Another Nice Evening Flying

We had a light breeze at about 45 degrees from the left of the runway, but otherwise a very nice evening.  I flew for about 50 minutes.

Looking east at Lake Anna, the nuclear cooling pond.

Farm Country north of our home.

This building is one of three green houses near us, more like a green factory. This one is American Colors, which is a few miles north east of our house.

We have a lot of trees in Virginia.

I waited for the sun to get low enough that the mountains, on the west side of the runway, blocked the sun.  Much easier landing when the runway is in the shadow.

Nice Evening Flight

 Just back from 45 minutes flying on a nice evening, calm, clear, reasonably dry air at 75 degrees.  Just forgot to take the camera.  Everything was so green, really nice.  

No real change in the motor cooling. For now I'm just having fun flying, until they close the runway for repaving in July.

New Cooling Outlet Skirt

 

When I made the last skirt it I made it with a steeper angle, from the bottom of the cowl.  I decided to make another one to replace it at a shallower, more streamlined, angle to see what happens to the cooling.

It's still the same length, about 3 1/2".  

I riveted it to the front of the short skirt, from a couple versions back, so I had to locate the old rivet holes without taking the cowl off, etc.  Some of the holes were easy to mark from the back side.  I made a card stock pattern of the new skirt until I had a pretty good fit, adding holes as I trimmed it to fit.

Some of these holes were well located, others had to be adjusted to get the pattern properly positioned.  As a result I couldn't easily use them to transfer the locations to the aluminum skirt.  Instead, once I had it Clecoed in the proper position, I drew a circle up close around each Cleco clamp.

I punched a hole at one end of the strip of aluminum, with the Whitney Punch, and used it to Cleco one end of the pattern in place.  Then I punched a hole at the other and Clecoed it, so the pattern wouldn't move.

I used my Optical Center Punch, centered on each circle, to mark the center of each rivet hole.  The Cleco housing is slightly smaller in diameter than the hole in the base of my Grizzy Optical Center Punch.  Looking through the magnifier lens you align the drawn circle with the edge of the hole and mark the center.

How well did it work?  I made the skirt at home and Alodined it, finished, done, took it to the airport and Clecoed it in place.  Every hole fit perfect.  A light clean up of the new 1/8" holes with the #30 drill and all the rivets went right in, not bad.  

Now I just need to go flying.  It was close to dark when I finished.

Back Flying - Finally!!

 

After 5 months and 1 day of crappy weather, I finally got to go flying.  It was a beautiful day until about 3:30 when it clouded up and rain started.  After dinner it was just a high overcast and about 72°.  After a good preflight I flew for 20 minutes.  It's surprising how rusty you get after 5 months, I landed at about 55MPH.  It's nice to have a plane which likes to roll straight down the runway.

They're planning to finally close our runway for repaving, 4 months starting in late July, so I need to take advantage of any nice weather.

Landed In Light Rain

 Yesterday was another warm beautiful, but very windy, day.  Today was calm with an overcast at 4800 feet, nice day to fly.  After checking the weather I also checked the radar weather for any rain hiding in the overcast.  There was light rain moving toward the airport so I decided to see how it looked on the ground and, if nice enough, stay in the traffic pattern, for a quick escape if needed.

The sky looked OK and the wind sock showed a touch of wind from the north so off I went from runway 05.

I took these pictures after turning downwind next to Merry Mountain.  You cans see the top of it below the spreader bar.  The arrows are pointing at rain about 3-4 miles away.  I decided to go around the pattern.  When I got back to this point the rain had moved at least half way to the airport.  I pulled on Carb. Heat and Throttled Back for a nice landing back on 05.

The rain caught up with me on short final.  By the time I landed the windshield was covered in light rain.  Nice to be on the ground.

I did get to fly in December for about 10-12 minutes, and had fun.  Maybe I'll get to fly again before the year is out.  We'll see.

Merry Christmas!

Warm Sunny and Windy Day

 I'd been looking forward to today since it was forecast to be in the mid 60s and sunny.  It was actually in the   low 70's.  When I checked the weather I found the wind was right down the runway, just at 14 knots gusting to 24.  That's too much for me or the Fly Baby.  I was curious what was diving the winds so I went on line.  The wind at 3000 feet was 50 knots, way beyond me or the Fly Baby.  

Calmer days will return eventually and we'll get to fly then.

Left Brake Not Working

 When I went flying on Thanksgiving the left brake wasn't working.  I only use them for taxiing and running up the motor, for pre-flight checks, so I went flying anyway.  They are heel operated and I'm getting better at using them.  I just think if you need them on landing you really need to get back in the air.  I'm sure the day will come when I have to use them after landing.

They are CUB brakes and in the CUB the cylinders are mounted, as shown, on the floor board between the rudder pedals, one pointing left and one to the right.  They are very easy to service in the CUB, you just lean in the door opening.

The way they work is, the Brake, Line, and Reservoir are filled with fluid, held in by the Diaphragm and Filler Plug.  When you push the pedal the plunger pushes on the diaphragm forcing fluid to expand the tube in the brakes.  This pushes the Brake Pads against the Brake Drum, very simple.  If the Filler plug comes loose the fluid just squirts out and that brake is dead.  That was why my brake was dead.  The gasket had gotten very hard and the plug came loose, so I made a new gasket, problem solved.

In the Fly Baby the cylinders are under the floor board.  There is a hole in the floorboard to access the filler pug but you need to lay on the floor under the fuel tank to get to it and add fluid, a real pain.

Instead I have a removable access panel under the cylinders.  With a 5/8" crows foot wrench and a little work you can loosen or tighten the filler plug from under the plane.  It takes  bit of dexterity to screw it in or out with your finger tips, but not much more trouble than while laying on the floor.

I have a gooseneck oil can for filling the reservoir.  It's much easier to fill it from below, then above, by using a piece of safety wire to hold the nozzle pointing down.  You just hook it in the opening and slowly squirt until it starts to overflow.  It's easy to see that it's full with a light and an inspection mirror.

I think I finally have all the air out of the brakes.  They feel better than they have since I put it back together.  

Now I just need a less windy day to go back to flying.