The prior filghts it (the idle turbine RPM) was way to high (over 20 psi)
and so I was relying on my in-flight-adjustable-pitch IVO 268 prop, that was pre-pitched so it could produce zero forward thruse, to slow me down, and it worked but was pretty scary because it's so slow to respond and I didn't know what to expect - for all I knew, zero pitch could be a super good air-brake that would drop me out of the sky before I could get it pitched back up, but I was coming in so hot nothing would have slowed me down. I like having airspeed and the best way to get it fast is by trading in altitude so I'd dive in over the trees and worry about stopping after touching down. Can always kill the engine --- unless I forget to turn off the extra safety "on" diode thing I added.
Lots of things to be thinking about. Would this be considered a "complex" ultralight aircraft?
I was very happy to see over 30 miles on my Garmin eMap trip computer display! Very happy. It means I can fly to the Illinoise Valley Airport in Cave Junction! Though they don't have Jet-A available there. Maybe I can carry another 5 gallons for the return trip (don't tell anyone).
Actually I'm very close to being a fully legal Part 103 Ultralight. With just a few changes I could be there! One of the few. I'd bet 80% or more of the UL's actually flying are over the weight limit not to mention the dozen other limits that makes a Ultralight not an airplane, and so not regulated by the FAA. That's one of my goals. To have the bragging rights of being a real legal part 103 ultralight that just happens to be a turbo-prop. I noticed that the new "sport avaiation" class specifically excludes turbine's. Bummer. I wonder why? I have not found any "turbine" restriction in part 103. Like NASCAR a kind of very cool freedom exists if you work inside the rules -- ha, kind of like the USA! Land of the free. Wow. I really love it! Never never take it away from yourselves! Fight and die for it and never let anyone take it away! OK, back to flying a turbo-prop as a 54 year old test pilot (who has not a pilot's license and never has had one).
I first flew around 1986, or was it 1985? I didn't intend to fly, well, I wanted to get about 3 or 4 feet off the ground and back in a short distance, but before I knew what had happened I was at 300 feet and realized I didn't know how to fly and didn't know what to do. Argh, I'll tell that story later, right now, back to today!
Wow, 32.4 miles at avg. 45 mph for 43 minutes. Max speed (probably in that dive to my dirt runway across the river from my shop and house here in Murphy Oregon) was 62.4mph --- ground speed. My damn halls air-speed indicator is not working very well. Hey, 32 miles and over a gallon to spare means I can make Cave Junction... argh I already said that didn't I?
I wanted to stay near enough to my field to land at any time, so I flew in circles gaining altitiude which let me make larger and larger circules,.. actually they were squares and rectangles with a few off angels here and there and a few small circles near that 4000 foot hill over there where I cought a thermal, or some kind of up-draft, me and a lone buzzard at 3000 feet, sprialing up and up. Pretty fun.
This was a real jet test pilot kind of flight. Yesterday I took apart
and fixed the fuel system with some major repairs and changes. The
low speed governer was "leaking" because
some washers I didn't pay
attention to were either the wrong ones, or too many, or
something and got all screwed up so didn't force the top part
up against the bearing inside the housing to seal it off, so it
leaked and didn't work.
And the 268 IVO I had pre-pitched
because I couldn't get the engine to idle low enough, screwed up
because the cams got overstressed with me forcing minimum zero-thrust
pitch. One was so bad it came out of the slot so one blade would pitch
and the other not,... yikes it make a really bad sound and vibration.
No wonder I was having trouble two days ago at the airport.
I not only fixed the cams of the 268, I added a new blade to make it
a IVO 368. Then learned it's cam needed adjusting to match the other
two olders ones that had warn down, else the new blade would pitch more
than the others. And then, per instructions from my new friend I met
at IV in Cave Junction, Paul, 78 years old and an active pilot, balanced
it. Wow, very smooth, very nice.
I took along Ardels (my girlfriend) mobile phone, the Garmin eMap, and a Garmin rino. I left a second rino with Dick, but he went home before I took off and didn't take the rino! So no one that I know of received my hundreds of positions I "keyed" back during the flight. Oh well, something to keep my mine off the engine.
Take off was about 2pm to the south starting at the 9th tee of the Applegate Golf Course. I'm letting John (the owner) use that small part of my property for a tee and a place for the balls to roll from the driving range. So it's always nice and green and smooth. Not many golf balls get that far so it's not a problem. Now if I could get them to plant, water, and mow the rest of my runway, wow, ultralight flying heaven right in my back yard!
From the 9th tee I set my IVO 368 for about nutral pitch and my DIY turbine throttle to full. Roll???? 100 feet? 200 feet? I was pretty nervous and each fraction of a second seemed like a long time. I think it extends life! I like it! I hope I'm flying when I'm 78 like Paul. And like Henry too. Henry Blatt out at Camarillo California. Henry was 75 when he taught me how to fly. I contacted him the day after my first flight (the one I didn't intend to make). He was my first instructior and I was his last student. I owe it to him to keep flying until like him I drop dead, and I try to remember everything he taught me everytime I fly. I'll never forget the gleen in his eye after test flying a new never-before-flown (since the wreck that is) ultralight. Wow. I want that. It's living.
rino? Did someone say rino? As in Garmin rino GPS?
- Ha!, Our new
rPlug mold is almost here! Here is a sneak preview of a sample
part that we will be making soon as ... Pfranc.com continues
to provide DIY connectors to Garmin owners fast and easy
in 48 countries for just a pledge! Why? Because we are
going to prove to everyone in the world that most people
are cool and I think everyone (almost) seeks to be honorable!
Geesh, I thought today was May 28th... I forgot to turn the
pages of the calander for over a week! Flying was on my mind.
So let's see, a cold beer and 7 days of beautiful girls
to catch up on! Life is good.
What a day. I got the plane back into the trailer and home by 4pm I think. The wings are from a HiMax I bought on eBay 2 months ago. The are modified a bit to fit my old Eiper GT 280 (made just before the GT 400 and very much the same). Henry had one. We bought in in '86 and flew it for years. This one I bought from a local '60's hippy living out in the sticks. Someone had modified it a lot to make it just like a 400 but I un-modified it to make it back to a 280 and even more as I didn't put on a pod. I like my face and feet hanging in the wind with no wing above and nothing in the way of me and fun... like a motorcycle without a windshield. But my bike goes UP!
"Sounds cool" the neighbor said. He thought it was a hot-air baloon he heard outside in his yard, looked up and saw me. He said he could hear no engine noise at all, only the sound of the wind over my wings and prop, that is until I had passed overhead and was heading away. He heard the un-mistakable wine of a turbine engine and thought hey, that must be Larry! He found the field just as I had packed the plane into the trailer and was heading out. We talked for an hour. He followed me home where I unpacked it and started up the engine in a little show&tell, and I needed to do some testing anyway, and checking, and documenting. And make a list of things to do now. .... I very much wanted it to sound cool, not like the irritating eeeeeeeh of a normal ultralight. It's a very crazy dumb thing to do, except for that, and except for finally achiving a childhood dream of being a jet jocky test pilot! Ha. The fuel usage sucks, it cost more, it's a lot of maintenance, a lot of work, expense, ... a whole lot of expermenting and learning as no one else is doing it that you can talk to about it, and everyone thinks your crazy/nuts, which you are (I am) ... and this activity just confirms it to all. So it's not easy. What was that Kermet the frog song? It's not easy being green? Well, this green frog DIY jet test pilot is happy today, and at least sounds cool!:-))
Things to do:
- Trim nose down some. Maybe can move seat from one click back to two?
- Improve pitch control feedback. The volt meter give lots of info but would still like more. Prop RPM would help. Better air-speed indicator would help. More sensitive volt meter in the range of 4V to 12V --- or some intellgence, like a AVR (which I'm coding actively for now!).
- Fuel flow data. I bought a $100 in-line fuel flow transducer for $200 (didn't shop on-line enough). It outputs a nice 20,000 square waves per gallon. Ha! Another nice input to my Atmel 2313 AVR.... along with some geko NMEA data too? heheh... I've got projects now for the rest of my life!
- GET A MIRROR SO I CAN SEE THE FUEL TANK without straining my 54 year old stiff neck around to see if I'm, out of #1 fuel oil, ouch!
-
Go get me a beer right now! More later!
IPO: 4-June-2003Hits from June 2003 to June 2004=1350.
Please send your comments, ideas, whatever ==>: click here.... thank you!
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