Flying With New Cylinder Head Temp Gauge

 I went to fly last week.  While taxiing out the CHT went to zero and I couldn't find the loose connection.  I had ordered a Westach 2 1/4" CHT gauge and sender from Aircraft Spruce so I gave up and waited for the mail to deliver my treasures.

For now I put it in the hole from the dead clock.  I'll move it to the lower left where the extra Airspeed, I'm using as a cooling pressure gauge, is located once I solve the cooling problem.  It turns out the bad connection is under the white electrical tape to the left of the the hand held temp. gauge.

I calibrated the new gauge up to 430 degrees F. it reads in degrees C but it was spot on all the way.  It's not as precise as the hand held but it works fine.  

I'll hook the hand held to the aft cylinder on the other side so I'll be able to see temperature on each back of cylinders.

Yesterday was in the low 70's and overcast at 7,000 feet so a nice calm afternoon to go flying with the new gauge.  There was a wall of rain about 10 miles to the north.  If you look close on the picture at the right you can see the mountains disappear behind the rain just in front of the spreader bar.

Ten miles south we had clear bright sunshine, go figure.

The leaves are really filling in fast on the trees around our little lake.

I only flew about 45 minutes.  The rain was heading for the airport from the west.  I landed in light rain with the windshield covered in rain.  I got the plane refueled just as the rain picked up.  We'll have more nice days.

1 1/2 Hours Flying

 Yesterday afternoon was one of those warm (mid 70s) sunny days.  We had a strange bubble of haze for about 2 miles around the airport when I took off.  A gentle breeze slowly moved it away before I returned to land.

I still haven't solved the Cylinder Head Temp. problem.  It stayed right around 400 degrees F at cruise.  I think I'll see if Aircraft Spruce has CHT gauges back in stock before I make any more changes.

We have 3 more nice days forecast so hopefully it will be a good week for flying.

I didn't get to take any pictures.  I discovered you can put the battery in backwards on my little Canon PowerShot ELPH 180.  Next time I'll check it before I go flying.  I could have used my phone, but I have a lanyard on the camera so it can't blow out, much safer.

Fuel Gauge Float Leak Not As Solved As I Thought

 Gusty winds have kept me from flying, but I was at the airport earlier in the week to get something.  While I was there I tapped the top of the float wire to see how well it floated and it sunk to the bottom of the tank, bummer.  A couple hours later when I got home I weighed it and found it had taken on 10 grams of fuel, half it's normal weight.  Avgas has a density of about 0.72 grams/ml so 10 grams of gas is about 14ml.  Submerging the float on water I find the volume is about 50 ml.  So, 14 ml is well over 1/3 full of gas just from temperature cycles sucking it in while floating, barely under the surface, at the top of the tank.

A little dangerous experimenting with a cigarette lighter found the leak, in the side seam.  I drained the gas, fixed the hole, and left it submerged in gasoline for 5 days.  Two nights it went down to 25 Degrees F, so good cooling/warming cycles to draw in gasoline.  I weighed it this morning and it hadn't gained any weight.  Hopefully it's really fixed this time.  I'll put it back on the plane and keep checking how it floats.