I thought for a while that I liked the look better without wheel pants, but ok, I guess I do like it with 'em on there.
Neato.
Wooptedoo.
After getting all that stuff sanded and primed and then reinstalled, I flew down to Palomar for lunch at the cafe there. The first time I flew to CRQ several years ago, I got a tour of the control tower. The controllers there told me that they love it when planes do low approaches prior to landing. Well, um, I think I can oblige. Today I did just that, and came screamin' down the runway at 215mph indicated. Love it. After I got back to the hangar, I got distracted with work before I had a chance to pull the plane in. At some point I looked out at it, and the way the light was shining off the tailcone it really caught my attention. A fellow builder commented to me the other day...after I complimented his paint...that paint "hides sins," but to fly around and display the plane with bare metal is a whole 'nuther thing. I took that as a real compliment. And times like this I look at it and am really proud of the metal work, at least for a first-timer like me. There's room to improve, but I'm more than happy with how this plane looks. I'm getting bombarded with the "when are you gonna paint?" crap, and I'm really surprised at how many people are so dependent on paint in the way they think of planes being complete or not. This plane is by no stretch complete, but hey, it's fast, it flies great, it has been reliable, etc., etc. What more do you want? Adding paint to this plane would just be weight that I don't need to tote around, climb lost, pride masked.
I'm back to playing around with balsa rudder trim wedges. In cruise, I need the very slightest amount of left rudder to get the ball perfectly centered. It's really such a tiny amount of rudder, though. On my lunch flight today, I taped this balsa wedge to the rudder to see how it would work...I had cut about 1/4" off chord wise, and about 3/4" off length wise. Still, it overshot. This thing is tiny, but it has a huge effect. I trimmed it even more, taped it on, and went flying again.
Guess what? The plane's even faster than I thought it was. The other day, I trued out at 186 knots, but tonight I smashed right through that number (well, smashed is a relative term). I finally did a more reliable performance test today. I used Laird Owens' "which altitude to fly for X density altitude" chart. I also remembered to close the vents this time!
I found that I can get 25.2" of manifold pressure at 8000' density altitude. I'm somewhat curious if that's the norm, or if the horizontal induction + ram air is actually doing its job. I've heard people talking about getting 24 inches at 8000', but I don't recall people saying they get over 25 inches...hm...
Test Results at 8000' DA:
Ground speeds as read off the GX60:
| Heading | Groundspeed |
|---|---|
| South | 188 knots |
| West | 182 knots |
| North | 188 knots |
| East | 193 knots |
| Average | 187.75 knots (216 mph) |
At that speed, I'm going 9 mph faster than Van's 8000' specs. Jeez. Now all I have to do is make a few little mods and I should be able to hit 190 knots!
I stopped back at Corona for fuel, which got slightly cheaper recently ($2.54/gal). When I got back down, the sky was looking kinda cool.
Again the rudder wedge had turned out to be too big. I'm basically down to an 1/8" thick sliver. That's all I really need. So I sanded it down, epoxied it in place, and then glassed over it. That blue tape is over the tail strobe/position light.
