David-aviator
Well Known Member
I finally got all the ducks lined up with the Lycoming and RV-7A and blasted off only to have to circumvent huge gaggles of geese along the Mississippi River near a planned refueling stop at KSET otherwise know as St. Charles County Airport. There must be a national convention going on with geese. Fortunately the RV is slow enough to have time to ID them and move out of their path, a jet hauling butt wouldn't have that much time.
The Lycoming is performing well. I am still adjusting to the much improved glide characteristics of the airplane with the fixed pitch prop - like the thing won't go down and slow down at the same time. It took forever to come down from 8500' after some 75% running for the break in. But it is beginning to fall into place. Worked several traffic patterns today and am getting the speed right on down wind so as not go sailing past the airport on final. Another notable feature of a fixed pitch prop is time to stop after touch down, same thing, the air plane would rather keep going than not. I also did a clean stall today, actually quit the attempt at 50 KIAS as the nose was very high and I remembered the relatively aft CG and, like this could end up in a flat spin. What was interesting is the airplane stalled clean at 56 knots with the Subby H6, now it is still flying at 50 knots. I guess that's ok. What it means is I can easily, safely fly final at 65 knots and 20 flaps.
The only issue after the flight was engine idle - it wouldn't. I talked with Kyle at AFP and agree that there may be some junk in the FM200 keeping the inlet ball from seating completely at idle which is causing the engine to flood. Also, turning on the boost pump makes it worse which would indicate the ball is leaking. It is an intermittent problem, it idled perfectly before take off and also during a ground run several days ago. I will try to flush it out with an extensive pump run tomorrow with the purge valve open. When above idle, it is not an issue except the engine can quit on final as it did on the previous flight in early February. I gentle nudge with the throttle and it came back to life instantly.
Flying is good medicine for this lousy economy....even a down market like today doesn't seem to matter that much.
The Lycoming is performing well. I am still adjusting to the much improved glide characteristics of the airplane with the fixed pitch prop - like the thing won't go down and slow down at the same time. It took forever to come down from 8500' after some 75% running for the break in. But it is beginning to fall into place. Worked several traffic patterns today and am getting the speed right on down wind so as not go sailing past the airport on final. Another notable feature of a fixed pitch prop is time to stop after touch down, same thing, the air plane would rather keep going than not. I also did a clean stall today, actually quit the attempt at 50 KIAS as the nose was very high and I remembered the relatively aft CG and, like this could end up in a flat spin. What was interesting is the airplane stalled clean at 56 knots with the Subby H6, now it is still flying at 50 knots. I guess that's ok. What it means is I can easily, safely fly final at 65 knots and 20 flaps.
The only issue after the flight was engine idle - it wouldn't. I talked with Kyle at AFP and agree that there may be some junk in the FM200 keeping the inlet ball from seating completely at idle which is causing the engine to flood. Also, turning on the boost pump makes it worse which would indicate the ball is leaking. It is an intermittent problem, it idled perfectly before take off and also during a ground run several days ago. I will try to flush it out with an extensive pump run tomorrow with the purge valve open. When above idle, it is not an issue except the engine can quit on final as it did on the previous flight in early February. I gentle nudge with the throttle and it came back to life instantly.
Flying is good medicine for this lousy economy....even a down market like today doesn't seem to matter that much.
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