From Riverside I flew down to Carlsbad to meet Dave Greulich, a pilot from Chicago with whom I've corresponded off and on for a while. Dave isn't an RV builder or pilot yet, but I get the sense he will be at some point in the near future!
Today when I wasn't busy working... Sidebar... Last night I set up DSL and the wireless network at the hangar, which kicks butt! I've been using dialup since last fall whenever working at the hangar, and it's a real treat to have broadband at the new digs. This pretty much gets rid of the last barrier to totally effective cross-existence in all of my favorite environments. The only barrier remaining is that the hangar can be a somewhat noisy atmosphere at times, which is a hindrance if I'm on a conference call or something. If a plane taxis by it's obviously noisy, but if the wind is blowing (as it often does at Chino), the hangar doors can make a bit of a racket as they bump around on their tracks. Oh, well...it's really no big deal. A couple of months ago I was on a conference call at the old hangar, and right in the middle my neighbor taxied up in his Long-EZ. I had to just say to the folks on the other end, "Hang on one sec," and before I got through saying it the guy was doing some sort of run-up or high RPM cool down or something. Annoying. Anyway, it was pretty funny in the end, because once he shut down all I heard was laughter on the other end of the phone. Fortunately I was talking to developers, not clients, so it was cool. They wanted to know if I was in the air...no, it's just my old neighbor being annoying. Such is life with telecommuting from a hangar.
Ok, back on track...today while I wasn't working I worked on the plane. I had a long list of little things I've been meaning to do, and it's time for an oil change as well. Would you believe that after all that to-do about the Dynon and EMI and noise and all that, I still hadn't installed the "dongle" until now?! Well, nope, I hadn't. I was just too busy flying and enjoying. Yeah, that's the ticket. Anyway, here's a shot of the D10 removed and the dongle installed with some 4-40 screws that I trimmed for this purpose.
This is the final "potted" dongle that Dynon sent me a couple of months ago. The new D10A doesn't need this, since it has the EMI prevention circuitry built in to the best of my knowledge. But since I've got the lowly, original D10, I need the dongle to reduce EMI noise. Honestly, in flight I haven't really seen any symptoms at all, but hey...it's time to pop this on.
It's a 90-degree inline adapter of sorts.
After installing it, I flew down to John Wayne (SNA) where they have a nice compass rose. I used to base the Mooney there, so I like flying back down there every once in a while. Anyway, I noticed immediately that my COM2 signal (wingtip Archer COM antenna) was noticeably stronger and clearer. I was able to pick up ATIS for SNA right after takeoff out of Chino. Previously I would have had to climb and get past the hills before getting mediocre reception.
Last night I had upgraded the firmware, and recently I've been seeing some "wagging" of the heading on the Dynon, so I wanted to redo the magnetic calibration procedure to see if that fixed the problem (which is intermittent...we'll see...). At the compass rose at SNA, I went through the clunky calibration procedure. Another nice thing about the new D10A is that you no longer need a connected laptop to perform the calibration -- it's all built in. I could see as I stopped on the cardinal headings that the Dynon was off quite a bit. I'm not sure if that was a result of the problem I've been seeing, the dongle having been installed, or just some internal mode reset while the calibration was performed (i.e. it may discard the previous calibration or something while recalibrating). I have no idea, but it was off.
Once it was done the software reported the average error as zero...last time it was an average error of -1 degree. Zero is better than -1, for whatever that's worth. We'll see if the heading wagging issue comes back again or whether it was just the titanium rod in my father's leg that triggered it...heheh...
I flew up to Corona to head to Spruce and grab some oil and stuff. Before departing Corona, I tried to pick up Chino ATIS using COM2...and I was surprised that I could actually hear it. I had to crack the squelch open, but I could hear the transmission just fine. I had never been able to do that before. I gotta attribute it to the reduced EMI noise.
Back at Chino, I popped the cowl (so to speak), propped the tail up, and did the oil change. You know the hangar's big if you can get a shot of the whole plane while standing inside the hangar! I love this new hangar...
I've been planning on doing a "semi-annual inspection" on the plane in late September, which will be six months since I started flying 14D. I figure most people put about 100 hours on their plane each year...I've put over 180 hours on this plane in less than five months. I figure I may as well "accelerate" the inspection schedule a bit to keep up with all the hours this thing is seeing. On one hand, that makes no sense, since the more a plane is flown the healthier it will be. But on the other hand, stuff happens...and time and wear are the deciding factors. It's really no trouble to go the extra mile and inspect things more frequently...just part of this way of life I've adopted anyway...staying intimately in tune with the plane and keeping an eye out for surprises.
One thing I planned on doing in September was a compression check. Yesterday, serendipitously, Louie the "tool guy" pulled up outside the hangar in his van-trailer setup. He just happened to have a differential compression tester onboard, which I snagged from him (he actually has just about everything you could possibly need). I came to find out he drives his setup around the whole west coast and Nevada...I thought he just did Chino! Louie's prices are relatively high, definitely higher than mail order, but there's something about having the thing right there at your hangar, not having to pay and wait for shipping, etc. Louie's a knowledgeable, helpful guy, so I don't mind paying a little extra to do business with people like that, especially when they come to you! In case you're in the market for aircraft tools, Louie Luevano can be reached at aerotool@quiknet.com or 916-952-1116. Tell him Dan the unpainted RV guy from Chino sent you (I don't get a discount or anything, I just think Louie's a good guy).
Anyway, here's the differential compression tester I bought at my hangar (sounds weird) yesterday.
It's actually a model that Aircraft Tool Supply sells, the 2E-M, which has the master orifice setup. I'm pretty sure that's only useful on Continentals and such, not on Lycomings, but hey, I've got it if I need it (i.e. if I put a Continental 6-banger on my RV-10...oops, did I say that out loud?). Nah, I'm too much of Lycoming guy.
I wondered how the compression would be. No, let me rephrase that. I prayed that the compression would be fine. Here are the results:
It doesn't get much better than that! In fact, I went back through the engine log, and the original compression check that Aerosport Power took after the initial test stand run was 73/77/77/77. Cylinder #1 improved. Guess that makes sense, since during break-in the rings haven't really seated yet...or did it mean that the rings actually seated during that first hour or so in the test stand? We'll never know...
In any case, I was elated to see good compression on all cylinders.
I also pulled the bottom plugs for the first time in a while, probably 100 hours or more. They were in desperate need of being regapped...the gap had opened up to at least .021", more like .025" in spots. I gapped 'em all to .016" again. These are the Unison/Autolite REM37BY plugs, which are supposed to resist fouling with their different design. I didn't see any lead on 'em. I run lean, but still...I think they work as advertised. I also read somewhere that by using these plugs as opposed to the traditional design, you gain 1 horsepower per cylinder. Who knows if that's true. I don't remember where I read it.
With the plugs back in and seven quarts of 15W50 added, I cleaned everything up and ran it up to check for leaks...none found. Well, I figure this engine is good to go for the next X hours.