Antibodies

So just as I was writing the last blog entry, unknown to me, I was coming down with the Omicron variant. Three days before Christmas 21, my wife Karen, son Scott and I started showing symptoms. Pretty rough for a few days, but never felt in danger. Terrible timing though. No Christmas, New Years or time with the rest of our family. Awesome end to 2021. Antibodies for Christmas! So everything I mentioned about putting in a heck of a hard work week during shut-down - nope. So no one could come to the shop for half the week. But not taking chances, no crew all the rest of the week and New Years. Big reset on the schedule. That one full week would have gotten so much done - will take all of January and part of February to do part time what we could have done that week. But I am thankful. We are healthy again. Damn this covid stuff!

So when I could get back to the shop, I fabricated the templates and then parts for a heat-shield/boot cowl that goes between the engine mounting ring and the firewall. This keeps the hottest air outboard in the round cowling and sends it right to the cowl flap exit area. Shielding the ignition, fuel and oil systems from the hot exhaust. We are about to finish installing this shroud. I also added the fire extinguisher in the easiest and least obtrusive location. Then we added a lot of nut plates to the wing gap fairing areas. The crew has been slowly coming back in and working from time to time and it sure helps. Scott has been making progress on the landing gear components and they are looking awesome. Those large blocks will have a lot of 3D milling to get to final shape, but we had to get the internal geometry done while he had square edges to clamp to. He also just made a precision bolt for the control stick hinge on the lathe. The AN bolt and flanged bushings we originally used had way too much slop in the aileron system. Tolerances were way too loose. Then we also did a fuel flow test. Plenty of fuel is moving to the carburetor - 1 gallon in just under 2 minutes. We did find a fuel leak and had to pull some under-wing fairings to access and dry the belly up. It ruined some paint on those fairings. We have had fuel in the tanks before when we did the first engine runs and didn’t have the issue. It was a loose fitting that was snug, but not properly tight. So - double checked all the fuel fittings. We still need to go from the spinner to rudder and double check all hardware, cables, fittings, etc. for threads showing, cotter pins, torques. Most of it has been done, but want to double check prior to inspection.

Our engineers have been crunching the numbers and adjusting all the spreadsheets with our latest weight and balance data. Tons of work that they did over the break and it is ready to share with our test pilot and crew. Good news and bad. Good news is our projected cruise and dive speeds are pretty high. Our projected climb is not. We are heavy and it will impact the climb rate, stall speed and g loading. For this prototype, we mainly want to be safe to fly and it should be for sure. Will post the actual numbers as soon as we get them. I am anxious to see how far off our preliminary numbers are. We don’t have sophisticated software and things like cooling and parasite drag as well as actual engine and prop performance may make a big difference. We will work on reducing weight, optimizing structure to handle more where needed for the beta kit version of the airframe. None of this is unexpected. We knew going in that we would be heavy. We had no one to optimize the initial structure. Then again, I like robust, solid feeling aircraft. Flight testing will give us the empirical data we need to zero-in on the right performance.

Our current plan is to get the gear replaced and do a final weight and balance. Then get some good video and pics to show our followers. Then we will run it and taxi it to ensure all systems are ready. Then disassemble her and get it ready to ship to Florida for FAA/DAR inspection and the test flight program in March. Will have her in our booth at Sun N Fun all week. Word has it that we can fly her in the showcase daily during the show. It’s good to know people!