Cylinder Cooling Change and New Chocks

 Sunday and Monday were hot and wet, with high winds aloft, so I decided to make another change to try reducing the cylinder head temperature.

I've shortened the cowl outlet skirt and opened the size of the outlet.  I decided to rivet a piece of aluminum to the short skirt to lengthen it back to 3 1/2", where it started.  It now covers the full width of the cowl.  The original was only on the middle half of the cowl.

I used the pattern from the last skirt to create the blank .  Once I added the rivet holes I trimmed the bottom edge to 3 1/2".

This change about doubled the height of the skirt.  It's a little close to the LH exhaust pipe so I hammered a bump to give a little more clearance.

It looks good.  We need to go flying.

A couple weeks ago I made some new chocks for when I'm hand propping the motor.  I wanted bigger chocks which would be harder to jump if the throttle wasn't closed as the motor started.  I don't want to get chopped up by the prop.  I made these from a piece of a 6x6.  The other chocks were made from a piece of 4x4.

I used the table saw blade to carve away some of the bottom and more of where the tire touches.  I like then, they won't be easy to jump over.

Like the small chocks I tied the rope so they always fit the wheels.  

I kept getting in the cockpit without removing them so I made the rope long enough to hang the end on the Pitot mast.  That way I can see the rope when I go to step on the wing, to get in the cockpit.  It works.

Yesterday was hot but nice otherwise, a good day to see if the skirt changed the CHT, and for flying in shirt sleeves.  It was still 88 degrees F when I took off at 6 pm.  The CHT got up to 435 F at traffic pattern altitude where it had been pushing 460 F on cooler days.  Cruising at 76 mph and 2200 rpm the temperature stabilized in the low to mid 390s.  It's not the solution but it is better.  Oil temperature settled to 205 F.

I flew over and checked out the Corn Maze west of Orange, in front of the strut.  There's a sunflower, a pig, and I think a butterfly.  I'm not sure what the other small things are, maybe just the maze.

I flew for over 1 hour.  It was really nice.

Flying 3 Days in A Row - After Waiting 2 Months

 After 2 months of poor weather and being crazed busy with work, I finally got to fly again.

It won't last long.  The 1st of August they are closing the runway for 120 days to re-pave/re-construct it.  Around 1955 they scraped up as much dirt as they could from the airport property and created the existing paved runway.  It's 40 feet wide by 2,300 feet long, has a big rolling "S" from one end to the other, and the cracks in the 65 year old pavement have become weed gardens.  The wizards of smart have decided they can scrape up more dirt to mostly flatten it, but not level it.  The south, high, end of the runway is at the property line so there is no way to lower it without cutting down the neighbors property.  There will never be enough dirt to raise the north end high enough for level.  It will be nice to have the cracks gone, but it looks like we'll loose our grass taxiway/landing area.

We had a couple afternoons in the mid 80s and calm, very nice flying.  The motor is still running hot but I have more ideas to try.  I did manage to fly about 40 minutes with the cylinder head temp at 400 degrees F.  By then the oil temp was creeping up on the red line so I gave up.  I had fun though.

Below is Montpelier. President James Madison's home.  He's the guy responsible for much of our Constitution.  When Mrs. DuPont owned it she kept here WACO at the Gordonsville Airport.  The airport is just behind Merry Mountain, the tallest of the 3 peaks beside our downwind.

I went back out this morning for some cooler air.  It was hazy looking east but nice otherwise.  I flew for almost an hour before the turbulence started and I headed home.

Mike Colburn, who keeps a C-172 in the hangar next to me, took these pictures of my landing.  I'm landing on 23.  The trees are not as close as they look unless you're taking of on 05 on a hot day.

I felt a small bounce, but his pictures make it look perfect.  The Fly Baby is easy enough to keep straight as long as you are quick and gentle with the rudder and fly it until it stops.  

Happy pilot heading back to the hangar.

I do like the paint job.  The research and effort were worth it.

Flying 2 Days In A Row

 Yesterday was another warm summery day.  I flew for about 40 minutes.  It was about 80 degrees when I took off.  The cylinder head temp. ran right around 400 F cruising but the warmer air let the oil temp climb close to red line.  I had fun though and may have some more ideas to try solving the temp. problem.

I headed north for a change.  I'm about 3 miles north here, looking back at the airport.

The church below is Saint Isadore the Farmer, we joined after building our current house.  The road, which runs past the airport is US 15.

Here I'm about 7 miles north, looking back at the airport.  The town of Orange, Va. is off the left wing.  Orange airport is just out of the picture, about where the strut runs off the left edge.

Another nice evening for flying.  I'm looking forward to warm enough days that I can fly at sun up.  The perfect way to start a day.

Finally A Nice Evening For Flying

 We've had a month of gusty winds across the runway.  Yesterday evening was perfect, low to mid 80s and a slight breeze almost down runway 23.

After a month, the trees are all leafed out.  No more looking down through them.  It makes it harder to navigate since the trees hide the roads.

It was nice to be flying in calm warm air.

The picture on the right is looking west past Southwest Mountain towards the Blue Ridge, at the horizon.

The picture below is looking east.  We do have a lot of trees.

The picture on the right is looking to the northeast.  Gordonsville is after all the horse farms.

Looking down on Barboursville Vineyards.  The mansion ruin is in the center, tiny dot of brickwork from here.

A good time was had by all.

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.