Taxi Testing - Round 2

[ksatter26]

Great day for the testing ... 76 degrees, slightly overcast, and 12 MPH SSE winds.

The 13 mile trailering trip TO Caddo Mills was uneventful ... light traffic and good road conditions. The process of unfolding the wings and unloading the beast off the trailer getting easier with practice.

I remembered my hunter's scale this trip so we secured one end to the trailer and the other to the tailwheel. I climbed in, started up, (video) and we tried to get a static thrust reading at full power.

Enter-Startup.MP4

(163.23 MiB) Downloaded 133 times

We only got 165 LBS on the test. I'm pretty sure the cheapie hunter's scale needs calibration.

StatiThrust01.MP4

(36.92 MiB) Downloaded 122 times

Taxiing out was also uneventful UNTIL I reached the runway. I then noted that what I thought was the port brake was not very useful. I could control the aircraft so I kept at it but after a bit of higher speed runs, I decided that it was really the port rudder cable. No Bunny Hops today.

I'm having trouble loading MP4 files here. Will try again later after I hear from Todd.

Observations (besides the rudder cable).

(1) The heavier tailwheel springs help but the tailwheel is a major problem. I torqued it down to the bracket pretty well but it still wobbles terribly. MAYBE (?) if i fix the rudder cable it will improve.

(2) The brakes are much more efficient after my adjustments.

(3) The throttle cable problem seems fixed so I will add some locktite to the bousing screw and be done with it.

(4) The TinyTach seems too be working, but still no readings on the CHT or EGT gauge. I'll have to remove the cowl to check on the sensors connections.

(5) Fuel level sender not indicating ... I believe I can see a lose wire behind the panel. I'll check that as it was working.

(6) BIGGIE ... once I taxied in and hit the KILL switch ... nothing ... she kept purring. This WAS WORKING. Probably another lose wire so I'll check. The INTERESTING part is that as I taxied in and tried to kill the engine a Caddo Mills Police Cruiser pulled up. All I could do was to switch off the fuel valve and wait for the beast to die of fuel starvation ... which seemed like forever. The Officers were great. We had a nice chat about building and flying. Nice folks.

(7) To rival the uneventful drive TO the airstrip, the drive home was hairy. 3 miles from home I saw the A/C tilt to starboard! No place to pull over. slowed to 20 and she settled back down ... heart stopping. I managed to get the rig pulled over blocking the entrance to a subdivision and we found that once again the folding wing stay had failed. So it appears that my elegant threaded-rod/clevis fork solution isn't going to work out. I will probably go with a solution more like Peer ... much more rigid arms.

I do have more video which I need to somehow get edited ... Flixer doesn't seem to load so I'll need another solution.

So ... more trouble shooting and fixing work. Will try to get back out to the strip sometime next week ... weather and schedules permitting.

[LA F2 Flyer]

In spite of all the issues, at least you are one step closer...I imagine it's a natural part of the process to iron out bugs immediately after the build. (At least I've found it to be the case with other non-aviation build projects.)

12MPH winds is a fair amount for an ultralight, I would think. I think that would be enough to keep me at home, but then I am a very new pilot (in the making).

What was your engine RPM at max thrust?

Looking forward to seeing the taxi video. The other two look good!