Confession is Good for the Soul

The first flight of N50KB, 1.7 hours, was made on June 5, 2018.  All went well except I felt it necessary to file a NASA report for busting the lower floor of the Flint, MI class B outer ring by 100 feet.  Contributing factors were the new airplane first flight and first use of Garmin G3X touch glass panel instrumentation.

That’s not the reason for “Confession” in the title of this post.  Some 12.4 flight hours later on June 13th I managed to do a very very gentle tip up of the plane during landing on a 2700 ft grass strip.  I don’t like to talk about it because I’m supposed to be an experienced tail dragger pilot.  Besides having way too high airspeed ~90 kts on final, I overexercised the excellent Berringer brakes.  The prop made nine cuts in the soft sandy soil  before coming to rest on a blade that broke.  The left wing tip was dragged.

It was an expensive lesson that halted further flight until September 19th.  The engine received a full tear down and reassembly at G&N Aircraft a Lycoming dealer in Griffith, Indiana.  All parts passed magniflux inspection with no problem.

The propeller was a different story.  Only one blade broke.  On the bright side Catto props recommended replacing the broken 68/72 with their new 66 inch diameter and 74 inch pitch three blade prop.  They predict a 3 to 4 knot speed increase.

Repair of the wingtip required replacement of the outboard forward rib and skin panel.  I have been complimented on the quality of the restoration.

Think that is the end of this tale?  Wrong!  On October 3rd I flew to Owasso< Michigan (KRNP) to practice landings.  With the airport in sight the oil pressure warning light lit up red.  An aluminum plate and gasket covering an oil pressure supply on the rear of the engine developed a serious leak.  I immediately landed and still had very low but positive pressure when the engine was shut down while still on the runway.  The airport staff was very helpful and N50KB spent two weeks in a hangar while Dolly and I diagnosed and fixed the problem with a new cover plate from Lycoming.

The plane has performed beautifully for the next 58 hours to date.  Whew!   I feel better already.

 

Some Storage Space

The Vans RV7 design has about three inches of unused space between the side-by-side seats.  So, I built an insert to provide storage for sunglasses, handheld radio, drinks, etc.

It is made of 1/4 inch popular from Home Depot that I ran through a planer taking it down to 1/8 inch thickness.  The bottom and sides of the box were angled to match the cabin floor which is not flat between the seats.  The cover shown above fits either of the longer compartments. The smalest compartment was sized to hold my Yaesu handheld.  Overall it worked out well and is a snug fit between the seats.

First Flights and Phase I Flight Testing

Difficulties, self inflicted and otherwise have been described in an earlier post.  The first and second flights were on June 5th, 2018.

A video of the second takeoff.

[KGVID]http://bambas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Second-Flight.mp4[/KGVID]

And the second landing.

[KGVID]http://bambas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Second-Landing.mp4[/KGVID]

The initial flight testing is known as Phase I and covers the first forty hours of operation where no passengers may be carried.  Other requirements such as a limited operating range are included in the FAA issued Operating Limitations.  The purpose of Phase I is to verify safe operation and establish the aircraft’s performance characteristics which may then be placed in a Pilot’s Operating Handbook.

Due to the problems described in the previous post the summer had drawn to a close and we were wanting to return home to Florida.  I was fortunate the FAA issued a Ferry Permit allowing N50KB to complete the last of Phase I on the repositioning trip to KBKV, Brooksville Regional Airport.  I arrived home on November 16th. Dolly had her first ride two days later.