buddies.

Dirty Birdy

Sweet airplane, got in just two flights but sublime ones...the plane is so clean unlike its name, and it slips through the air on a rope.  Both landings were good.  One was completely on the runway til dead stop, the other ended a few feet off the end.  The second was IMHO the best final approach I ever had...gradual and steady with no noticeable bounces or wing tip bobbles at all, all the way to touchdown where the DB just stuck to the mat.  The fuel tube brakes help for sure.

Bravata day

I got the Bravata out again today.  Three flights were good.  All takeoffs were to the west away from the low rising sun, from the west taxiway, so i used only about 30’ of the matted runway for takeoff....the Bravata was usually off the ground in under 10’, lol.  Landings were all nice touchdowns but the darn plane doesn’t steer well immediately after landing.  All of a sudden the plane gets squirrelly and typically ends up running on the loose dirt shoulders.  A nice landing ends up looking like shit.  It never did that on grass.  Hmmmm, what to do!  No point checking toe in or out because the LG are super thick and stiff and won’t be adjustable.  The wheels seem to spin on the axles with similar friction.  I am thinking of just landing on the dirt/grass where the plane slows down fast and doesn’t seem to want to ground loop.  By next Spring we will have grass or something green covering the loose dirt we created with the runway mat improvements.

SNAFU and Ultimate

I flew the SNAFU yesterday three times.  Took it due to the ease of short landings to ensure I would not have issues rolling off the runway mat at Dallas.  Never touched the dirt shoulders or ends with the plane, yay.  It flew well with the change in prop from 12.5x3.75 (yes a weird prop for 3D applications) to a typical 12x7, both APC.  The OS52 FS ran like a top.

Today I flew the Carl Goldberg Ultimate 10-300 twice.  With landings into the wind (and under the very low rising sun), the plane landed once completely staying on the runway mat.  For the second landing, I had a little too much speed so the bipe came to a stop beyond the west end of the mat, but no harm was done on the dirt or gravel.  The plane flew great.  Starts were not real easy even with the new Align super starter!  The OS120Surpass tended to want to die when idled low enough to not roll on the mat, so I had to keep the idle speed up a bit.  Still, good flying!

More DB

Flew the Dirty Birdy again today to test the fuel tubing braking action.  It helped but all three landings still carried beyond the matted runway.  That was somewhat due to coming in hotter or not touching down as close to the beginning of the mat as I would have liked.  I tried moving the collars to apply more pressure to the fuel tubing, but it didn't make much difference.  Later, at home i used a harder tubing with a little thicker slices to hopefully create more friction.  So far I have only put the tubing on the main LG, and i might have to add it to the nose gear too.  My flying was ok, not very thrilling due to flying higher and further out to avoid the rising sun as it migrates southward for Winter.

Clean Dirty Birdy Today

Okay, the adjustments to the nose wheel worked well today.  I had more turning sensitivity so the DB would turn sharper...it turned around in 12’ instead of almost 24’, easily remaining on the new matted runway.  It also rolled straighter thereby making takeoffs and rollout after landing much easier.  While the plane rolled straighter, however it still rolled long, off the ends of the runway,  but it is relatively safe to roll off there, unlike the north edge of the runway.  In the air, the plane was great with the OS running strong.  One small adjustment I made for the third flight was to richen the low needle just 1/8 turn, and that seemed to stop the sputter and tendency to die when throttling up from low idle.

At home, I added thin rings of fuel tubing to the axles of the main LG to cause  braking action with the wheels and cause the plane to slow down faster on the runway.  Ken is using this method with success to slow his Stik with on the new runway.  Hope I got the wheels set evenly so that the plane still rolls pretty straight!

Helis only

Today I went to the Keizer field to fly helis only.  It was coldish and drizzly with hardly any wind.  Got in 2 flights on the X5 first, then 3 on the 7HV.  All good.  Felt comfortable.  No issues.  Still not feeling confident to fly inverted turns.  Have been at this plateau for at least two years!  Arg.

Flying Fun

Great time flying this week.  I flew on Wednesday with the old Giles 202.  That is a rocket with the OS 160FX two stroker screamin on the front end!  It flew well.  One landing was great, the first one.  Second one was too slow so the plane wallowed but landed ok.  I finally have figured out priming the beast for starting.  It needs a good dose of fuel in the carb to startup....it needs that wet squishy sound to be present before flipping with the glow plug hooked up.  I used to turn the prop over slowly with my finger covering the carb opening, over and over and over....many times over, lol.  This time I put the corks in the twin exhausts, plus put my finger over the carb as i turned the prop over.  Just a couple turns brought fuel to the carb and wet my finger nicely, and created that wet squishy sound.  Then i hooked up the glow, gave the prop a back flip or two, and the OS 160 came to life right away.  SWEET!  And the funny thing is just this same morning I ordered the Align Super Starter from AMain for this and other hard turning engines, lol!  Oh well, it will crank any engine easier than my heavy old tethered starters.

Yesterday was Thursday, and I flew the old Yak-54 three times at Dallas.  It flew well too, but my landings were again average.  Hit the first one perfect, then got to wallowing the other landings.  Just getting too slow due to the desire to stay on the new runway.  The dirt, grave, rock shoulders are brutal so avoidance is advised.  Hope the rain today helps to firm the shoulders up.