Well color us surprised. Not only did our first (second and third) flight sessions with the main gear pants go extremely well and without incident, she’s was very much (at least 10 knots) faster. Scott Swing was in town and flew my baby, and she ran like a scolded dog. If it weren’t so bumpy, or if he had more time, we would have stretched her legs and seen what she could really do. But the fact is with the nose pant and gear leg fairing she should run 185 easy, maybe 190. And she’s so slippery on landing that even Scott had to work to get down near the numbers.
First off, I was quite relieved to get the first flight in the new pants while Scott was here. Here looked everything over and was basically happy with everything but the a little bit of slop in the aileron linkage, which he quickly diagnosed and fixed. I also adjusted my rudder return springs, checked out the engine area, under the dog house, and behind the whale tail. It felt good to have his expert eye check everything. He looked at our oil leak, and agreed we should work on it, but was unfazed by it at the same time. A quick lunch of Skyline and he and Elizabeth were out flying.
Scott said she was slicker than snot, and watching Beth’s first few approaches you could tell. The speed brake makes a bunch of difference with the pants on. and even then you’re going to float some. In fact you can see in the video that Scott is really rounding out over the grass because he knows it’s going to carry a fair way and it made Beth a bit nervous. This is something she’ll need to get comfortable with, because her first pass she floated nearly to the mid field turnoff. Scott’s not kidding when he says it’s a glider. What a fabulous machine. I was literally euphoric all day. As Andy says, my face hurt all day from smiling, and it’s not a figure of speech.
A couple of points of interest during the visit. Scott mentioned that the main gear nuts should not be nylon lock nuts anymore, some builder’s had these get soft and so they’ve replaced them with metal ones. Also, many folks are adding another rudder pulley at the wing root exit, but he thought ours were lined up pretty well and would need the change. Oh, and I have the “old” thinner style belleville washers, and he recommended I change, those as well as he wanted quite a bit more resistance on the nose wheel. We’ll try to measure the “Scott S” magic kick setting, but I think it’s a little higher than the book value. Glad Andy got us that Nylon washer.
You can watch the whole flight highlights below, or check out the full video below that.
Posted By: Brett FerrellSunday August 8th, 2010 at 7:52 PM