AirVenture Oshkosh, Part 2
By Ed Wischmeyer
In my experience, ailerons are the most significant factor in how much a pilot enjoys the aircraft handling qualities. The SeaRey amphibian has new Frise ailerons that are much lighter than the already sensuous ailerons of the LSX, and I’m looking forward to visiting the factory and trying them out. I do want to let the southeastern summer abate, so I can avoid the oppressive heat and humidity, though. The SeaRey discussion on the shores of Lake Winnebago with designer and old friend Kerry Richter was much more enjoyable because of the cooler Wisconsin summer.
Meanwhile, out in Arizona, my airport neighbor who built a full-scale replica Spitfire added servo tabs to his ailerons to reduce aileron forces. It was surprising to read that the original Spitfires had heavy ailerons and light elevators, the reverse of recommended practice, but pilots raved about the handling qualities of Spitfires. That seems to reinforce the observation that the great majority of pilots adapt to their airplane’s handling qualities instead of being objective about them. Pilots will often express many enjoyable qualities of their airplanes in ways that really describe their experiences with the aircraft rather than the aircraft itself. In any event, he won an award for his Spitfire, well deserved in my opinion.
Back in the hangar in Georgia, the RV-9A is waiting for a few more configuration settings on the dual screen Garmin G3X touch system and for the owner to learn how to use the system. The capabilities are awesome, but the available training is not awesome, or even there–and the Garmin folks admitted as much. I’m wondering if there is an opportunity to give training on the system in the airplane. It would require a waiver to do that in flight, but not on the ground.
At AirVenture, I took the Garmin seminar on the GTN650 nav/com/GPS/WAAS system in the RV-9A. Again, there were awesome capabilities and lots of good thoughts in the design and new capabilities to learn. The man next to me was unfamiliar with the unit and slow on the uptake, like many of us often are…
With a BeLite ultralight oozing its way towards completion in the garage, I took a fabric-covering workshop and learned a lot. The course taught the major steps in covering a stabilizer, and we were in teams of four. One man followed instructions and did well. Another man, when time came to brush on the first coat in the finishing process, completely ignored the teacher’s clear instructions and got air bubbles in the finish. When time came to tighten the fabric with an iron, the fourth man held the iron 90 degrees off from the way the instructor demonstrated but made up for it by pushing hard on the iron, apparently figuring that pushing harder would make the fabric shrink more… So tell me again why I figure that giving G3X lessons would be a good thing to do…
Part of my volunteer job at AirVenture sometimes calls for me to ride a golf cart or scooter around the grounds to get my job(s) done. With the spinal fusion surgery now eight months behind me, it was an unpleasant surprise that my back did not like the jostling. The doctor said that my aerobatic days may be over. I’ll go out in the RV-8 and gently work up the G load till my back tells me enough. It may be pretty low…
But I did fly the RV-8 yesterday, once around the pattern, maybe the fourth flight since the surgery. Just once around the pattern in the quickly warming summer morning, and it was sweet. Not sure why the tower felt compelled to tell me what the pattern altitude was, though… Sometimes the controllers are really good, but sometimes it seems that there are trainees towards the bottom of the learning curve.
The cool of the morning, or more accurately, the less obnoxious heat and humidity, are a scarce resource. I have to choose between a long fitness walk, a flight, or just a quiet morning to savor peace and quiet and to establish a solid habit of morning prayer. Summer is an overachiever in Georgia, and I want to find cooler alternatives, or at least one. Now that I’m officially retired…
The RV-9A is still waiting for us to find why the cylinder head temperatures remain so hot. I had the pleasure of discussing this for 20 minutes with Van himself of Van’s Aircraft, but with no resolution–we’ve already done just about everything, and our cowling installation had no obvious differences from the factory airplane. The next steps are to do a data recording flight (the G3X records every parameter you can think of and then some, every second, which is wildly useful) and learn about EGTs and CHTs at various power settings, and what happens as the mixture is leaned to peak on the two hottest cylinders. After that, the only thing that we’ve not done is to re-jet the carburetor for more fuel flow. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to move to Alaska or Antarctica. Any place with cooler air.
