Kockin' off the cobwebs

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:10 pm

I haven't flown (or even been to my hangar) since January 16th. Weather, time, money...it's all been limited for over a month, but today was PERFECT!! I have the weekend to myself with Brit gone to a dog show, the temp ran up in to the 50's, winds were low (good since I'm a bit out of practice), and I had some gas money to burn! I flew twice today, once in the morning for 1.2, then this afternoon for 1.3. This morning I just got out and toured the countryside, this afternoon I shot stop and go landings. After four or so stop and goes, I decided to clear the engine a bit, and ran on up to 11,500ft just for the hell of it. There was a patch of clouds to the northwest, so I went for those at 10,500.

Forgot my good camera this afternoon, so these are all iPhone pics.

Just leveled at 11,500, and the GS was climbing! With everything all squared away, I hit 200kts GS today!

And a shot of the city from 11,000 while descending.

It was SO nice to get back in the airplane after a little over a month goes by...

painless · Post by **painless** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:47 pm

I hear ya Chad! Flew over to Wausau and back to see my sister today. Smooth as glass both ways and I can even re-use the airplane! This after a month an a half hiatus.

I notice that you too have a cooler CHT on #4 cylinder. Any thoughts? Your CHT's are freakishly similar to mine today

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:24 pm

Cyl's 2 & 4 have always been cooler than the other two. I've analyzed this with the guys at work and the consensus is it's just a carb'd engine and with the induction being unequal, it is what it is.

Remember when we all flew with NO CHT gauges!!??

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:29 pm

way to go, I was thinking you must have forgot the combo to the hangar door.

I haven't been up in 10 days due to work and weather. but it gave me time to pull the cowl and find a broken exhaust hangar and type up a paper checklist.

gotta love the 200 club. Thanks for the pics, it gives me the fix I need until our weather breaks.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:12 pm

Man I am jealous! I think I'm moving when the Warrior 2 (ain't that grandiose sounding?

) I rent exceeds 110knots.

Love the Enigma. Am I reading the voltage right? 15.3/15.4 seems high.

Joe S>

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:35 pm

Funny you mention a Warrior Joe...a buddy of mine was out today in his and I happened to find him in the big sky and loosely formed up on him...had to throttle waaaaay back.

Yeah, I've messed around with the calibration for the voltage a time or two, hasn't changed. It's actually about 14.7, so as long as it doesn't move off of 15.3, I'm good...

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 5:19 am

Nice, Chad! I really like these little flight reports, and the BEAUTIFUL pics! Thanks for posting. It's very inspirational.

painless · Post by **painless** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 9:41 am

cjensen wrote:
Remember when we all flew with NO CHT gauges!!??

Ha, yeah. Fat, dumb and happy!

Funny..... That's how I still describe myself!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:35 pm

OH! I forgot to mention yesterday that I took my first "passenger" with me on the first flight yesterday...

As I'm getting close to the end of my 40 hours, I wanted to fly with some weight in the passenger seat to see how it felt. My friend Ben lent me two 80 pound bags of concrete mix, and we double vacuum bagged them to keep any chance of spillage at bay. I think I saw about a 200fpm difference in climb, and that was about it. My takeoff weight was 1638, so I still wasn't quite at gross, but it gave me an idea of what to expect.

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:52 am

Chad,

I'm really intrigued by the looks of your seatback brace, but it only partially shows in the last picture. Could you post a more direct picture of it, and tell us what you did? I looked on your website but couldn't find anything.

It's really nice! Thanks.

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:34 am

I'm betting it says RV-7 and has lightening bolts

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:37 am

I didn't post a pic of that somewhere???

Thought for sure I did. I kept it a secret for a long time, but thought I posted it when I put my interior in. I'll look for a better pic...Brian is right tho!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:41 am

I know I have a better picture than this somewhere, but you can kind of see it here-

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:30 am

cjensen wrote:I didn't post a pic of that somewhere??? Thought for sure I did. I kept it a secret for a long time, but thought I posted it when I put my interior in. I'll look for a better pic...Brian is right tho!

Well, you may have, Chad. I just didn't spend enough time to find it, if you did.

Pretty smart guy, Brian.

Chad, how did you cut the design out? And is that a 2-tone color or just an optical camera effect?

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:14 pm

I recall he had a similar design on his firewall, and thinking I should do that.

just another one of those things I failed to do in the heat of the moment. Wanted to polish the SS firewall also.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:24 pm

BSwayze wrote:Chad, how did you cut the design out? And is that a 2-tone color or just an optical camera effect?

I rough cut it with an electric body saw after drilling appropriate holes-

Then used jewelers files to finish it out. It's just red...the flash gave it a weird orange two tone look.

Post by **Spike** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:46 pm

Nice update Chad. Its very inspiring to see things like that. 200kts on 9 GPH is a very slick proposition.

When are you going to start updating us on the new project?

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:02 pm

Still studying plans...gotta get the rest of the Saab out of the garage, hopefully in the next three weeks, then reorganize the garage, build AL storage racks and a new work table...then I'll start playing with metal again.

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:47 pm

I finally got up after 3 weeks of crap weather. We had some wind above 6500, but was hoping to climb up a get a 200kt GS picture. No joy for that though it was just too rough up there for any speed. Dang mountains, anyway! I did see 197kts GS while at 24", 2350rpm 175kts True.

Guess I better try again tomorrow after work. Got my fingers crossed for smooth air.

Post by **bullojm1** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:29 pm

I too just had a 3 week sabbatical from flying. I thought I could *easily* get my wheelpants installed in a weekend. Well that was completely wrong and took the good part of 3 weekends to finished the installation. Sunday, at 5:15pm, with 45 minutes of sunlight available my wheelpants were to a state of being flyable. Quick fuel up and then a launch for 3 quick takeoffs and landings in the pattern. Each takeoff was followed by a terrible bouncy landing. Perhaps 45 psi was too much air for the tires, or maybe my skills were rusty.