Expanding the envelope

Today's weather was everything I had hoped yesterdays would be. The same blue skies, the same, uh, invigorating temperatures, but only half the wind. Still, it was blowing pretty good: 14 knots out of the northwest. Again, a pretty direct crosswind, slightly favoring runway 4, which would put it on the more difficult left side of the plane on takeoff. Between the torque of the engine and the effect on the tail feathers of the swirling air coming from the propellor, which both impart a left-turning tendency on the plane, it already requires a healthy amount of right rudder on takeoff. A left crosswind tries to "weathervane" the plane to the left, so the combination of all three factors indicated that there would be quite a bit of right rudder needed to keep her headed straight down the runway. It wasn't too bad while the tail was still down, but the was a definite lurch as the tailwheel lifted off the runway and authority for yaw control was ceded to the rudder.

Crosswind takeoff practice complete, I headed southwest and climbed to 10,500". It was pretty bumpy until I climbed through 5,500", but from there up to cruising altitude was glass smooth. Why such a high cruising altitude? Well, my plan for the day was to fly over downtown Cincinnati and see what kind of pictures I could get. Cincinnati International is a busy airport, though, and as such is positioned under Class B airspace. That means I can't just wander in and stooge around. I have to be invited in by the controllers, and they're way to busy to want to vector around a tourist. The Class B over Cincy tops out at 10,000", so the nearest VFR altitude to that was 10,000". The climb took about 15 - 20 minutes since I wasn't in any particular hurry to get up there, but once I did it was worth the effort. Beautiful blue sky and smooth air - great place to visit, even if you can't live there.

I grabbed a shot of Co-pilot Egg's favorite summer destination: Paramount's Kings Island:



As I passed along the north side of downtown in a big, gentle turn back to Bolton, I grabbed a few pictures of downtown:



Interestingly, I heard myself called out as traffic to approaching airliners on two separate occasions. I had always assumed that the airliners would be below the 10,000" ceiling by the time they got to the Class B. In fact, I've always thought that was the sole reason for having Class B.

On the way back to Bolton, I was monitoring the tower and heard a student/renter in a Cessna 172 call in for landing from the south. He was a little tentative on the radio, so I tagged him as either student solo or recently graduated pilot based at a non-tower controlled airport. Some of those guys go years without flying into a towered airport because dealing with air traffic controllers makes them nervous. He reported in at the position the tower had requested, so he was doing pretty well. Once landed, he was directed to exit the runway at Alpha 3.

Cessna: "I was wanting to just depart again."

Tower: "Well you should have told be that before I cleared you to land. Go ahead, take off."

I can't help thinking that I just witnessed the birth of a pilot that will forever be afraid of flying into a towered airport, and it was completely unnecessary. The scolding from the tower was completely unwarranted. Yes, as a courtesy to the controller a pilot will usually state his intentions upon initial contact with the tower. I always tell them, "466 papa golf, over Lilly Chapel (or Boutn, or wherever), inbound full stop." That let's them know that I'll be slowing to make a turn off on a taxiway so they won't get someone too close behind me in the pattern, but in the case today I was so far behind the guy in the 172 that I was no factor. A gentle reminder would have been plenty, and even then wouldn't really have been appropriate.

My landing was with the same 14 knot crosswind I had enjoyed on takeoff. It went pretty well, but I think I'm going to keep 15 knots as my personal limit for now.

Decision making

I really wanted to fly yesterday. I re-arranged the appointment with the tax guy just to free up the day so I could fly down to Richmond, KY for an RV fly-in. The weather in the morning looked great: clear, sparkly sky, light winds, and temps just above prohibitively cold. The bad news? Forecasts for winds out of the north at 16 gusting 23. Damn. I might have gone ahead with the Tampico, but I'm just not ready for winds like that in the RV. Or am I? I've had some pretty decent crosswind landings at winds speeds in the mid to high teens, and 16 gusting 23 is that much more. I could probably do it. And hey, forecasts are often wrong. Those fearful winds might not even develop!

Still, I have my personal comfort zone, and even though I intend to expand it to some day include windier than average days, I'd prefer to work my way up to it, and do it solo rather than with a trusting passenger. I finally decided not to risk it and scrubbed the trip.

The problem with decisions like this comes from the aforementioned occasional inaccuracy in the forecasts. I've canceled flights based on an unfriendly forecast before, only to be frustrated when the weather never arrives. It almost becomes a case of hoping the weather does what it was expected to do in order to vindicate the decision to stay home. This time I think events showed that I made the correct decision:

- The day didn't go without a couple of 'close calls'. One RV4 driver got hit by a nasty wind gust while landing and nosed it into the runway. The gear collapsed as all eyes watched in amazement. It skidded to it's left into the grass as the gear tucked under the belly like a couple of twisted pipe cleaners. No one on board was hurt but the plane was badly bruised. The engine mount sheared on both sides and the firewall and forward fuse were badly crimpled.

This report comes from a guy that was there. Whle I think it's terrible that someone had this accident (and I'm thankful that they weren't hurt!), it does tend to validate my decision to forego the trip and wait for more favorable conditions. There's no schadenfreude here, it's simply a reminder that the go/no-go decision should never, ever be swayed by the desire to make any given trip. As much as I would like to have gone yesterday, I feel pretty good today knowing that my beloved airplane is safe and sound in her hangar, not twisted and bent, lying on a flatbed trailer waiting for extensive and expensive repairs.

Planning the Panel

I spent some time pondering the panel upgrade, and the difficulties associated with removing the old panel and replacing it with a new one. The panel itself is no big deal, rather it's the stuff behind it that may cause problems if I don't plan this well enough. Fo rexample, the braces that are riveted into the bulkhead behind the panel will stay as-is in order to reduce the effort, and I will work around them by placing instruments where they won't conflict with the braces. Another decision I made today is that the position of the radio, transponder, and King GPS are immutable. There is a rectangular cut-out in the bulkhead that would be difficult to move without completely replacing the bulkhead, and because the bulkhead has the front top fuselage skin rivetted to it, I'd prefer to leave it alone. I taped some approximately sized paper in the locations where the major components will (tentatively) go:



There's an obvious change here since the last iteration: the mechanical pitot/static instruments didn't make the cut. There simply isn't room for them. Still desirous of some non-powered redundancy, though, I'm planning on adding a small airspeed indicator, altimeter, and a vertical card magnetic compass in the row of three instruments between the EFIS/Engine Monitor and the radios. The gauges currently in that row will be removed as they will no longer be needed.

I haven't decided what to do with the flap switch. It's ok where it is, but I'm thinking I'd like to keep the area below the radio/xpdr/GPS stack open to allow for future growth. The clock will need to find a new home as well. The avionics master switch will get moved to wherever I decide to gather the switches. I'm thinking about a "Lighting" group of switches, and the rest of the switches (Battery/Alternator/Fuel Pump/Avionics Master) being in a separate group.

The engine controls (throttle, mixture, primer) will stay where they are.

I also did a little research into my legal basis for doing this work. The first stop was the Operating Limitations specific to my airplane. The pertinent paragraph would be this one:

After incorporating a major change as described in FAR Part 21.93, the aircraft owner is required to re-establish compliance with FAR Part 91.319(b). All operations will be conducted day VFR in a sparsely populated area. The aircraft must remain in the flight test for a minimum of 5 hours. Persons non-essential to the flight shall not be carried. The aircraft owner shall make a detailed log book entry describing the change prior to the test flight. Following satisfactory completion of the required number of flight hours in the flight test area, the pilot shall certify in the records that the aircraft has been shown to comply with FAR Part 91.319(b). Compliance with FAR Part 91.319(b) shall be recorded in the aircraft records with the following or similarly worded statement: "I certify that the prescribed flight test hours have been completed and the aircraft is controllable throughout its normal range of speeds and throughout all manueuvers to be executed, has no hazardous operating characterisitics or design features, and is safe for operation. The following aircraft operating data has been demonstrated during the flight testing: Vso____, Vx____, and Vy____, and the weight______, and CG location______________ at which they were obtained.

Note the usage of the words "aircraft owner" rather than "aircraft builder" or "Certified Mechanic." That seems to cover me pretty well as far as recognition on the part of the FAA that entities other than the builder (aka, holder of the Repairman's Certificate) or an A&P will perform major alterations to the airplane. But what of the referenced regulations? What, for exmaple, is "a major change as described in FAR Part 21.93?" Well, here's the applicable snippet of FAR Part 21.93:

Sec. 21.93

Classification of changes in type design.

(a) In addition to changes in type design specified in paragraph (b) of this section, changes in type design are classified as minor and major. A "minor change" is one that has no appreciable effect on the weight, balance, structural strength, reliability, operational characteristics, or other characteristics affecting the airworthiness of the product. All other changes are "major changes" (except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section).

The part of this that is most pertinent to what I want to do is "appreciable effect on the weight, balance..." Without a doubt, I will be affecting both the weight and balance of the airplane and will have to conduct a new weight & balance inspection. Fortunately, I have been told that I will be able to use the school's scales, as long as I don't mind paying to get them calibrated.

I also have to re-establish complaince with FAR Part 91.319(b):

FAR 91.319(b)
(b) No person may operate an aircraft that has an experimental certificate outside of an area assigned by the Administrator until it is shown that--
(1) The aircraft is controllable throughout its normal range of speeds and throughout all the maneuvers to be executed; and
(2) The aircraft has no hazardous operating characteristics or design features.

In other words, I have to perform the five hours of test flying that demonstrate controllability and the lack of hazardous operating characteristics as spelled out in the Operating Limitations. That all seems eminently reasonable to me, and appears to address any questions as to my authority to perform this job.

There are a number of open questions remaining, such as whether to stay with a black panel or change to a dark gray with white lettering or a lighter gray with black loettering, whether or not to save a place for an autopilot (currently leaning towards "not"), and what to use for lettering/division lines. Here's a tricked-up panel that I like:





I like those switch guards, and I know where to find them...

Cold as a witch's (insert suitable organ name here)...

Sometimes the sky beckons so strongly that a little thermal inconvenience can be accepted, and today was one of those days. Very little wind and copious sunshine, but single-digit temperatures. The cold weather was forecast a few days ago, though, so I was able to plan ahead and plug in the pre-heater. The only problem was where to go. Most of my day trips involve being outside at the destination, and that idea wan't very palatable today.

A quick check of the local RV flyers Yahoo group showed a 12:00 lunch at Urbana with at least three other RVs. Good enough for me! I managed to configure my clothing so as to offer plenty of layers that could be shed as needed, grabbed the camera, and headed for the hangar. Here's how Papa Golf winters:



The electrical cord goes to a heating pad glued to the bottom of the oil sump. It keeps the oil warm enough that it will flow more freely than it would if left at ambient temperature. I plug the cowl holes with the rags in hopes that enough heat will be retained that the battery is kept at least a little warm too, but it's an act of faith as to whether that makes any difference or not.

Having been on the pre-heater, I figured four primes would be just about right, and such was proven to be the case. When it's cold, I try to start with just enough throttle to get her going in an attempt to minimize the the number of strokes that occur before enough oil gets stirred around to provide some protection. Until the cylinders get warm enough to expand a bit, the fit between the piston and cylinder is pretty tight, and until the oil gets there, is to a large degree metal-to-metal contact. I had the prime and throttle just right, so when the engine started it was at just about the same rpm as the starter was already turning it. It doesn't get any more gentle than that!

The forecast was for clear skies, but we didn't quite have that. We had a scattered layer at 2,300' instead. That was easy to climb around, so I was in clear air at 3,500'. As cold as it was, and with the 30.50" altimter, I was climbing at 1,800 fpm at a 120mph! I grabbed a shot off the left wing as I climbed past the layer:



I got there about 10 mintutes before the rest of the guys, so I wandered around the diner a bit. This diner is on the list of those places I've only ever been to by airplane and don't know what they look like to groundlings. I'd say almost all pilots have a similar list. While I was out in the front parking lot of the diner reading the historical plaque that explains who the "Grimes" was that the airport is named after, I got to thinking that their old hangar might make a good background for a picture:





I had the same problem that I always have on these bright, sunny days. I don't know the right settings for the camera to keep them from coming out too dark, so I have to try to clean them up on the computer, and I'm afrad I'm not particularly good at it. I really ought to get a book from the library or see what I can find with another pass through the owner's manual.

Parts on order

I ordered the blank panel from Vans yesterday. It's only $40 or so, and will provide a pallette upon which to tape magazine cut-outs of various instruments. I hope to be buying a drill press from Harbor Freight this weekend too, although I'm not in any great hurry to start drilling holes in the new panel. The drill press I want is one sale, though, so I'm planning on getting it now even though I won't need it for a few weeks.

I've got a workbench set up in the basement, and also would like to get some nice worklights down there this weekend.

Since I was already placing an order from Van's, I went ahead and ordered a set of pre-view plans. I was tempted to buy the RV-8 plans so I could spend the next year reading through them, but the short-term need to be able to identify RV-6 parts trumped that and I ordered RV-6 plans. I need them for more than just the panel project; there are a few screws that need to be replaced before the annual (some previous owner or mechanic stripped a few of the heads) so I need the plans to make sure I'm ordering the right parts. For the Tampico I had a microfiche parts and maintenance manual and referred to it quite a bit - I assume I'll be doing the same with the RV-6 pre-view plans.

The 35 knot winds we had last night have abated and the ceilings are up to 3,200'. I'm not sure what to expect for the rest of the weekend, but I might be able to get a half hour of flying in this afternoon. Here's hoping, anyway!

About the panel...

I've been thinking about the panel again. In the latest version of the proposed upgrades, I still had the vacuum gyros from the exsiting panel, but had added an in-panel Garmin 396 and a VM1000C engine monitor. That seemed to be the best compromise between keeping as much as possible from the old panel while at the same time modernizing it in the areas where the largest real-world benefit would be realized. I'm not so sure anymore. The reason I say that is that I noticed this new Dynon unit today:



Because the engine monitor is integral to the EFIS, I would only need to buy a single display panel. Every time I had looked at buying an EFIS before, the cost quickly escalated beyond my budget because I would have had to buy a separate engine monitor too. A combined unit like this is still more expensive than just an EFIS, but it's less than a two screen display system. The economics of it now make more sense, so I'm going to go see if I can design a panel with the Dynon instead of the VM1000C and the old gyros. The would allow me to completely remove the vacuum pump and all of the plumbing, along with the relatively heavy mechanical flight instruments.

I have to check behind the panel to make sure it will fit around the supports that attach the panel to the bulkhead. This picture shows a tip-up canopy RV with a Dynon D-100 (same size as the Dynon 180) in the panel, so it looks like it shouldn't be a problem:



I'm still debating as to whether or not to keep the mechanical pitot/static instruments like this example did, but I'm leaning towards keeping them because they will provide a level of redundancy should I ever lose electrity, and because I already own them and it would be wasteful to just shelve them. I will go ahead and put the electric turn coordinator back in too, for the reasons above and additionally to hold a spot open for an autopilot if I decide to buy one. The autopilot is another debate: most of my flights to date have been relatively short, but that will probably change. As it is, on the trip to Oshkosh I did find myself wishing I could turn on an autopilot now and then to look at charts, etc. But, they're expensive and because my plane is already done, fairly difficult to install. For now I just want to keep my options open, and if the funds ever become available and I can find a good way to mount the servos without tearing too much of the plane apart, maybe I'll do it.

I'm also thinking about seeing what it would cost to get to a light IFR level. One for sure cost was just detailed above: I would have to have an autopilot before I'd fly IFR (IMC, more precisely. IFR can be flown in clear air - IMC means you're really in the clouds) in the RV. I'd also need a heated pitot tube, annunciators for the King 89b GPS, and I'd probably want a second comm radio. A second comm radio would then incur the cost of an audio panel, albeit a simple one.

See what happens when you get the avionics boulder rolling?

Putting on my pants

As a reminder of why I only want to build in my temperature-controlled basement rather than in the hangar, Co-pilot Egg and I braved the 25 degree February weather and went to the hangar to re-install the wheel pants I took off for the tire and brake change last fall. Last time I tried putting the right side on, I had a problem with one of the screws not wanting to go all the way in, so I had been postponing the job until a day when I'd be able to go to Lowes for a replacement screw. Before doing that, though, I decided to try the problem screw in a different hole. That actually worked, which surprised me a bit.

So, I managed to get the pants back on a month before they will have to come off again for the annual inspection. I wanted to have them on, though, in case I make it down to the RV fly-in at Richmond, Ky at the end of this month. One should never, ever go to a crowded fly-in sans pants. It's simply not done.