REFLECTOR: nice day to fly

[Douglas Holub]

It's a beautiful day to fly in North Texas today. Temperature in the low 50s, wind coming down the runway at 5 knots. A good day for first flight.

I didn't tell my wife I was going to fly the Velocity today because I knew she would worry. I got the airworthiness certificate on Monday and got the transponder certified on Wednesday. 

The plane got off the ground easily and climbed impressively. The number 4 cylinder was about 410 degrees, the number 3 was 375, but 1 and 2 were less than 300 degrees, so it looks like I'm getting too much air to the back cylinders and not enough to the front cylinders. The good news is it looks like I've got plenty of cooling air from the NACAs to work with.  

I was getting worried about that #4 cylinder, so I landed in Arlington. I was having trouble with the pitch trim while I was landing. When I got on the ground I saw that the pitch motor was stuck in the full up position. No wonder I had to push so hard on the stick to land!

So I borrowed a screw driver and a pair of pliers from the FBO and disconnected the pitch motor from the pitch spring. But then the pitch spring interfered with other stuff behind the panel when the elevators were at their travel limits, so I asked the FBO if they had a piece of wire I could borrow to limit the motion of the spring. They didn't, so I used one of my shoe laces. Worked great, and got me the 7 miles back home to the Grand Prairie airport.

Thanks to all the folks on this list who have been so much help to me for the past 9 years. And special thanks to the organizers and presenters at the Velocity Symposium 3 years ago in Sherman, Texas. That weekend gave me a big kick in the butt to get this project finished.

Doug Holub
Velocity Standard FG w/ electric nose lift
ECI IOX-360 with dual Plasma III ignition
110% done, 2% to go
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