| 6/25/2001 | Well, after a year and a couple of weeks, I now have a certificate of airworthiness! Dealing with the FSDO office of the FAA, I found new levels of retentiveness that I didn't realize even existed. All errors they found were in paper work, and the errors were caused by another office of the FAA. I guess this would say you could now see my surprised face!? So, I had to chase them back to their Fort Worth office, and have them stamp my log books, and hand me my certificate of airworthiness. This is all over a missing "0" in front of the serial number that their registration office somehow lost. I now have to re apply for registration with the original number I applied with the first time nearly 6 months ago. The plane was then broke down and moved to my hanger, and quickly reassembled. Final safety wire, and nuts will be placed tomorrow, ( i hope) and then off to the first flight. | 4 |
|
6/26/2001 |
Well, today I was in somewhat of a time crunch so not everything was
achieved
as desired. I got the the airport and spent about an hour and a
half
putting final bolts, cotter pins and safety wire in place. Put
the
final battery hook ups in place, and started the engine. Taxied
around
the yard a bit, and over to the fuel pump. With full fuel, I
headed
for the runway. Since I was short on time, I knew the odds of
doing
a full flight were slim. So I placed my cameras in the floor
beside
the seat in hopes that someone may walk up and take some
pictures.
Nobody seemed to notice my attempts.
Just taxiing the Youngster with the present tailwheel springs was somewhat of an experience. I always had good directional control, but it was obvious I could use a bit stronger springs, or maybe restrict the throw of the springs. Sound! I can hear every bump going under the bird! I guess when you bolt the gear directly to the airframe super structure, it's like making the wood floor a speaker cone. At first I was thinking the major portion of the noise was coming from the main gear, but it may be the small solid tire tail wheel instead. Not the shopping cart wheel supplied with the kit by the way. Not flying anything that gives me that much noise, other than the engine, I seem to be cautious with speed. I'm most likely going to modify my brakes a bit to get more authority, though the available sod runway, will not require much if any braking. Engine power was very good through out the day. At full throttle, I'm sure I would easily be airborne in 200 feet or less. I did a total of 5 runs up and down the runway. Just used in all about 1500 feet of the 3100 feet available. First run I indicated around 30 with the tail not quite able to leave the ground. The second run at probably just over 40 was able to make the tail rise. Control was good on the rudder, but busy for sure. Once the tail left the ground the power was reduced to maintain speed. Power cut, tail down, I recovered to the approach end of the runway. The next trip down the strip, I went to 50 indicated, and intentionally drug the airplane off the ground. Having a steady 10 knot or so quartering left cross all cross wind techniques were observed. Once off the ground and sustained at about 5 feet altitude, power was slowly reduced to allow the plane to settle back on the ground. The final run down the runway was different only in the amount, and abrupt application of power. Landings seemed to be main gear landings first, left wheel at that, due to the cross wind. Flight controls were normal though the ailerons were stiff. May have to go in and loosen things up some day. Not a problem of control at all. I had been warned by another Youngster pilot that there may be a tendency for nose up after lift off. I have noticed only a neutral straight flight so far. We'll see when we get out of ground effect. Back to the hanger, and a good post flight. No fluids leaking at this point. One point of interest more pointed to the VW engine. Towards the end of the adventure, engine idling, it would sound like it would load up, and try to quit. trying to bring it off idle, would sometimes produce a strong back fire, or exhaust fire. Jockeying the throttle would allow me to accelerate through the roughness, and I didn't work with it much, but adding a bit of choke seemed to ease the acceleration. I may richen up the idle mixture tomorrow, and see if that helps. If I have time and a full crew, I may go ahead with a first flight tomorrow. All the news for now. . . . jim |
3 |
| 6/27/2001 | Went to the
airport
this evening to strap the airplane on, and head to the skys. Yep,
sounds rather simple to me also. Checked the oil and saw nothing
leaking. All seems tight, and secure. Put it all together
and
started it up. Well, the roughness experienced yesterday was
still
there in a big way. Cowling back off, I started up and tweaked
the
mixtures until I got a smooth run.
Cowling back on I headed for the runway. Everybody in place with the still and video cameras I powered up and headed down the runway. Earplugs today, so the noise from the tail doesn't sound half as bad. Each time I went down the runway, I ended up stopping and adding a half turn to the main jet in the rich direction. Once the little airplane had to remind me not to cut the power to idle before touch down when landing. Well, now that the integrity of the gear has been checked, let's get back to the problems at hand. Each time we added a bit of fuel through the main jet, the engine run would get bit better. What kept my eye on richening the mixture as the fix was the EGT at take off power, was 1200 degrees or better. I'm more likely to see 1100 max in my sonerai. One more half turn, and I hopped down the runway again. All seemed smooth, with good acceleration so I decided this time I'd continue around the patch. Climb out at first was normal, but slow. 3300 rpm, (may have to check the calibration again), oil pressure and temps acceptable. Established out of ground effect, and indicating about 60 mph I continued. Nearing the far end of the runway, I glanced at my EGT, and see it climbing past 1400 degrees. Ok, no longer was the majority of the lift coming from the wings. No, I didn't pull myself up by my boot straps, but I do think I about sucked the cover off my seat! Understand here, that you're apparently not going to hear anything at all about the flying characteristics of the Youngster, At this points, it's all about power! I throttled back a bit, and started a turn back towards the approach end of the runway. All the time looking for a place to put down, if things got ugly. Established now in level flight, I started looking at what I could do for my engine. First thing I did was to pull the carb heat on full, to increase the relative fuel mixture. Pulling on the choke a bit didn't produce any change noticeable, but by now, I was turning base to land and didn't need the power anymore. The airplane performed very well. I had to give no thought to flying it. No noticeable trim problems, at all. Landing was predictable and smooth. I am concerned only (after I fix the carb problems) with my prop. I'm afraid that I may not have enough pitch. Even turning 3300 rpm, I'd think I have considerable speed, not barely hanging. 60 x 28 Sterba. I guess I'll call him tomorrow. Brought the Carb home this evening, and will check with Steve Bennett in the morning on some mods to a few vacuum ports he sent me an e mail on this afternoon. |
3 |
| 6/28/2001 | Went out this morning to the garage after consult with Steve Bennett, and a fellow by the name of Gene Smith to work on my carburetor. I first drilled the main jet to 1/8th inch at Gene's recommendation. I also cut the gasket that blocked the air from getting to the two small air ports on the back flange of the carb. Packed everything up and headed to the airport. Once the carb was secured to the airframe, I pulled it out and started it up. With out question, the upper end power was better. I could still reach 1300 degrees as I opened up the throttle over 3000 rpm. Just to make sure I didn't end up in the same situation I had last evening, I went ahead and opened up the main jet to 9/64ths. Everything back together, again the engine was put through its paces. I didn't change the main needle setting at all, on either run, but this time, I've got a peak EGT that I and my engine can surely live with. I was able to stabilize the engine run at around 3500 rpm, with the EGT's never exceeding 1100. Glancing at the CHT, it looks as if the head cooling is not going to be a problem on this set up. I'm still considering that I may have a bit too little prop pitch. I wouldn't think I should get that type of static rpm. | 2 |
| 7/1/2001 | Well over all here I guess
I'll address
two days of labor on the bird. Both Sunday and today Tuesday the
third. The airplane has flown again, but My confusion over
engine problems is getting staggering. I don't however think they
are great, just that the solutions are successfully avoiding me.
First lets talk about the good things that I can deal with. The airplane itself if flying well. I have only a need for a way to get some down trim. As I had been told before, but didn't notice on my first flight. Having not installed the trim system, I will start by shimming the leading edge of the stabilizer. Otherwise, the rudder is very light to the point that I have to pay attention to weather I'm applying any rudder or not. Time for a slip ball here. Ailerons are a bit stiff but feeling better all the time. Not much aerodynamically, but about what I expected for this airplane. Landings are easy but I can't seem to round out about 4 inches higher. Gear is stiff, but seems to track squarely. Here's the best news about the engine! It ain't leaking!? Just a mild sweat around the acorn nuts on the oil screen cover. I have had extensive conversations with Mr. Gene Smith in MO about my problems, and either directly from our talks or a giant stroke of luck I got the airplane airborne for more than a tense 4 minute pattern. After redrilling the jets the engine has run well in a static situation. It seems that the minute the brakes are released, things start coughing!? Various things were applied today for the flying done. First the cowl was removed, and the carb bowl wrapped in a "cozy"! This to prevent over heating of the fuel in the float bowl during extended ground operations. The other thing done was that the entire flight was run with the carb heat on. The carb heat idea was to help warm the manifold after the carb. I guess the idea is to keep the fuel mixture from re condensing causing the mixture to be lean. These are out loud musings, not based on a bunch of facts. But it had been suggested so I tried it, as was the removed cowling, and carb cozy. Well, all in all the first flight went REAL well compared to earlier attempts. Only one minor cough shortly after advancing the throttle, but it cleared and good power resulted. Indicated rpm, was just under 4000 rpm. Man do I need some more bite in that prop! Checking with the P.Ponk prop speed calculator, my prop tips are moving at .9 mach. We're still producing thrust, but this is un necessary. Even with this power, I'm running only about 20 or so above indicated stall speed. EGT's are between 1200 and 1300 most of the flight. From this I landed and added another twist of fuel to the high speed jets. From here I blasted off and flew another 15 or so minutes. This time I headed out on my first cross country to the near by airport hoping to be seen by friends there. Only thing of note different on this flight is the sustained power setting brought my oil temps to about 220. Slow decent and a landing back at home I let the engine cool for about 45 minutes. The only change made now was to install the cowling. Looks great! A quick static run, and I turned around and headed out to the runway. Headed down the runway, advanced the power, and yep it started coughing again. Well, here is the question. Is the airflow around the cowling so different rolling 30 mph down the runway at full throttle than at full throttle in the chocks to cause this rough running? I may try some in the morning with a cool engine. Also in order is to make sure the tach is not lying to me. |
4 |
| 7/4/2001 | Not much time to get anything done today. I did run the engine using a light sensing tack, I calibrated the tach in the panel. Seems to only be about a 200 rpm error. Seems I'm idling around 6 to 7 hundred, and I'll have to wait to see what I'm doing airborne. What ever it is, I'm sure it is not enough. | 1 |
| 7/14/2001 | Well spent some time today finally
on the
Youngster. Having to work has really been getting in my way
achieving
my goals of a flying toy! Today's efforts were spent again trying
to establish what type of problem we have. A mixture problem,
airflow
problem, pilot problem, carb problem. I do think at this time
that
the carb I was sold for this application is too much carb! I
really
think I'm My problem is based on the velocity of air available to draw
fuel. If a smaller throated carb was installed, I don't think I
would
be up against this problem. I base this argument on Mr. Gene
Smith's
2180 with the exact same carb, running with good success after having
drilled
it's main jet out to 9/64ths. One, in theory, would imagine this,
being a bigger engine, to be too big for my 1935. But, having
increased
airflow, due to the increased displacement, I'm sure he is getting a
larger
draw on the fuel.
I have found at high power settings, that if I disrupt the airflow into the carb, only slightly, I can not only smooth out the run, but drop my EGT's significantly. Easiest disruption available of course is the application of choke. Only moving the choke about 1/8th inch, (measured at the edge of the choke disk, not the arm, or pull control) makes a significant difference in operation. I've also had similar successes by placing my hand over the intake, but this is a bit difficult while off the ground. Today, I went ahead and drilled out the main jet again, this time to 5/32nd's. I also replaced the air intake extension I applied the other day, to allow it to get air from the slip stream, instead of from inside the cowling. Now running the engine at full throttle with cowling on, I have acceptable EGT's, and power. This is only the first part of the test. I have to run the thing down the runway to be sure I've made a significant, or sufficient change. I've continued the calibration of the tach, and now have I have good dependable numbers on the static runs. I'm now running right at 3000 static rpm. Sure does pull hard, and run smooth there also. I may be able to try another run this evening. |
2 |
| 7/14/2001 | Ok! We're making some
ground!
I went out this evening, fueled up, started up, and headed to the
runway.
First advance of the throttle, I got the same old coughing and what
have
you!? Chopped the throttle, and advanced it much slower, and we
were
in business. Good power, great acceleration, and good
climb.
Only real problem was that we had better than a 10 knot cross
wind!
Nothing this airplane can't handle though. I very confidently, (new
word!)
climbed out, and headed to the neighboring airport, to meet with some
chapter
buddies. My EGT's are still in my opinion a bit too high, and
will
probably go ahead and drill out the jet one more notch.
The next hurtle is the oil temperature. I know it is 90 degrees here, but I'm going to have to brake down and put a cooler on it. I've already got the cooler, but haven't got around to putting it on. At present, I'm able, with the cowl on, to fly about 15 minutes before the temps pass about 210. A reduced throttle, does stop the climb, and by landing the temps are around 180. Some of this can be break in temperatures, but I can't account for most of it. Flying the airplane, even with the stout cross wind was a pleasure. Just got to be on your toes, when the gusts hit, since it is such a light little bird. I am still needing some down elevator at all times except the lower speeds. So, more stab trimming is in order. I'll probably try to raise the leading edge about another 1/2 inch or so. Hey! I actually enjoyed this flight. First time on this airplane! I'll keep you posted! |
1 |
| 7/16/2001 | Went today
and drilled
the main jet to 11/64ths. This will be the last attempt at
jetting
this carb. All other efforts to provide fuel to the engine will
be
through a permanent choke, or restriction in the airflow. Due to
other engine work, no engine runs were made.
I researched the placement and ducting of the oil cooler. Not feeling I could effectively place the cooler in the slip stream properly supported, or with out blocking other cowling air, I will place it on the firewall set out about 3/4" just above the base of the firewall. 3/8" O.D. aluminum oil lines will be fashioned to carry the oil. The Stab bolts were loosened to determine how much further I could trim here with out having to remake the forward flying struts. I've determined that I can got to nearly 3/4", and if this gets us close, just relieving the outer ends and thus taking the warp of the stab, should finish it up nicely. |
1 |
| 7/19/2001 | Well,
today
I installed the oil cooler. No fresh air vent to it, but just
internal
cowling air. The Carb main jet was drilled out to
11/64ths.
And the final modification for this test flight was further flexing of
the stab center section, to about 3/4" nose down trim. After
reaching
the runway, oil temp was barely starting to show on the gauge.
First throttle up gave the same old coughing. aborted, and tried again. This time, it was a bit warmer, and accelerated smoothly. I climbed to about 1200 feet, and leveled off. CHT's were steady around 1250 degrees, and constant. Carb heat applied had a significant response, and made the engine run richer for sure. Leaving this alone, I look to the oil temps. They ran up readily to about 190, then climbed slower to about 205 and stopped. Here it remained at about 2800 rpm, and 75 mph indicated. I think I've finally got my tach about right, or honest. I just putted around and tried out the flight controls a bit more, and enjoyed myself for the next ten minutes or so. I now decided to climb a bit more, and gave it full throttle, and climbed up to about 1700 feet agl. After leveling off, the oil temps continued to climb a bit, to about 215 or so. At his point I was running out of time, and didn't want to wait around to see if the temps would fall on their own, so I throttled back to start my decent. Again it seems that all my test flights so far have been in a substantial cross wind. So I set up my crab and dropped the wing into the wind and rolled it on, ( i have video proof here!) Next on the agenda, will be just to fly for a bit. Study the engine instruments, and see if we have a solid grip on things. I Opening up the bottom of the cowling a bit, may help the airflow over the cooler. Eventually I'll have to make new forward flying rods for the stabilizer, to get the trim just right. |
4 |
| 7/26/2001 | Went out
this evening,
for not other purpose but to fly the airplane. No tweaking, no
modifying,
no nothing! After an extensive preflight, I started up on the
third
blade, taxied up to the runway, and slowly advance the throttle.
Yes, there was a slight pop and snort, but I let the engine catch up,
and
it came up on power, and speed, real well. I climbed up to about
1500 feet agl, and just proceeded to putt around. At 2700 rpm, I was
indicating
around 67 mph. At this engine speed, I was able to keep the oil
temps
level at 210. I actually enjoyed the flight as I leisurely
covered
the local area. I stalled the airplane at that power setting, and
it stalled at 47. Not a lot of shaking going on, but the break was
pronounced,
with a left wing drop. Don't have the nerve yet to stall it
at glide speed. I know that I'm running around tail low, so the
"P"
factor is causing me to keep a substantial amount of left rudder.
I suspected this was the case, so I loosened my shoulder straps, and
turned
around and looked. When power was reduced the rudder need was
greatly
reduced. This will require more study also.
Boredom caused me to start studying the airflow over the upper wing at the center section. I noticed my trim strip that covers the gap between the two wing panels was actually lifting up at about half cord. I'm going to have to add a few more fasteners to this. It is amazing how much air is forced down into the cockpit just do to the curvature at the trailing edge. The aft 5 inches of that trim strip is not attached so I was able to flex it around a bit. Lifting it up to the contour of the upper side of the wing, dramatically changed the airflow in the cockpit, and also changed the pitch a bit also. Little things matter. |
1 |
| 7/30/2001 | Had a
visitor
today from the big city of Buda Texas! A 505 builder, by the name
of Jeff Del Castillo was up near my neck of the woods and stopped by
for
a visit. Nice guy, and is really nice having some of the Fisher
Price
Flying Toys brotherhood get together. His presence also produced
a free kitchen pass for. . . . .Another flight down on the mighty
Youngster
"V"!
Today I significantly increased the vent hole at the chin of the cowl, as well as the opening at the bottom of the lower cowl where it meets the firewall. The hope again is to allow more air to flow past the engine and oil cooler. No other changes were made. The start, taxi, and take off were what is now becoming a normal operation. I climbed to an altitude of 1500 feet agl, and leveled off. This equals the highest altitude I have yet obtained. I went this high for the purpose of trying to make the oil hot! It didn't get that way, so climbed another 500 feet. So after putting around for about 20 minutes, at various throttle settings, the oil temp really had never exceeded the 190 to 195 degree area. I'm happy with that. . . .for now. The comfort with the oil temp situation allowed me to investigate other flying qualities of the airplane. The handling of the Youngster is comparable to another 2 aileron biplane of it's size. Further testing of power settings confirms my yaw problems are caused by P factor. When either speed increases, or power is reduced in a glide, (basically any reduction of angle of attach) the bird squares up straight as an arrow. An engine thrust offset, may well be a good player for a fix here, as has been recommended by a few listers. I'm going to wait, however, to get all the power oddities worked out first, before I start changing the rudder or fin trim, so I can figure out a good speed and power setting to trim around, . Having got a grip on the yaw problem, leaves only the pitch trim situation to deal with. This is only a matter of having enough time to reshape my forward flying struts on the stabilizer. |
2 |
| 8/6/2001 | Well, things are getting to
be routine.
I guess that is what I've been waiting and working for. Still
have
a bit of oil, temp to deal with, and then there is the ever present
carb
problems.
Having not flown the plane since the 30th of last month, I went through the cold start procedure this evening. Three strokes of the throttle, and then turned the prop through. The third blade as always, it came to it's putt putting life. Jumped in and taxied the 1 1/2 mile trek to the runway, and all the way to the other end since the wind was out of the north today. This allows good warm up time anyway. I advanced the throttle smoothly and started the take off roll. All normal, I climbed up to about 1400 feet agl, and headed on my way. I headed to a neighbor's field for my needed dose of Ice Tea and fellowship. Overhead his field I fired up my pocket GPS pilot III, and started a check on the airspeed. I flew a square, and made notes of the airspeed, (68 indicated) and the ground speed on all four directions. Added them up and divided by four, and found at an indicated 68, I was averaging 67. That ain't bad, but I guess I'll have to check it a bit slower, to see why the stall speed of 47 looks so high. After this airborne gymnastics, I headed on my way south a bit to test the time and distance needed to make my first public appearance tomorrow night at our EAA chapter's regular meeting. I see that this 12 mile trek will be no problem at all. So I then returned to the field for my Ice Tea. An hour later, and about 8 degrees cooler, (now below 90 degrees finally) I started up first flip, and headed to the runway with a short taxi. Advancing the throttle, it went back to its old tricks of coughing and snorting. Reducing the throttle, I taxied back to make another run and allow a bit more warm up time. This run, everything went smoothly, so, I took to the skies, and putted around for another 20 minutes or so, enjoying the sunset and calmer winds. Actually getting to where I enjoy the putting around. At my next opportunity to do some wrench turning, I'll do a bit more trimming of the stabilizer. This will entail only the adjusting of the forward flying struts. I also hope to soon get some air to air photo's. |
2 |
| 8/20/2001 | Finally got
myself
out of bed early enough to go and fly in the cool of the day.
Well,
almost. I started the Youngster up at 0900 this morning, and
taxied
out to the runway. Getting pretty much routine, at this point,
and
the goal was again to prove dependability, and fly at least an hour and
a half to give a total of 10 hours on the airframe, at least one flight
of a sustained 45 minutes. The reason being, that the airborne VW
engine
doesn't seem to reach it's full operating temperature until about 45
minutes.
Again an oil temperature test. At 10 hours, I "get" to do
it's
first condition inspection required by my operating
specifications.
Reaching the runway, the oil temp just coming off the peg, I advanced the throttle to about 2800 rpm, and accelerated. This rpm, is generally the break point that I seemed to start having the engine problems early in the life of the bird. The plane quickly becomes airborne in ground effect, and I slowly advance the throttle, to full, in the climb. I climbed up to 2500 feet, and enjoyed the morning cool. I had added a fancy seat pad, and a lower back support to make the flight a bit more comfortable after the first 20 minutes. Turning 2900 to 3000 rpm, the whole flight, I putted the better part of an hour away. 50 minutes I cruised around the area, and finally landed in Denton to look at a friends project from our chapter. After lunch, and a temperature change of about 15 degrees, I launched and headed leisurely toward home. This time I climbed to about 3300 feet. At this altitude, I find time to play with the engine a bit to determine if airflow is causing erroneous readings. Yes, it is! Pressing the left rudder, allows the plane to yaw, and the airflow is directed to the side of the engine that the oil temp probe is located, and the temp reads about 10 degrees cooler. Pressing the right rudder returns the temp with in about 15 seconds. Time to insulate the probe from the airflow. Pitch does also seem to make a slower, but real difference in the temps. I plan on adding a lip to the lower cowl to aid airflow exit during higher angle of attack attitudes. Oil pressures at cruise were always around 60 to 65. Having taken off with a full tank of gas, after 1.9 hours, I am seeing about 1/4 tank on my gauge. Feeling the tank, the warm gas through the aluminum sides, let me know that the gauge was reading reasonably. Filling the tank after landing, I burned 7.3 gallons, providing a 3.8 gallons per hour, including two take of and landing cycles. EGT's were were about 1200, and CHT's in anywhere from 325 to 375 depending on phase of flight. I'm ready to take the thing down, and do the following mods to improve it's operation. adjust flying struts at forward stab
to provide
further down stab trim
|
|
9/3/2001
|
Had the
first after
condition inspection flight today. It was a test flight so all
items,
smells and sounds were in the suspect department. Start, and taxi
went well, as did take off. Just after lift off, I started
smelling
hot oil, I knew good and well it was from the oil soaked exhaust but to
be safe, I brought the throttle back and landed to check it out.
No spray, or dripping was found, so I taxied back out, and took
of.
Nice morning to fly, and I headed off to meet some friends about 10
miles
away for a morning of flying and conversation.
Today, I brought camera's for the sole desire of getting some air to air photo's of my bird. Click on the photo's at left, and you can see them blown up. A friend, Keith Schindler, actually took the photo's from his VP-1 as I struggled to keep up. Thanks for the help Keith. About the only item of flight testing today was further checking of the airspeed calibration. I flew two different speeds referring to my GPS. Indicated 72 the first time, and 62 the second time. Each square box I flew averaged right at 10 mph less than I was indicating. So, I really am stalling in the area of 38 gliding, and 35 with power on. Max level speed today at 93 o.a.t. ws about 79 mph. I think we're in the need for drag reduction! Last item noted today was the further need for more down trim. What I've done so far has significantly improved it's trim, but we still have to hold a significant amount of forward stick at the speed, I'd like to cruise at. It's current trim speed is about 58 at this point. I may actually explore adding a bit of down thrust in the engine next. I built some spacers behind the motor board, that I can trim down to aid in this effort. |
|
9/29/2001
 This view shows the biggest attempt at making this carb work. You can see the bullet shaped insert in the carb throat, hoping to increase the air velocity to help draw and vaporize the fuel. |
Ok, it has
been a
while since I've updated this page, and much has gone on. There
has
been no less than heroic efforts trying to get the Zenith carb to run
smooth
enough to warrant keeping it on board. I'll put up some pictures
some day soon of my major mods to the carb. It didn't work.
How's that for an understatement!? I was able to get full power
for
several trips down the runway, but was unable to obtain the warm fuzzy
to leave the ground effect.
I have placed a bit of down thrust into the engine mounting. Due to the problems with the carb, I haven't flown it since to get a feel for the change of trim, if any. From the runs mentioned above, I do think there is an improvement. I was indicating around 70 hands off at about 30 feet altitude. Yesterday I gave up, and bought a Solex (bocar) 34 PICT - 3 carb from "Earl Mann's Bug Shop" in Ardmore Oklahoma. After a few mods, and the creation of now the third intake manifold center section I headed to the airport this morning to see if I was heading in the right direction. Carb installed, I reached for the prop, and it fired to life on it's first pull! Scared me! With a few adjustments, I had a 600 rpm idle, and a full throttle static of about 3200. Idle and full throttle EGT's were down about 100 degrees each. Power was good and smooth in all rpm's. I had to modify the planes throttle quadrant, and am presently finishing up the mods to the carb heat box. Once I can install the heat box, I'll be able to take it for a test airborne. With out the cowl at this point. There will be a need to cut a hole in the top of the cowling to accommodate the vertical extents of a down draft carb, placed where a side draft used to exist. I hope to do this with some fairing that would keep the classic lines of the bird. |
|
10/1/2001
 Looking closely at the carb, you can see that anything not needed in aircraft use, has been milled off. |
Well we had a good day. Went out just afternoon today, and spent
the time doing things right putting the engine back together with the
new
carb. Took about an hour to cut holes in the pretty cowling to
let
the carb stick out the top. Start up went fairly easy, with out
having
to give it mouth to mouth. I wired my choke full open, so I had to keep
it running by giving it a few gooses (geese?) from the throttle's
accelerator
pump. I taxied to the runway, and poured the coals to it! Pushed
me back into the seat and was airborne in no time at all. I went
ahead and just made it a crow hop and touched back down. Everything
fine
and dandy, I turned around, and took off to the north, and climbed
out.
Sure is nice not having to nurse the engine up to power! I climbed to about 1500 feet agl, and cruised around for about 15 minutes and landed at a friends house. Checked everything over, found all ok. I then took off, and headed north, and putted around for another 45 minutes. Not a single hiccup in the engine the whole time. The carb is set up for a 1600cc motor, and I'm running a 1835. So as expected, I'm running a bit high on the EGT's. I'll drill out the main jet tomorrow and attempt another flight. With the higher egt's, my CHT's creeped up to about 380, which ain't bad, but higher than I'd ever seen it. Oil temps were pretty much unchanged at 205 degrees, and as low as 190 in smooth sustained cruise at about 2800 rpm. I may have to tighten up my carb heat muff to get a bit warmer air from it. Not having a significant drop in rpms when it is pulled. Since I was running a bit lean, I did run it full time which gave me about a 50 degree drop in egt. Yes the forward stick need was less, but still significant. Kind of hard to tell yet just what the cause is. I may consider running a streamer to see if the down wash off the upper wing is contacting the stabilizer. I did chop the throttle once, and felt a bunch of the stick load to go away, but so did the speed almost immediately. I tried to stall it at idle, and found that it pretty much just buffeted, but never fell off. At all times it was controllable. |
|
| 10/2/2001 | Today was a real enjoyable flight. I did drill out the main just to 1.32mm. Can't see as I realized much EGT improvement. Timing was also checked and found to be with in limits. I ran the engine on a short run at near full throttle. I actually saw sustained speeds over 80, (calibrated). Still significant forward stick all those speeds. I guess I'm going to have to brake down and do some more stab shimming. Oil temp still running higher than I'd like to see it. Don't know just where to go with this problem yet. | |
| 10/6/2001 |
Things
I did to my airplane in the last few days. Drilled the main jet,
to further richen the mixture. Tightened up my carb heat
muff
to give higher heat supply, re routed my hose from the muff to the carb
heat box to assure it does not interfere with cowling inlet air at the
chin of the cowl. Enlarged opening in chin area of cowl.
Raised
the stab leading edge up against the lower rib of the fin. Cut down the
block at the trailing edge of the stab to give even more down
trim.
(total effective leading edge rise is right at 1 1/2". I
can't
go anymore.) Checked on a very small fuel oozing from my fuel
gauge
sender. Saftied my tail wheel bolts. And finally re rigged
my ailerons to droop just a bit. This will add a bit of lift on
the
aft wing also to allow lifting the tail, and bringing the nose down
just
a bit.
50 degrees, and a 15 knot direct cross winds all day long! I flew anyway and enjoyed every bit of it! Leather helmet, goggles, and leather bike jacket, I took off this morning and headed north with Keith S. in his VP-1 off my wing. Through the short 10 minute flight, the There was nothing that kept my attention other than the beautiful morning to fly. After watching the flying events of ultralights at "Ruby Field" here in the Valley View Texas area. Pretty interesting when you go in at a gross weight of near 620, and you're the "heavy" on the field!? We took off again just to putter around and get some air time. Here I studied for the results of my endeavors of the mentioned mods in the above paragraph. EGT's were stable in the 1250 range, and oil temps never got above 180 degrees. Even though the air outside was cooler than the last flight, I do think I've made great strides in the oil temperature control! Finally! All the mods I made to decrease the amount of down stick required to maintain straight and level, were productive. Sadly though, we're still in need of something more. Next chance I get, I'll add a touch more down thrust angle to the engine, and I think we'll have it. All the engine temperatures were good enough I could give the VP-1 a run for his money. During a descent to get a better look at a local pond, I observed a airspeed of 105 mph. If my airspeed indicator is consistently 10 mph, off, this would mean I've now achieved 95 mph. Highest speed to date. No adverse characteristics were noted. A bit more flying around the country side followed with a few touch and go's. This airplane does nice wheel landings once you figure out just where your wheels are under you. Starting to get a view of the end of the tunnel on this home built. Soon, I'm going to need to start exploring the airspeed numbers, to achieve my "V" speeds for the log book entries now required by the FAA. |
|
| 10/17/2001 | Today's
flight tested
several quick mods to the carb, and airframe. I finally got
around
to replacing a few fittings on the oil cooler set up to final
configuration.
The carb main jet has now been drilled to a #53 drill bit, so EGT's are
consistently below 1200 degrees. I did a temporary installation
of
a manifold pressure gauge to help in setting up the Solex carb
idle.
It also revealed that at full power, I'm only getting 27" of manifold
pressure!?
This says we're loosing a bit of power from having too small of a
carb.
With it running as well as it is, with ample power, I'm not changing a
thing! After a full flight with the pressure gauge in my lap, I've now
removed it and plugged the hole in the intake manifold.
To address trimming efforts, the engine was given some more down thrust. With the upper side mount bolts unchanged with a .30" spacers, the bottom bolts now only have a large fender washer between the motor board and the fire wall. The Top center bolt was merely shimmed to fill the gap. The ailerons were also given another 1/2 turn to droop their trailing edges a bit more. They now droop approximately 3/8" at the trailing edge. Flying wire tension was measured to assure there would be no asymmetric change in wing shape during flight. The forward right landing wire was found to be looser than the aft right by about 30% at rest. I'm sure this would not cause much if any movement, but if it did allow the leading edge to lift, (both wings) we could have a bit of coordination problem. Other maintenance items addressed were the re sealing of the fuel tank. There had been a slow leak at my fuel quantity sender. Tank was removed, and sealed. Fuel gauge was then recalibrated to empty. Since the tank was empty I again put the airplane up on the scales, and confirmed the earlier weights. The throttle quadrant was modified a bit to make it more comfortable in use. Better, but no victory. I'm going to have to move it forward about 6 inches in the future. Due to the gusty cross winds today, I only flew for about a half hour. 15 mph, gusting to over 20 quartering cross winds kept me busy for sure on short final. The little bird handled it fine. As for the pitch trim problem we've been fighting since the first flight, we're almost there. There are times I push, and times I pull to maintain level flight. With my experience with model aircraft, I know that a stab and elevator without an airfoil, the pitch will sometimes hunt, and never settle down. Trim speed seems to be around 65 calibrated at this point. Which reminds me of another thing I need to do. I need a static system so I don't have to subtract 10 from everything I read on the ASI. |
|
| 10/19/2001 | What a day for flying! I flew a total of 1.5 hours today, bringing the ship to 19.3 hours airborne. Almost half way through the 40 hour flyoff. In today's flight no thought was given to the mechanical shape or operation. The total focus of flight test today was performance. Take off and landings totaled 10 each. In 800 feet of runway, I could land to a full stop, and accelerate to take off speed, and leave the ground. Shortest landings and take off's were near 300 feet each. Climb out speed after take off was graduated 5 mph at a time. Starting at 50 through 65. I would at this point call Vy 60, and Vx 55. Max level speed seems to be right at 80 mph, and stall at just under 40 mph. Several square patterns were made with the GPS in my lap to check calibration of the airspeed. Each pattern was flown with a tube from the static port on the airspeed at a different position. At present I have it placed about half way up the inside of the back right cabane strut. Other locations had an error over 10 mph, but in that strut, I saw a mere 4 mph error. I'll play with this more at a later date. | |
| 11/3/2001 | Did some quick work on another VW attached to a V Max. I built his engine also, several years ago, but it has never been one easy to start. It has the same ignition, and carburation, so one would think they would behave the same and start as well as mine. Carb adjusted and timing moved about 5 degrees, things seemed great. So, we headed out to play! Having rough air, not much flying got done, but a stop at a neighboring field, brought much conversation, and of course abuse!? From here the two birds went their separate ways. I by the end of the day, I had flown just over an hour. | |
| 11/5/2001 | Did a short hop over to the neighboring field to deliver a borrowed tool. After departure, I set to do some cruising and started hearing what I thought might be a knocking up front. Nothing serious, but thought I'd put it away, and look it over. Nothing noticed until the next day when it was cold. The valves had tightened up, and thus loosing most of the compression. Resetting the valves, I now have my compression back and it runs smooth and strong. Just to make sure I am not cooking my heads, I went ahead and added a bit more fuel to the mixture. I've been running just under 1200 degrees EGT at cruise, maybe we'll move it now closer to 1100. Heading to Bowie TX, on November 10th for their fly in with a VP-1 off my wing. Time on the airframe is now just over 22 hours. | |
| 11/10/2001 | Flew the
Youngster
to Bowie today. Had a good flight out and back. Cruising in
smooth cool air, tight formation was almost effortless. Snugged
up
under the VP's wing, I was able to clearly hear his engine bark.
Just pulling all four of my exhausts into one, has created a
significant
quieting, obvious at this point just off the wing. Cruising in
the
low to mid 70's, we arrived in just over 30 minutes. The weather was
cool
and cloudy heading out, I was waiting for any indications of carb ice,
since it would have been a perfect day for it. After a fine
formation
fly by with my VP-1 wing man, we split out, and landed. I find
right
now, that the tail wheel doesn't like the hard surfaces. The
little
wheel, shimmied worse than a gurney wheel on the way to the operating
room!?
Something about a little wooden plane, that has an obvious VW motor hanging on the front that creates a lot of interest. I have a feeling that the tension of the tailwheel springs may be a bit loose causing the shimmy and possibly another problem. At cruise, I can't quite find a "vibration" maybe more of a shutter, I am feeling. Items of suspect, are the landing wires being slightly loose with the weight on the flying wires, cowling, and then the loose tailwheel springs and cables. Who knows, it may even be the natural buffeting of the airflow around all the round struts. I checked the valve clearances while there, and found nothing abnormal which was a great relief. We left the Bowie airport at 1300 and headed home. Flying at 2000 feet, we had to weave our way between and considerably below the tops of 3 communication towers. After waving off my wing man over his field, I cruised the area a bit and did a touch and go at Iron Head. Once back at my field, I did test the integrity of the gear system in one approach. Just glad no one was watching during that series of touch (smack) downs! |
|
| 11/16/2001 | Arrived at at airport
this morning
about 1000, and opened the doors. A quick check over the
airplane,
and a temporary installation of Javelin struts on the wires. I
also
tightened up the tail wheel steering springs a half a link, to put a
bit
more tension on the steering lines to stop them from shaking in the
breeze.
Again trying to isolate the source of vibration.
Cool, cloudy day, with a few drizzles in the area. In total I flew about an hour and 20 minutes and even ran through a few little showers. This seemed to only move the dirt from the front of the airplane to the back. The airplane as always never missed a beat, though I did leave the carb heat on through the entire rain period. While cruising along at about 1000 agl, I did hang a 8mm video camera out in the breeze, and filmed the tailwheel springs, and tail section looking for anything obvious. Nothing was noted, and the vibrations seemed to be noticeably less today. Maybe I'm heading in the right direction. I will also adjust the cowling to make sure it is sitting firm. |
24.6 |
| 11/17/2001 | Just a half hour of putting around in the light rain. Chased a Hatz, and J-5, but to no avail. I almost had the J-5, but he put his nose down, and walked away. In all I had about 5 landings today. I do feel I need to adjust the carb a bit. I hope that will be the plan for tomorrow. | 25.2 |
| 11/26/2001 | Just
couldn't stand
it today. Even with a 10 knot direct cross wind, the weather was
beautiful, and needed a Youngster amongst the breezes. To make it
a purposeful flight, I attached a few strings to the upper wings to
figure
out just where the air goes over the airframe. One about 2 feet
out
from the center, and the other, at the center of the upper
wing.
Again, we're fighting a nose up tendency, and an airframe buffet, or
vibration,
that feels more aerodynamic, or prop wash related.
I took off and climbed out to about 3000 feet. I removed my shoulder harness, so I could turn around and see what was going on clearly with my strings. The outer string, about 3 inches beyond the termination of the cockpit entry cut out, had a very stable stretch, and rode approximately 18 inches above the stabilizer. Here it stayed except when in stall, where it took a wild amplitude from 3 to 6 feet. The center mounted string took an entirely different path. From the back of the cutout, the string went down crossing the top of the turtle deck about 4 inches behind its front. From here it went pretty much directly to the tail wheel, (yes that is below the stabilizer). I would then guess that we've found the cause of the nose up tendency. I'll have to do some more study, to see if it is always there, or just under power. Something tells me it has little to do with the prop wash. |
26.4 |
| 12/1/2001 | I thought I'd spend the day putting around, and exploring the glide characteristics of my Youngster. Well it wasn't in the cards, to say the least. About 8 minutes into my flight I came across a wreckage of a Trike just off the runway of a local airport. I returned to assist in CPR for the Pilot of the craft. As Careflight lifted off, I wondered back to my Youngster now having trouble wanting to start and fly away. It took real effort to keep my mind on the task at hand, flying the airplane. I made it a quick trip to a friend's house. Very much a gentleman, very much deserving of the respect that his years and experience grant those senior to our years. Time spent over lunch, calmed the spirit, and I headed out to just receive the therapy the little biplane could provide. I did bend the trim strip between the top wings up a bit into the slip stream, and got a nice nose over tendency. Time to was lost today, but none wasted. Me and my toy will enjoy the time another day | 27.6 |
| 1/28/2002 | Been a while since, I've updated this page, but I've merely been enjoying the flying with this airplane! During my last flight, the carb heat control broke, so I went to fix it today. While there, I enacted some creative engineering, and for the first time, with this carb, made the choke work. My thinking all along has been that the engine is running a bit lean below the 3000 rpm barrier, and thus begins to run rough. Well then, pulling the choke at the mid range should then smooth the run! Wrong! The minute I barely pulled the choke in flight to cure the rough run, the engine almost died! Seeing this, I remembered something I read that said the 009 does not reach it's full advance until 3000 rpm! I'm guessing now, I have a timing problem. | 30.2 |
| 4/26/2002 | I've tried various timing settings, and have felt an improvement. Today I reset the point gap, and checked the dwell. While I had the cowling off, I also checked the valve gaps, and plug gaps, just to assure best run possibilities. Hope to fly tomorrow. | 31.9 |
| 4/28/2002 | Flew for just over an hour today around the area with a VP-1 off my wing. The engine did real well, but I'm still not feeling the engine is as smooth at low cruise power as it is at max. I have found that there is some vibration coming from the landing wires which are a bit limp in flight. I'm able to reach up and add some tension by pulling on them. I seem my tank leak is back. Something for the next annual. don't know just where to start to fix that. I may just slosh the bottom of the tank where the problem lies. | 33.1 |
| 5/14/2002 | Flew to an airport about 35 miles away today. First flight since a oil change with Amzoil. I learned something today that intrigued the heck out of me!? I may have isolated the rough run of the engine, but boy is it a odd one. The Feeling that seems to keep my attention, which I've chased through ignition, airframe, and carburation, may be a prop situation!? I noticed that I could induce the feeling by allowing the slip ball to slide to the right. Now we have a combination of factors. At slow speed, my tail drags low, causing "P" factor, thus a Yaw problem. If this yaw, is significant enough, could I be getting the descending blade in to the dirty air of the ascending blade? That is certainly what it feels like!? Time for a slight engine offset. | 35.4 |
| 6/6/2002 | Well two
years ago
today, I stared building this little airplane. As you see at the
right, I'm now 1.1 hours from finishing the 40 hour test flight
period.
Though I have not reached full warm fuzzy status, it has come a long
way.
Today's flight brought us much closer.
This week I've flown over 4 hours and have learned a few things, even though I don't totally understand the implications. I do know for sure, that I have been running rich. One other thing I don't understand, is if by running a higher octane, you effectively achieve a leaner run? Doesn't make sense, but after running almost pure 100LL for about thirty minutes, I black powder evidence of richness was gone from my exhaust stacks. That point aside, today I replaced the main jet with the stock 2.75 solex jet, and replaced the air correction jet from the stock 80z to a 125z jet. This was done in hopes to enrichen the mid throttle range to stop the EGT increase when pulling the throttle back from full to cruise. Tank was topped off with 92 octane Auto fuel. (all previous runs have been on 87 octane) Takeoff power was improved, and EGT's were increased over 200 degrees. So much so, that I was tweaking the choke to reduce the temps (any movement of the choke before would nearly kill the engine instantly). During the full 1 hour flight, CHT's were now up to normal mid 300 degree range. Power seemed smooth at all times so here we may have a substantial victory. Carb heat also brought on a larger rpm drop than before. Don't know what it means, but it's just data. Carrying a hand held digital tach, I checked rpms at various stages in flight. So, after landing I again calibrated the tach. Max rpm in flight is 3100 rpm at 80 mph. |
38.9 |
