Yesterday we have worked hard again replacing the now painted wing root fairings and what goes with it.
Calibrated the left tank as we have replaced the sender unit.
Also trimmed the baffle plates in front of cyl 1 and 2 and a number of other small jobs.
Then............. we decided to do a climb test. We did not do it at MAUW (not allowed to carry pax at this stage) but mainly to determine e few things.
1) Can we climb at full tilt on a hot day to FL whatever without having to step climb
2) Test all systems like ignition, fuel, etc at altitude because it can go wrong up there with the thinner air
Below is a picture still on our way up at FL164
Here is a picture of the EMS. See how close the EGT's and CHT's are. Then notice that we still had 16 inch of MAP.
The bigger oil cooler also did it's job as we never had to step climb. The 222 in this picture is the highest we have seen.
We have only varied the climb speed very slightly starting at a TAS of about 125 and ended with a TAS of about 95 kts.
And obviously I had to throw a lot of avgas into it's throat to keep it cool. Initially about 75 LPH and about 50 LPH at the top.
Oxygen and all!
The view from up there!
More RV grins after the flight.
The verdict - mission accomplished and NO problems!
ATC spoiled our fun at
17600 ft and could not accomodate us further up.
At that stage we still had a climb rate of
500 ft/min !
The average rate of climb from 5000 to 17600 ft was about
600 ft/min.
We had a data logger with us and I will prepare and post a graph later on.