Shortly after 9:00 this morning, on a beautiful day, RV-9A C-GCPT did what it was designed and built to do - fly! I rode along in the left seat as my engine builder - who has 14,000+ hours in about 170 different aircraft - handled all of the flying. We backtracked runway 17 here at CYQF (Red Deer, AB) to have all 7500' available. We only needed the first 1000' and then we were off and flying. The aircraft flew true hands off on the climbout and handled very well through the hour long flight. As expected, the new engine ran hot (CHT ~425F) for much of the flight but settled down near and below 400F after 40 minutes or so. Flight was done at or above 75% power.
We ran into an engine issue as we started our descent that resulted in losing power in cylinder #1. This was quickly diagnosed as a leaking injector line and we mitigated the fire risk by keeping the airflow high in the descent. Power came back as we landed without incident. A quick check after the cowling was pulled revealed that the nut at the flow divider had completely backed off and slid down the line. The flared end was still firmly against the fitting, so the worst it got was leaky. Certainly a serious issue that should have been caught by either of us.
Not much else for snags, we'll get it fixed up and back out for flight number 2 later this week.
Not much luck with video, but here are a few pictures from just before the flight.
We ran into an engine issue as we started our descent that resulted in losing power in cylinder #1. This was quickly diagnosed as a leaking injector line and we mitigated the fire risk by keeping the airflow high in the descent. Power came back as we landed without incident. A quick check after the cowling was pulled revealed that the nut at the flow divider had completely backed off and slid down the line. The flared end was still firmly against the fitting, so the worst it got was leaky. Certainly a serious issue that should have been caught by either of us.
Not much else for snags, we'll get it fixed up and back out for flight number 2 later this week.
Not much luck with video, but here are a few pictures from just before the flight.