Fourth Test Flight 2.5 hours

 October 26 2024

Finally it appears I can begin to leave the airport area and get into my engine break in hours and count down more of the 20 hours of experimental aircraft flight time required within 25 miles of my local airport. Conditions for this test flight were, as of 10 am very light winds at the surface, temperature plus 4 degrees C, sky mostly clear.  After getting up to 7000 feet (3000 ft agl) as directed by ATC Calgary for this flight I found the winds were from the west at a constant 27 knots and the temperature after 30 minutes had climbed to 14 degrees C. My ground speeds were quite different if travelling east or westerly in direction.  Average ground speed was about 158 knots as best I can determine. An added bonus to todays flight early on in the flight was I was able to use the cabin heat for the first time, it was cozy warm inside the fiberglass foam insulated cabin.

After many delays with engine problems and the minor modifications that were required I was able to get up in the air once again to test the engine.  Finally I was  able to get a long flight time with everything functioning as it should. 

1.  Engine popping and back firing. As mentioned this was due to a spark plug fouling issue with the rebuilt engine making the plugs wet with oil in within about an hour of running the engine. This has been rectified by cleaning my own plugs and using a clean set before each flight test attempt. Having a backup set of plugs seems to have cleared up this problem until the engine rings get seated properly which will reduce the oil contamination in the cylinder head. 

2. Fuel pressure loss has been rectified as per the details in an earlier post on the subject along with the fixes required. When the engine gets up to 215 degree F on the ground I still have to use the boost pump to stop the pressure from dropping.  In the air during flight the boost pump is not required as the engine cooling and oil temperatures have dropped significantly. I plan on building a blast tube and shroud covering the mechanical fuel pump which a fellow builder has also had to do on his custom RV6 with a bigger engine.

3. Radio noise on my Dynon radio appears to be coming from the Skyview screen itself on frequency 123.4 and to a slightly lesser amount on 128.7 the air traffic frequency.  Raising the Squelch on the Dynon screen setup menu has cleared this up.

4. The Alternator charging has been fixed and was found to be a poorly manufactured 60 amp fuse link module where the connection to the fuse inside of the holder was faulty causing an intermittent connection.  The alternator came back from the test shop identifying it was in perfect running condition.