Beautiful, Warm, Calm, Evening Flight

We finally had a beautiful evening for flying.  I got to enjoy it for an hour, almost no wind or turbulence and you could see forever.

I flew over our lake to look at the work they are doing on the Dam.

The dam is below the flying wires in front of the middle of the wing.  They are repaving the spillway which is at the right and of the dam.  They had to take the water level down about 6 feet to do the work so you can only use a canoe or kayak for a few more months.  For what it's worth there is a lot of extra beach all the way around the lake.

 Time for the annual condition inspection of the plane.

Another Chance To Fly

 Finally a beautiful sunny, warm 74 deg. day with the wind down runway 23 at 5 knots. I checked the winds at 3,000 feet, Light and Variable.  It sounded perfect to me.  I took off just before 5pm today, and headed east. The pictures were taken while east bound, looking North, West and South.

I got to our house at Lake Louisa in about 10 minutes but it was so bumpy I gave up and wandered back to the airport.  The sun was still high enough on such a clear day that we had plenty of thermal activity.

I flew for a half hour and made a nice landing so I'm glad I went.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Finally A Nice Day For Flying

 We finally had a nice day.  It got into the low 60's with a gentle breeze from the southwest.  It was 5 pm when I finally took off so I just stayed in the traffic pattern, going around the airport for 30 minutes.  The wind at 3,000 feet was 16 knots from 290° so I expected a little turbulence do to the wind coming over Merry Mountain.  It wasn't much until I got to the south end of the airport.  About 5:30 I was still going to fly a little more but it had gotten turbulent enough there that I gave up and landed.  The overcast looks lower than it was.  The AWOS was reporting clear below 12,000 feet.

There was an end to the overcast about 30 miles to the north.

Looking southwest the airport is in front of the wires.

Looking at Southwest Mountain from the upwind for runway 23.

Beside the airport heading southwest, upwind for 23.

Looking over Merry Mountain (1,100 feet) we had very good visibility to the Blue Ridge Mountains, 30+ miles.

A nice evening flight.

1/2 Hour Flying - Beautiful Cool Afternoon

 

Went flying about 4pm this afternoon.  It was cool, 60 degrees, crystal clear, with a 5 mph breeze straight down runway 23. Cruising at 77mph, and 2100 RPM, the CHT was about 345 degrees F.

Heading ESE that's Lake Anna straight ahead and Lake Louisa, where I live, to the right.

When I turned at Lake Louisa I headed SW so I would be south of Gordonsville Airport  to enter the downwind for 23.  Bad plan, I was flying  straight into the setting sun.  Visibility forward was awful.

I also should have flown another 20 minutes so the sun would be better hidden while landing, couldn't see the trees below me turning final.  They weren't close but it was not comfortable.  Then bounced the landing a little, but had fun overall.

Nice Warn Afternoon Flight

 I had to get something from the hangar, for my son, so I went early and had a nice late afternoon flight, for almost 1 hour.  It was about 70 degrees with a gentle breeze down the runway.  I left the traffic pattern for a while and flew around south of the airport.

Coming back I noticed this pipeline running north, east of the airport.  They keep a wide path clear so they're easy to find and follow.  They're also shown on the sectional charts.  Them, high power line clearings and expressways are great navigation aids when traveling in these tree covered states down south.

The airport is between me and Merry Mountain.

Here's a closeup of the white book warehouse north of the airport. If you zoom in and look in front of the strut, and above the spreader bar, you can see Orange County Airport.  It's not the white buildings just above the bar but the tiny ones above then.  OK, I know what I'm looking for.  It's about 6 miles north.

I mentioned the mountains on the west side of the traffic pattern the other day.  Here's what Merry Mountain looks like at traffic pattern altitude on the crosswind for runway 5.

This is it after turning downwind for runway 5.

Looking south was hazy from smoke that came from somewhere way  south of us.

Looking north over the runway, with the sun behind me, you don't even see the haze.

Cool Evening Flight

 Yesterday I went for a nice evening flight. It was a cool 55 deg. I wore my fleece vest under my leather jacket, which kept my shoulders warm.  I should have also worn a sweater, my left arm got very cold, but it was fun anyway.  The wind was 8 knots from a little left of runway 23.  Once in the air it was very smooth.  I didn't leave the traffic pattern, I only had 40 minutes until sunset, so I just went around the airport.

Looking NE from the left downwind for 23.

Looking East, we're well past peak fall colors, very brown.  We mostly have yellow and brown at best.

Looking North, the white building is a book warehouse.  It's an easily spotted reference, except when it snows, which isn't often.

Looking West, the airport is in the lower left corner. Fred's hangar/house/terminal is the white building just by the left edge of the picture.  Merry Mountain is behind the spreader bar.  Scott Mountain is just to the left of the cabane strut, behind Scott is Chicken Mountain.  Gibson Mountain is hiding behind the strut.  Way in the back are the Blue Ridge Mountains. The airport is at 454 feet and the top of Merry Mountain is just over 1,100 feet right next to the downwind for Runway 5.  It looks really close  when you take off on 5 and turn left toward it.  The Downwind for 5 is halfway between it and the runway so it actually is close.  At the point you make your turn from the runway you're still not above it.

Finally Back To Flying

 We had a beautiful evening, more like late afternoon without Daylight Time.  I flew for half an hour and everything worked fine except my camera.  I think the memory card is full.  I have not solved the Cylinder Head Temperature problem, it's still running hotter than it should.  I had fun.  

When I did my BFR I rented a friends C172.  It does not fly like the Fly Baby.  It took a while to work out the traffic pattern positions, but we got there.  The first landing I was almost stopped when we realized the nose tire had gone flat.  We got it on a creeper and carefully dragged it back to the hangar. A piece of safety wire had poked a tiny hole into the tube.

It's supposed to be nice tomorrow so maybe I can take some pictures.

Airport Finished - Sticky Exhaust Valve - No Flying

 They finished the new runway a couple weeks ahead of schedule.  It's flat end to end. You can almost read the numbers from the other end. 

Looking SW down Rwy 5 you can see the grass where the taxiway was.  Because it sets so much lower than the runway all taxiing may have to be on the runway.  That will really limit how many planes can be in  the pattern at one time to about 2 or 3.  We'll find out in the spring when we can drive on it.

Hangars, looking west.

No more down hill to the north.

The town had the official ribbon cutting November 16th.  Well Done.

With the runway open I needed to finish my Condition (Annual) Inspection.  Since it ran out during the closure I couldn't go flying to warm up the engine before checking the compression.  I decided to check the engine compression cold, then recheck it after a flight.  The compression check was my last task.  All the valves looked good with the borescope and cylinders 1,3 and 4 all had good compression.  Cylinder 2 had no compression.  The leak is through the exhaust valve.  The motor runs full rich, no mixture control, and I've had high cylinder head temps, so carbon buildup on the valve stem and guide was suspected.

Cylinder 1 Exhaust.  The oil stain is from oil I sprayed in the cylinders to help prevent rust while it sat.

Cylinder 2 Exhaust

Cylinder 3 Exhaust

Cylinder 4 Exhaust

Caleb Glick convinced me to clean the valve stem and guide without removing the cylinder.  My first step was to remove the rocker and valve springs.  To hold the valve closed while I compressed the spring, I bought a 50 ft. roll of 1/4" nylon rope.  I fed 25 feet into the cylinder with the piston down, then rotated the piston to top center, compressing the rope against the valve.  It took that much rope to get the rope tight, without the piston going past top center. With the springs removed I clamped a drill chuck on the end of the valve stem.  I was able to pull the valve tight and compression checked good.  It looks like we're on the right track.

I tied a length of flat rib stitch cord to the groove in the stem where the little keepers for the spring retainer sit.

Then, with the piston at bottom, I used a brass rod to gently tap the valve into the chamber.

I used a piece of safety wire to fish out the cord and move the end of the valve stem to the spark plug hole.

There is some soot build up on the lower end so I cleaned it up and polished it with crocus cloth.

I used a round wire brush to clean the valve guide.

The valve stem and guide were oiled and the cord was then used to pull the valve stem back through the guide.  I used a curved end rib stitch needle to lift the valve end to get it aligned with the guide.

The rope was used to hold the valve while I compressed the springs to put the springs back together.

I should have checked the compression first.  It's better but I still have a leak through the valve.  After some experimenting, I've decided to remove the cylinder and replace the valve.  I've ordered parts from Fresno Air Parts.  They should be here in a couple days.

I have removed the grills from the Nose Cowl so when this is back together we'll see if that helps the temperature problem.

Nose Cowl Inlet Discoveries

 I'm still trying to solve my high cylinder head temperature problem.  Cylinder cooling depends on the size of the inlet openings, to get good inlet pressure.  Then the baffles have to assure the air coming in goes through the cooling fins, with no leaks.  The rate of airflow across the cylinders depends on the outlet size to create a pressure drop from above the cylinders to below them.

I started with the assumption that the Taylorcraft nose cowl openings were obviously larger than the old cowl so it should work fine.  I've worn myself out looking for leaks and playing with the outlet opening and skirt.  I've made some improvements but never solved the problem.

The other day I had the bright idea that maybe the grills on the Taylorcraft cowl were blocking the airflow.  After all the Taylorcraft used a 65 HP motor and mine's 85 HP.  I decided to remove them and see if it improves the flow, when the airport reopens in November.  This required removing the nose cowl to get them out.

While I was removing the nose cowl I decided to position the old nose cowl so I could visually compare them (I don't throw things away until I'm sure I won't ever want them).  I think the current term is OMG.  Houston, we have a problem.  The useful area of the Taylorcraft openings is clearly smaller than the old cowl inlets.

Time to lay this out in CAD to learn some truth.

I used the prop opening to align the 2 cowls in TurboCAD.

The Yellow line is the old Inlet.  The one thing you see is that it is positioned to focus air on the cylinder head.

The Magenta line is the top of the front baffle.  The best airflow is above that line.  Most of the Taylorcraft inlet is below that line.

Yes the grill is blocking airflow to my cylinders.

Here are the numbers:

Old  Inlet                                  T'craft Inlet

33.9 sq in                                  58.6 sq in without Grill  (much bigger)

                                                  39.2 sq in with Grill       ( not much bigger)

Above Line

26.1 sq in                                   23.6 sq in without Grill (10% smaller)

                                                   15.5 sq in with Grill      (41% smaller) OUCH!!!

I've removed the grills and redone the skirt without the lip.

They're ahead of schedule on the runway so I may wait to recover the fuselage until after the runway is done so I can see if this is the answer.

They have the base gravel down and this runway really looks good.

The first picture is looking SW and the second looking NE.

Very flat, slightly downhill to the NE

July 19 Added Lip to Cowl Skirt - July 22 Last Flight From Gordonsville's Old Runway

 

My last experiment, for now, was to add a small curved lip to the bottom of the shallow cowl skirt and reinstall it in place of the steep one.  By the time I got done, on a very hot, humid evening, it was too late to go flying.  I hammered the curve using a plastic hammer and dolly while holding the skirt so it was curved, like when it is installed.  I only did about 20" in the middle where the skirt is perpendicular to the airflow under the cowl.

It came out nice but made the temps hotter so I was back on the ground in 15 minutes.

They're rebuilding our runway, last paved around 1955, to get rid of the cracks, widen it from 40 feet to 50 feet, get rid of the hump near the north end and the dip near the south end.

Looking southwest from the displaced threshold for runway 23.  There's a low spot near the south end.  From here the runway goes downhill, behind me to the northeast

This view is from the north end looking back uphill to the displaced threshold

Another nice warm evening flying.  This was the first change I made which made the temperatures worse, so I learned something from it.

This view is from the end of runway 5 looking back to the northeast.  You can see the dip near this end.  The runway will be flat but still run downhill when they are done.  This end can't be lowered because it's at the property line and the adjoining land owner won't give permission to cut into their property.  The crack will be gone and you'll be able to see if someone or something is on the runway when you start your roll to the south.  Their plan is to reopen it in November, about Thanksgiving (120 days).

While it's closed I plane to recover the fuselage and tail which I covered with cotton it 1994, 28 years ago.  Time goes by quick