Stick to the Plan

Hey guys and gals. So our plane is ready to fly - in my opinion. We have been working on the engine and propeller balancing as we needed to reduce the vibrations and had access to a test unit. If we never had hooked up the test unit, we would have been fine with the level of vibration - just quickly pass through the rough range. So glad we have done the work to dynamically balance her. Very much improved. There is still some vibration and Kamil Verner is thinking it is the type of propeller we are using. It is a one-off from NR Prop in Kiev. It is all carbon composite with no core. We are finding that having a wood core with composite overwrap is much better for vibration dampening. We are talking with Mika Jurka from All for Aviation in the Czech Republic. They have just flown their A6M Zero replica with a Verner 9 cylinder engine and WoodComp three bladed, electric constant speed propeller. We will likely purchase a propeller from WoodComp to see if that makes an improvement. This propeller looks awesome though! Again, it is good enough to fly with.

We have been tempted to fly the Hawk and all the locals are wondering if we are scared to do so. No, not one bit! Actually I am chomping at the bit for my turn! We have had an unusual stretch of fantastic flying weather for the last few weekends and it has been killing me to just test her on the ground. We have been slowed from flying by scheduling issues with our test pilot. He has to finish up work he is currently doing and some training that was scheduled. Over the last three weeks, we have debated the merits of sticking with the plan we have had for 6 months and wait for Elliot, or jump in and do it ourselves - as our DAR suggested. I was getting pretty frustrated and ready to just go, but had a long talk with Paul and he was not in favor of changing the plan for schedule pressure. Not a good sign and I agree with that sentiment. Even though I pretty much had convinced myself to just get going. We have 40 hours to fly off before we can fly it to Oshkosh. Or, we have to trailer it again.

Its a lot of work to disassemble and load it, reassemble for the show, disassemble in a hurry before dark after the show and load it. Then reassemble it back at home and basically have to do a condition inspection again before flying it. It is also not just taking the wings off. We have to remove the entire tail as well as its’ too wide for the trailer. Elliot mentioned that we should just trailer it no matter what. That a new aircraft with a brand new engine is not a sure bet for a long cross country flight. “it doesn’t always work out well.” He also said that our customer’s don’t care if it flew-in or was trailered-in either. No one will be watching our beautiful landing. Very true. I actually was more worried about the condition of the highways - they are terrible across the North. So then the plane will be getting another fatigue testing regimen via trailer. Arrgh!

So we are going to stick with the plan and will likely have to trailer the plane to Oshkosh. I have to gear up for that as we are under-staffed for the show. The plan is for Elliot to get here and put her through the paces and put 5 to 10 hours on her and get us the data we need to inform the kit design - and in order to publish performance numbers our customers can believe. Anything sub-par will be addressed in the kit version of the plane. Then, I will take over and fly her for most of the rest of the 40 hours required of phase 1. We will likely get Elliot or another acro-rated pilot to fly the aerobatic and difficult maneuvers. Hopefully, if all goes well, Elliot can do some or all of those maneuvers while he is here. No idea how that will go down.

So, he has agreed to get here late Thursday of this week and stay through the weekend if needed. Weather looks pretty good with T-storms on Saturday and maybe a shower early Sunday morning. First things first, we will be giving the plane a condition inspection. We just passed the airworthiness, but this is more for Elliot to get to know the machine and another set of eyes on everything. Im sure there will be something we should do better or safety wire. So Friday will be mostly that and then putting all the covers back on and prepping for ground and flight testing. Im excited to get going! We have been cleaning and organizing the hangar - much needed! Will keep you posted!

What's the Hold Up?

Updated - see below.

I know, I know. We haven’t flown yet. Sorry! So we have been doing a lot of engine runs and taxi testing. What is slowing us down from going is: we are getting a good amount of dynamic vibration in the engine and propeller. We borrowed a Dyna-Vibe propeller balancer setup from a local pilot and that unit is showing that we are getting from .8 to 1.6 inches per second of vibration from this engine and prop. We have run dozens of combinations and attempts at counter-balancing with no good results so far. Still working it! The worst vibrations as felt in the cockpit are between 950 and 1250 rpm and then it smooths-out by 1400 and feels good thru 1700. Starts to get a little bit at 1800 but nothing as bad as at 1150. The Dyno Vibe is saying that range is really bad too and that the 1600 is bad - tho I don’t feel it in the cockpit. We are statically balancing the propeller to eliminate that as a source. Then will test the compressions on the engine and see if a cylinder is causing the vibration. We can’t do too much if it is the internal engine parts (like the crankshaft counterweight) other than adding propeller flange counterweights. We are following the advice of a few experts on dynamic balancing and it really should not take this much time and effort. Steve Wolf, Brian Kelly and Mark Taylor all started their balancing at worse IPS’s than we are getting and all managed to get the vibrations down to .25 IPS or less with counter-weights. We can do it too. Wish us luck! The good news is that we have learned a lot about static and dynamic balancing. It is not as easy as should be! Will post some images over the next few days.

Update (6/22/2022): we had to statically balance the propeller. This caused us to create two kinds of propeller balancers. a horizontal one and a vertical suspended one. Interestingly, both told us that one blade was heavier and one was light, but not exactly the same weight. Im thinking it is small in-accuracies in the test rigs. We then invented a method of adding weight to the hub for the static balancing and then adding weight for dynamic balancing on a separate ring of the spinner base. Our latest runs show we are dialed-in at our 1800 rpm cruise setting. 0.016 IPS. We are still getting heavy vibrations at 1050 to 1300 rpm but that is even down to under 0.7 IPS. We can read the instruments in all throttle settings. Good enough to fly! Our compression testing has shown that all the heads are within 10 of each other, but wondering if that amount is enough to create some vibration and mess with us. This is a new engine and the rings still need to take a set which should stabilize the compressions and the blow-by in the oil breather system. Talking with Elliot about coming on out to fly her. She’s ready! STAY TUNED!

Got it!

Most of the crew spent a large portion of the Memorial Day weekend working in the hangar to prep the P-36 for our airworthiness inspection on Tuesday, the 31st. Thanks guys and gals! You rock!

The weekend was spent going over and over the inspection checklist and finding discrepancies - then fixing them. It really is a good exercise and we found more than I thought we would. Every nut, bolt, washer and cotter pin was double checked and then checked off the list. We had to add a few additional cockpit placards with one of those electronic label makers. We will probably replace those later with more appealing labels. We decided to safety wire the prop bolts and clip the rudder cable turnbuckles. We were adjusting those items but better to have it all for the inspection. Will likely have to do more adjustments when getting her ready to fly.

Didn’t sleep much over the weekend and was rather shot, but energized as well. We were a bit worried that we might have to spend the week changing or fixing things that would fail the inspection. I was rather worried on Monday morning that we would not be ready. I even asked the DAR if he had any time later in the week. Nope, book-up. I told him: ok, we will be ready! We had a lot of issues to resolve on Monday. Including our fuel gages were not working. That was one little test we never actually did in the last few weeks. To be honest, we were only using a small amount of fuel in the tanks for our engine runs and the needles were bouncing at the bottom - thought that meant they were working. We filled the right tank to top to verify quantity for the labels on the fuel caps. Gage still showed empty. Oh no! Scott found the issue with the wiring on Sunday night and Aaron came Monday and fixed the wiring. We were worried about the calibration, but were relieved to find they are reading perfectly. Fixed!

My family had decided to watch Top Gun Maverick at an IMAX theater in Providence, RI at 1pm on Monday. I was doubting I was going to be able to make that. We ended up doing so well Monday - Aaron, Paul, Gary and myself, that they guys said I had to go to the movie and take a break. I kind of reluctantly agreed - I did need a break. Stressin’. So I left and booked-it to the theater and got there on time. WoW! It kinda blew my mind! The IMAX is so visceral and the sound system is off the hook! I found myself getting a bit emotional - way more than I was ready for. Again, maybe I was so stressed that it manifested itself with the total immersion experience. I have to say - I loved that movie! Just go see it! After some Tai noodles for dinner, right back to the hangar. Glad too, we finished up a couple items. Then was up late finishing some of the forms and uploading them to the FAA website.

Tuesday was a working day for our team members, so they couldn’t be there. It was going to be a hot sunny day and it was. Scott, Gary and I were there early. We pushed the plane out, swept and then pushed her back in. We had all the covers off and one more glaring thing to do that we knew of. The dang turnbuckles. I had not been able to find the safety clips I had purchased for them years ago. The FBO was open and super busy - I ran over there and sure enough, they had some and I finished the squawk list right before the inspector arrived - by RV 7.

Our DAR Jon Ross and his buddy with the RV 7 flew in from Long Island, NY. Jon was asking a lot of questions about the design, the build, the engineering and I was answering the questions. He was liking the answers and agreeing on many of our decisions made. He gave the Hawk a good look over and he knew what to look for - what mattered. He liked what he was looking at. Then, to my surprise, he asked us to install the cowling - wanted to see what she looked like. We did and then he wanted to see the engine running.

We pushed her out onto the ramp and chocked the wheels She fired right up and that’s when I knew we passed. He had a big grin on his face hearing that radial fire-up. “That’s the perfect engine for this plane!” We finished up the paperwork - which took a long time as the printer was not working. Finally debugged that and he printed out our Certificate. Fist bumps all around! Got it! YES!

Jon’s RV-7 buddy said he wants a kit. Grinning ear to ear when the Verner fired-up. This guy is a retired flight test engineer. “Just use the test cards and go slow. Get someone in to do the aerobatic maneuvers”. They were a part of creating the EAA’s Testing Guide - on the FAA’s side of the work. This airplane is pretty basic, so as long as it flies well and stable, will be easy to do the testing. I think they can tell this airplane looks right and that means it should fly right. Paul has input our data and modeled our bird in X-flyer. She flies pretty good in the simulation. We want to dress it out and make it available to you later. Right now its just a grey shape - no detail and the cockpit view is from an F-18.

We are debating the testing internally with the team now. Since this is a non-cert engine, the operating limitations are requiring 40hrs of Phase 1. We don’t have any time to waste. We have to get her flying and going through the test cards any time she and the weather are good to go. I feel confident in the plane and have no fears of flying it. We do want to do this professionally though and I’m not a test pilot.

For now - GOT IT!

It's about time!

We are finally about to get our Airworthiness Inspection with a local DAR right after the Memorial Day weekend. Pretty confident we will pass. There are a few things we still need to do and we will be busy all weekend working those items. I know - It’s about time! There are a number of reasons its taken way longer than expected to get here. Will save you the time - most have to do with other obligations and the day job getting in the way for our whole crew. Resources are limited and it is amazing how far we have come with the resources we have had. Our Verner Motor dealership has really made the difference for us - it sustained us through some pretty tough sea states (rough waves). The team is excited to be getting ready to fly. I sure am!

So what’s left to do? Our engine runs have been getting better and better. We are still blowing out a lot of oil from the breather. So we need to inspect the situation some more and see if anything requires fixing. It is likely just from blow-by of the new piston rings and possibly too much oil in the tank. That shouldn’t stop the inspection though. We are replacing some hardware for sure in the landing gear and checking all hardware on the plane to be compliant. We did use proper hardware throughout, but we will take a good look at it - might find something. Then there are misc. tests to do and some paperwork to scan and upload to the FAA on-line application.

We had replaced the landing gear before SNF 22 and had a rough trailer ride down and back. What we have discovered is that the Delrin sleeves are bending and distorting and that is allowing the lower gear legs to lean outward a smidge - its not much at all - but bugs me. Going to take a good look at them and see if anything we can do about it. It should be ok for taxing and even flight, but might cause excessive wear. We are planning to develop Oleo landing gear legs and we already have a backup plan to turn these legs into oleo if required. That will slow us down some if we have to do it and I don’t want to slow down the first flight - unless it’s necessary. Safety first!

When we got back from the show, we took a break to catch-up on sleep and all the neglected things at home and the shop. Then we got into finalizing calcs for the wing structure. This took a couple weeks to do as everyone has been slammed with our day job - Electric Boat. The Navy is pushing EB to get them submarines - faster! Our calculations are showing that we have a marginal tear-out condition at our bolted wing joint and to be ultra-safe, we are going to limit our G loading on this prototype. We can redesign the joint to eliminate the issue (thicker brackets) - but very hard to do on this example - this far into the build. The fuel tank installation is preventing us from replacing the inboard side of the joint. So we would just build new wings and we are planning to build a new kit production prototype anyway. So it will be done on the next example. On this one, the team decided to keep the bolt size originally called for and installed the final wing attachment bolts and did final wing installation for ailerons, pitot, lights, covers. Then we did a final weight and balance test after everything was back on the plane. Heavy as expected. We will do a weight reduction/optimization review for the next airframe and the kit design. Should be able to loose 30 pounds or more. We have learned a lot about this machine and how to do it better next time.

After that, Scott machined the brackets needed and we installed the canopy latch - it works great! We had replaced the brakes and had no time before SNF to get them working. After servicing them, they are working pretty good. Will know shortly during a taxi test if strong enough or too much. As a taildragger, I’d rather have too weak and just plan to slowly slow down. I do want them to be strong enough to break the steerable, full-swiveling tailwheel free from the detent and caster the plane around on a dime. Steering is by steerable tail wheel and rudder, then differential braking if needed.

Well, here we go. Final stretch on this airplane. Get her inspected and then flying! Will be posting videos. Look for one shortly of our most recent engine runs. It’s About Time!

Sun N Fun 2022

SNF 22 was a great show for us. We were one of the busiest booths in our area for sure. I would say we had as many or more people through our booth as we did at AirVenture last year. We met so many people that are following us. If you made it to SNF and checked us out, please send me an email at: swatrous@scalebirds.com

We had the P-36A on display and our tent setup had brochures and business cards and shade. It was very warm and windy until the storms on Thursday, then cooler and windy. Lots of wind this year. We had our usual flags and signs. The plane was looking great and we were ready Tuesday morning. Wham, they started the show and we were busy from the start. We let a lot of people sit in the cockpit and almost everyone actually fit. Somebody was too tall and one guy was too wide - his shoulders were like 5 inches wider than the canopy rails - football or rugby kind of guy. He did sit in it tho, just couldn’t close the canopy. Most were surprised at how roomy the cockpit was. We didn’t have any brochures of the P-36 until about Friday morning. Scott brought his laptop and worked on it during the week to get a nice one done. Will link it in the website. We ran out of business cards and the new brochures Sat and made more for Sunday. We were that busy!

I was amazed by the number of actual warbird pilots, owners and mechanics that stopped by and checked out the P-36. Thank you all. All of them really liked it and we may have won some kits sales from them. The real stuff is so expensive, they cannot just play with them. Heck, the cost of one of our kits is like a propeller blade. They appreciated that the feel of the plane is very WW2 and told us that we got it right. The Verner on the front and the cowl flaps was what really caught there attention. The cockpit completed the deal for them.

We had several interviews and good press coverage - despite not pushing for it yet. We had been graciously offered to be highlighted by the SNF media - we turned it down as we are just not quite ready for a big marketing push. Total concentration on getting her flying and get the real data and adjustments made to the kit design. The idea was a soft launch at SNF and then we will do a full launch at AirVenture 2022.

We worked some heavy hours to get the P-36 ready for showing and we made it. She was absolutely done - except for two parts. The canopy latch mounting bracket and the spinner. There literally was no time left to make those before the show or we would have. Scott finished up the landing gear parts and everyone pitched-in to assemble and install them onto the plane. Having the new gear legs was critical path. I am super excited that they not only look awesome, they seem to work better and stayed straight and true through the trailer ride to and from Florida. No, we couldn’t fly her down. Had to take her apart and load her into the car hauler box trailer we own and drive her down to SNF. Believe it or not, highway 95 is terrible in many locations. I thought NJ was rough roads, SC and GA had some terrible spots. We had real time fatigue testing on the airframe. Airplanes should not be treated like that! We will be inspecting everything in the next two weeks as we are pushing for the FAA airworthiness inspection. So far, initial observations show no damage except for a wing tip. There is always risk of trailer rash and I can’t wait to be able to fly the plane to shows instead.

Not everyone of the team members could make it to SNF this time. Aaron, Scott, Karen and myself did make it. A super treat was Aarons parents came to the show and stayed with us for a couple days. We put them right to work! Great support and advice! Shin was planning to fly-in Thursday night and stay till Monday, but the weather Thursday was terrible and the airline canceled his flight. Nothing available till Saturday night so it wasn’t worth it for one day at the show. Karen was scheduled to fly home on Thursday and that was canceled as well. It worked out well as she booked a flight on Friday and her and Aaron flew back on the same flight, same row. Aaron had rented an economy car and was given a convertible Mustang. That never happens to me. A bit jealous. So they could ride together and that helped the booth staffing on Friday. It was just Scott and myself Friday afternoon and then Sat, Sun and I was surprised at the amount of customers the final weekend. Not just the local airshow people, but seriously interested buyer types.

We had a lot of interest in the Verner Motor line of radial engines. I would say they are getting to be popular with all sorts of sport aircraft. Karen and I were invited to the Hatz Association lunch on Wednesday and we were treated very well. Steve Wolf and Kevin Kimball were guest speakers. So great stories and info about the Lockheed Vega restoration Kevin’s shop is doing. Steve and Kathy Hirtz had just had their anniversary a few days earlier and the group surprised them with a cake. Great time!

Scott and I were staying in FL a few days after the show, so we broke down the booth on Monday and with just the two of us, took most of the day to pack the trailer - in strong winds. We then had dinner with Steve and Kathy. Spent Tuesday with Steve and he took us to Kevin’s shop at Tangerine field North of Orlando. I was in heaven. Kevin, his dad Jim and his son Kallin gave us a tour while Steve was bending up some spar web blanks for the elevators on his P-47D project. They showed us their CNC machines, old school tools and the Vega project. It is so much cooler in person than the videos of it. We also saw some Stearmans and one was an Air Mail model. Award winners and perfect in every way. Steve’s P-47 project is stunning too! It will no doubt be the best replica of a P-47 ever! I wanted to stay another day with Steve and go see his buddy Jack Hallet, but I had to get to NC to work on a customers aircraft and get his 3V motor running for him.

We did stop in and see Brian Kelly in Spruce Creek since it was on our way to NC. Had to check out his RV-8R engine installation and cowling efforts. Looking great and should be flying about now. He loves the power of the Verner 9S, but he is having cooling issues, so the flights are super short - no time to get real performance data. It climbs a lot better though. He is modifying the cowling and baffling to get improvements. Some of those are causing more drag, so top speed is suffering - again, only short flights so hard to tell. Im guessing he will get the bugs worked-out pretty soon. Brian gave us a golf cart tour of Spruce Creek - that was a real treat as I’ve always wanted to see the place. Very cool! After that we drove to Elizabethtown, NC.

Our new customer in NC has a JH Aircraft, Corsair ultralight with a Verner Motor 3V engine installed from the factory in Germany. He also has the trailer for the airframe. This is the first production example in the US. The customer contacted us for help with getting the aircraft flyable. He spent a ton of money and was taken for a ride. The engine wouldn’t run and never was run to full throttle. The dealer had held onto the airframe for almost a year before delivering it. Tried to get it flyable but didn’t read the manuals and could not figure it out. So, in the interest of helping him and Verner’s reputation, we worked on the craft for two full days to get the engine running again. The dealer support was non-existent and one of the dealers helpers had even bent a wingtip bow with a hammer! Buyer beware! After trying to run the engine and failing to do so, it turned-out that the fuel system was the primary issue. We had to relocate the fuel selector and hoses - it was above the fuel tank and had an air bubble the pump would not overcome. Then disassemble and check the carburetor - which was fine after all, and adjust some wiring and install a new battery. The dealer had tried to jump start the engine and this ruined the lithium battery. Plus, a lot of head scratching and figuring. The throttle was a T handle on the instrument panel, terrible as you can’t make fine adjustments to rpm. The 3V will shake at low rpm. The graphite tubing space frame of the ultralight Corsair allows the instrument panel to shake wicked bad. So, we got it running, but not fine tuned. The owner will need to address the fuel tank leaks and the throttle has to be replaced with a quadrant style. Then we can go back and work on the engine mixture to get it flight ready. We learned a lot about what not to do in designing an aircraft.

We got back late Saturday night and had Easter with family. The P-36 is now safely in its hangar at the Westerly State airport in RI. I need to clean the hangar and re-assemble the plane. We have to prep for our inspection and then flight testing. We will start posting videos of the process and first flights for sure. So buckle-up and hang on!

Heading South

Looking forward to seeing all of our old friends, and making plenty of new ones, down in Lakeland this coming up week at Sun ‘N Fun!!! To avoid “burying the lead” I wanted to start out by letting you all know we will be at Booth N68 right outside of Buildings A and B this year with the COMPLETED P-36 Litefighter!

It has been a hectic two months trying to button up all of our open actions on our whiteboard to get to first flight, as well as playing whack-a-mole with new ones (since when does two day shipping take two weeks!?). But on Tuesday this week we finished the last few items, turned all of the systems on and off, did our preflight walk through, paused for a quick celebration, and the proceeded to start disassembling the aircraft so that we could load it into the trailer to head down to Sun ‘N Fun. Sam and Karen are already en route with the truck and trailer, making a pitstop to help one of our Verner customers to help get his engine up and running. I will be flying down in a few hours, and Scott and Shin will be joining us later this week.

Two final things: (1) Wednesday was Sam’s birthday, so if you see him this week, wish him a happy birthday! (2) Sam is a perfectionist and would want me to add the disclaimer that the plane isn’t technically complete, we still have to install the second generation canopy latch and replace one bolt which is the wrong length in the landing gear. But other than that, we are ready for our first flight after Sun ‘N Fun, and are looking forward to a great week!

Closing In

We are closing in on finishing our prototype P-36 Hawk LiteFighter. A few more landing gear and misc. parts to finish-up. Our plan is to do that within a week. Then we want to do some engine runs, taxi testing and systems checks from our hangar/base at KWST. Then pack her up and haul the plane in our box trailer to the Sun N Fun airshow for display. Right after the show, we will take her to Leesburg Florida for ground testing, FAA DAR inspection and then flight testing in mid April. Our goal was to fly her before SNF, but the reality is what it is plan now is to be ready to fly right after SNF and stay in FL until we are sure she can fly back home to CT. I don’t want to disassemble her again and trailer it home. That is the backup plan if scheduling conflicts or systems issues arise. We have a hangar lined-up at KLEE and the DAR is available. I can’t wait to get down there in the sunny warm weather! The landing gear parts are taking longer than anticipated, but are coming out great! Not something to rush. We are getting our punch-list items checked-off and making great progress.

What we have been working on: Besides working on fabricating landing gear parts: we finished the heat shield/boot cowl and added all the nut plates to it and the cowl support frame. Installed the GPS and ADSB units, cables and antennae. Ran the engine again - has been a while now. - carb and propeller are still not dialed-in. Installed the arm rest and map box, with map light. Designed and fabricated the retractable landing light assembly. New temper foam seat cushions and covers. Worked on our control stops. Added stops for elevator and rudder systems. Drilled and reamed the spar bolt holes at the inboard to outboard wing joints. This was a big job due to designing and fabricating a jig to drill these in-place on the plane. Note to self - change this to a milled assembly for the kit! These bolts are tight-tolerance, high-shear bolts. The joint has to be perfect. Got it done! Installed the wing gap strip covers, nut plates and tensioning system. Swapped out our dual CHT gage for an EGT/CHT gage and added an exhaust sender and firewall poke-thru. Designed and fabricated the canopy latch and mounting brackets and the push to talk switch installation on the control stick grip. Made a new hinge pin for the control column too - no slop at all now. During this effort, we also had to upgrade the hubs, wheels and tires on our trailer and fix the side door latch. Replaced the Garmin backup camera on the truck as well.

This week: Finish the landing gear parts! Then primer and paint them. Then lift the front of the plane and swap the gear legs out. Bleed the brakes and complete their install. Finish the canopy latch brackets and install the latch. Install the landing gear light. Adjust the ailerons for proper travel and balance. Next week we will run the engine and dial in the carburetor jetting and then propeller pitch. Re-check all the systems.

Then the following week: disassemble the airframe, load into the trailer. Pack the trailer with all needed parts, tools, equipment and the booth tent, signs and banners for the SNF booth. Drive! We will be bringing our GoPro’s and gear for making videos of the process. Will post asap. Closing In on it!

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!