Notre avion

First nav

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:28:33 +0200

Today, first small cross-country flight to Brienne le Chateau ex NATO airbase now dedicated to parajumping.

I had the camera on the wingtip but the recording failed. We didn't take any still pictures either.

In total 1h30mn of flighttime today.

First passenger

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:30:00 +0200

The official papers are here, the timetable had a slot and the weather was great for Sabine to have her first flight ine our plane. We just fleq around Nangis, did some slow and fast flight and some steep turns. She enjoyed every minute.

Last flight test

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:50:00 +0200

Today, I first tried to troubleshoot my OAt problem. I replaced the wire from the probe to the cockpit. To do this I had to remove the floors, the fuel pump fairings, the wing access panels. All seemed to work, but onve everything was reinstalled, the temperature still does not work. I'll see again next time.
I managed to make a 45mn flight which closes the official test phase.
This is a picture taken recently by a friend.

Longest flight

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:30:00 +0200

I found a problem with a connexion on the pitot line and after that I went flying. The authority requests a long flight so I stayed aloft for two hours. I pushed the enveloppe by climbing to 6500ft measuring speeds and fule flow.
During the descent I reached max speed of 195kts for a 200kts red line.
I then did some corsswind landings, there was some light trubulenc which needs the pilot to stay focused to land properly. I will have to train a bit more to be really comfortable.
I still have to fly 40mn in the test program before flying with the first passenger.

Flights 12,13,14,15 and 16

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:13:24 +0200

I reinstalled the EFIS, it works corrctly but I know have a problem with the speed indicators, they are underestimating the speed. I think there is a problem with the pitot line. I made some short flights to troubleshoot but without success.
I however managed to add 1h45mn to the total flight time

11th flight

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:50:00 +0200

During todays' flight, I checked the performances with wheel pants on. For sure the plane is faster. At full throttle I knwo reach the 2700 rpm engine limit and read 165 knots.
I gained between 8 and 14 knots depending on RPM. At 2300 RPM, I stll fly at 140 knots.
Stall speeds ar unchanged. Flying out of trim in case of trim failure needs some attention but is doable.
Only problem is the left wheel fairing I found cracked after the flight due to some bonfing issues or to some tension during assembly.

Two more flights

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0200

I managed to make two flights and add 1h40mn.
As climbing to altitude was not possible, I tested the autopilot. Somme tweaking to be done but it's working correctly for the time being.
Before flying I found why the VOR had a very small range, the antenna was not correctly connected.
I also found why I might have problems with the calibration of the right magnetometer, my PDF is working in reverse on the pitch axis. I'm wainting for some news from the manucfaturer.

Flight 7 and 8

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0200

Today, I made two flights addong 2h15mn.
I made the first stalls. No flaps stall occurs at 47 kts with somme buffeting at 49 kts. With full flaps, the stall speed was 42kts. There is no problem during the stall, a small preference to dip the left wing and the plan flies again as soon as back pressure is released.
I made 9 landings, made some notes on performances.
On the second flight Jeremy and Remy flew a loose formation (I'm not trained for this) and made som pictures. They were taken from some distance.
I will try to add a video if I have some time to edit the takes.

5th and 6th flight

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:10:00 +0200

Temperatures are too low to work in the hangar, but the weather is sunny so I went flying. I managed to make two one hour flight. Still the same problems : the OAT not working and the VOR reception being lower than expected.
For the second flight I made some go-arounds, some touch and gos, tested half flap landings. On the last landing, ths flaps got stuck due to a blown fuse. This is a known problem, I replaced the the 5A fuse with 7,5A.
A small video about the flight.

Fourth flight

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:03:05 +0200

Today, with Sabien we stayed a ggod part of the day at the hangar. We reinstalled the OAT probe. It worked for part of the flight but the stopped giving valid indications, some more troubleshooting to do.
During the flight I noted that the VOR was working, I made some performance measures and opened the speed range. I could fly at 50 KIAS without stalling and the throttled up to 164 KIAS. I made two landings. I lowered the approach speed for the seconf landing but I'm not really convinced.