It's an Airplane!

It’s an airplane! We are pleased to announce that we have flown the P-36 LiteFighter! We had two short flights on Friday, July 1st. The first flight was a single lap around the pattern and was cut short by high CHT readings. After discussing the situation and letting her cool down, Elliot Seguin took her up again for a longer flight and made around 6 laps of the flight pattern here at KWST. Low oil pressure cut the flight short and he made a second picture perfect landing. The flight lasted long enough to checkout the handling qualities and pull 2 g turns. Elevator and rudder are nearly perfect. Ailerons are light with neutral control forces. We have some good tips from Steve Wolf to adjust them for more positive feedback pressures.

We do have some issues to resolve. High CHT readings will likely mean a better baffling system in the cowl and possibly re-jetting the carburetor to richen it up at wide open throttle. The oil pressure drop was due to our air/oil separator/breather system siphoning out oil from the tank. NOT GOOD! The other main issue is the prop needs more pitch as it is over-speeding. This could be lending to over-heating with less ram air in the cowling.

The performance was hard to calculate as the pitot system was not reading correctly. Elliot was thinking that we could be 20% error on the airspeed indicator. We don’t have an avionics shop on our field anymore, so we called-in an Avionics Tech and he did a leak test on the pitot. He found our used airspeed indicator was leaking pretty severely. Buying a new one right now. The good news is the pitot tubing in the wings is leak-free and in good condition. So, we don’t have real numbers yet. Hang on! We’ll get em shortly!

We are already designing and fabricating the baffling. We are also experimenting with the breather exit to give it ram air. The exit may be creating a suction and pulling the oil out. The next step if that doesn’t fix it, is to add in an upper chamber to the tank to put the vent as far from the oil as possible. We will be re-jetting the carb and then adjust the propeller pitch for more bite. Re-pitching should help all around.

Yes, we have some squawks to fix, but so much went well that we are thrilled! The handling qualities are good and there are simple fixes to make it even better. The landing gear are very good, tracking is good, stable. The fore/aft wheel location is very good- balances well on the mains. Tail volumes and control authority is great. Elliot said “you have a great little airplane here!”

Sorry for not updating right away. We have been resting up after the flight testing. We spent two long days before he arrived on Thursday afternoon. We then went right into a thorough inspection which did find some issues needing fixing. After dinner, we hit them and worked till after midnight. Up bright and early Friday morning to finish-up for taxi testing. It was non-stop and we had forecasted gusty winds coming by late morning and Saturday was forecasted for T-storms - so not a minute to lose. We pushed for it and then after the second flight decided that we were done for the day - had to get these issues resolved before flying again. Had a great Italian lunch nearby the airport with the team. Went home and crashed. Been super wiped-out the rest of the weekend. I think it was coming down from the adrenaline - and the carbs! It was Sunday afternoon before I was feeling good again.

There were people who wanted to be at the airport for the first flight and my phone was ringing like mad - I am so sorry! I literally had no time to answer it or type a txt to anyone - we were pushing to get flying before the winds picked-up. They sure did and I’m very thankful to Elliot for the push to get it done. First flights are not to be done in gusty conditions - ever! Watching him go through his inspection and preparations, seeing his decisions and approach he takes to making them - all proves that we made the right decision. Thank you Elliot! He had multiple GoPro cameras mounted to the plane and is posting some awesome videos! Go to edseguin on Instagram, elliot seguin on facebook.

We also took video - not professional quality by far. Some of it is usable and we will post it shortly. The green OD camo actually tricked the cameraman when the plane was rolling. It was a super bright day and hard to see the plane through the view-finder. We will be working on getting much better video and sound.

Thank you to all our followers and friends! Thank you to all our team members and their families! We did it!

See you at Oshkosh - real soon!