roll servo repaired?

As mentioned before, neither of the autopilot servos were visible to the Dynon system.  I had already discovered a completely incorrect wiring of the pitch servo (under the seat) and was successful at re-wiring it a few weeks ago.  With DLZ closed for July, I started working on minor issues that needed attention, such as the roll servo behind the main bulkhead.  

I discovered at least one wire had pulled out its socket on inspection.  Upon removing the servo itself, another 2 wires were found or were pulled loose as well.  I identified them as being the data channels, so that’s a logical reason for the servo to remain invisible on the networks.  New sockets were applied and the servo was re-installed.  Since the main computer is back at Dynon for repairs, power up testing will have to wait.

 

 

This is just a diagnostic photo of the plane’s side of the wiring harness.  Rather than trying to fit The Book into the back or running back and forth from the belly of the beast and my workbench, I just used this photo to verify that I had the correct pins & locations.

last flight of the summer! (sort of)

Last flight for a month! KDLZ is shut down as of tomorrow for "25 days" of unneeded runway work on behalf of JEGS, so they can land in wet weather. Well, I can't bitch too much, since it won't do any good. I took advantage of a great summer day to just have more fun. I really like shooting landings in this thing! So far, I haven't had a bad landing yet. That's not skill, that's luck.

Did some landings at DLZ, practiced entering a destination into the nav software and headed up to Marion. There, I had the field to myself and did another "cloverleaf" of Rwys 31, 7, 13 and 25 in order. Winds were 220 @ 8, but not really noticible in the plane. I'm actually looking forward to finding a nice crosswind to work with since I had such good luck a while back. Still having problems with the indicated fuel suddenly dropping to 0, 1 or 2 gals with the attendant verbal warnings.

During the summer shutdown, I'll be tacking that issue as well as a few items on my punch list. Of note, the Dynon 1000T gave me an error message that boiled down to "hard drive failing". Dynon had me send it back for warranty replacement. Good timing! The drive is sent out while the airport is closed. I'm on vacation for a week, but when I get back, I'll work on my punch list and hopefully have the main computer back before flights resume.  

“SYSTEM EVENT 5"

glider practice in the RV

more landings, just for fun. There's a definate improvement in my ability to predict float and make more precise touchdowns. right now, it's easy to not worry too much about undershoots, as Rwy 28 has a 500' displaced threshhold due to constuction, so even if I had touched down short of the line, it would be on runway, not an undershoot. As it turned out, I am still floating a bit or hitting the numbers. I had the prop stop again on rollout #5, so I decided to go with it as a concept and renewed my glider mentality. On pattern #6 I shut off the ignitions and slowed to about 65 kts to stop the prop. Ignitions back to ON in case I needed an in-air restart, and then glided to an uneventful landing. As expected, with the prop stopped there was even more float, but now I have an idea of how this plane really does behave in an engine out condition. 

Improvements

I pulled up the seat pan and tweaked the pilot’s roll push rod by 1 full turn to straighten up the stick.  Later flight test showed that to work very well.  

Looked at the pitch servo while I was under there and confirmed that there was good power to the servo with the appropriate switches on the panel.  Damn.  That was the easy fix I had been looking for. I pulled the servo and took a closer look, not really knowing what to look for.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that I had had a major brain malfunction when I did the wiring for the plug to the servo. Only the ground and power were in the proper position.  I’m amazed that I didn’t kill anything.  I pulled the wires, ordered replacement sockets and installed them a few days later.  On power up, I had the Dynon go through the system discovery routine and this time the pitch servo was recognized!

I turned off the autopilot and will not try it again until I pull the back panel and check out the pitch servo.  Since I wired them both on the same day, I’m pretty sure I messed that one up, too.

There were some problems installing the updated system software.  I couldn’t get the Dynon to recognize the package from Van’s.  Dynon tech support suggested a freshly reformatted memory stick and their distribution instead of Van’s distribution.  Uploaded just fine, so I’m now flying behind system 14.2.1.

My previous observations with bizarre winds aloft and inaccurate synthetic vision have a poorly calibrated magnetic heading as a common input.  I elected to not debug that any further until the system upgrade was done.  Having accomplished the upgrade, I did one more ground compass calibration and then an air confirmation calibration.   The installation manual wants to see a “quality” figure of at least 70, my unit reported Quality 120.  After that, winds aloft and synthetic vision are now much more believable and accurate, respectively. 

On June 30 (date of this post) I did 4 touch & goes at Marion (runways 31, 25, 13, 07. Great fun!) High approach DLZ 28 and overhead break with 360 to landing. Getting better at anticipating float and touching down nearer to desired spot. 

gradually pushing out the envelope

This blog kind of died over the last few months. Looking back, I realize that I wrote about each page in my assembly instructions, since each page represented a clear goal.  Now that I’m flying, I have lost that clear framework, so I’m doing something a bit different.  From here forward, I’ll use the blog to document flights and maintenance on the plane.  I’ll spend a few entries getting synched with my personal log book and the aircraft logbook.  I’ll use the blog as my electronic backup to the formal ships log books (airframe, engine & prop.)

 

Panoramic view of Ohio, 3500'

 

Attempted time-to-climb to 10K but had to abort due to high oil temps. Power off stall series; 3 each with no, half and full flaps. Sharp break to the right in all cases. Break speeds in high 30's, mid 30's and low 30's respectively. Good buffet and warning tones prior to breaks. Attempted power on stall, gave up with deck angle > 25 ° and heavy buffeting.

Noted that I was near Port Bucyrus, did some practice landings, including 2 on soft field. Returned to Delaware. Still noting apparant erroneous magnetic heading data, resulting in bizarre winds aloft depictions and mismatch between actual heading and synthetic vision displayed heading. Also had another episode of fuel level suddenly dropping to low (zero) values before eventually returning to normal. 

While at Port Bucyrus, I landed on grass strip 09, turned & departed 27. Landed 27, turned & departed 09. Both sides of grass strip notable for having homes & trees off end of runways, thus needed to make slightly high approach and drop in. This gives long float before touching down.  I had the throttle full back and the engine died during the rollout on one landing.

36-02 started wheel pants

I’ve been out of town for a few days, but was able get a quick flight in yesterday (in between two really heavy rain showers w/ occasional thunder & lighting.  I really like being able to see the weather and be able to make a quick, but safe, flight to confirm that the avionics really are confused about the heading vs. track.  I’ll have to re-calibarate the compass as my next step.)

 

fitted wheel pants

Alas, I didn’t read far enough ahead.  I dutifully fit the halves together, only to discover that the next step is to trim about 1/4” off of each front.  Lots more sanding to do!

early flights

Did I ever mention that it’s very inconvenient living 40 min away from the airport?  It is.  It greatly limits the amount of time I can spend taking care of the plane.

I’ve made a total of 4 flights.  Mostly just getting a feel how it handles (very well), but I’m still too distracted to do the formal fight maneuvers called out by Van’s.  Don’t worry, i’ll get it done, just not immediately.  I had planned on doing the ‘timed climb to 10,000 ft’ but got distracted trying to get flight following and I was blowing through 4500’ before I realized it.  I abandoned the “timed climb” and just enjoyed making it up to 10,000’ in about 8 mins, still briskly climbing at better that 550 fpm.

The squawk list (so far) is pretty short:

• pilot’s stick is too far left
• autopilot servos not recognized by Skyview
• winds aloft calculations very inaccurate
• pitot system leaks (probably affects winds aloft)
• weeping from front of fuel tank when > 15 gal

I still have some things to do (not squawks)

• install Angle of Attack probe
• install wheel pants
• install weather stripping

and some things I might do

• glare shield
• stabilator tips

and one thing that needs to be done

• get plane painted in August or September

 

talk to you soon.