Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I’ve heard from both Scott and Deene that having two IFR-rated pilots in the front seat can be a HUGE plus when the going gets a bit rough. We chose to make life a little rough yesterday - Depart GTU, 14 miles to a Taylor (VOR approach), 25 miles to Austin with vectors (ILS approach), 29 miles back to GTU (GPS approach), dealing with ATC the whole way (all were helpful and patient with me). Cut that mileage in a third since the approaches all start to happen long before you get to the airports. Oh, let’s not forget about the scattered rain showers and moderate VFR conditions.

I flew and dealt with the controllers, while Scott pushed GPS buttons. Could it have been done with one, sure. Would that have been optimal, definitely not. Lets add actual IFR conditions, some light rain, some turbulence, flying for a couple hours already, having to make a missed approach, and all of the sudden having two pilots that know exactly what needs to be done without having to be told makes all the difference in the world.

OK, Scott - I finally get it.

The premise for the hangar party Sunday (the hijacking of Jay Pratt’s BC Squadron weekly lunch) crashed and burned. We were expecting a good number of the RV crowd to fly in to a lunch we were putting on at GTU. It is springtime in Texas, and mother nature tried to put a damper on our day with low clouds, high winds, and a threat of thunderstorms. No thunderstorms or rain showed up, but the less than reasonable weather kept all the airplanes home. We completely understand as we wouldn’t have been going anywhere either.

Fortunately, we had a dozen locals planning to arrive. We ended up with about 16 folks dropping by to eat fajitas and talk airplanes. A couple of the tower controllers put in a brief appearance. One of the builders asked about how he would go about getting a tower tour since you need to get prior permission. The tower was very slow due to the poor weather, so Shannon invited anyone up that was interested. As he left, in addition to taking their cookies he took more than half of the party with him!

It was an exhausting event, but we had a grand time. There was lots of aviation conversation, a couple local RVs on the ramp, and Scott worked his magic on the fajitas. The question has already been posed - “Are we going to do this again?”

I’ll work on some pictures in the next few days.

On the first flight after the oil change and magneto adjustments, Tanya brought the engine to life and we both immediately noticed a major improvement in its smoothness. We just sat there quietly for a second while the oil pressure came up. I think we were both a little surprised. It wasn’t rough at all before, but wow, this is cool… I guess either I didn’t have the mag perfectly timed last time, it slipped a little, or something. Note, we use a lightspeed ignition on the other side.
Anyway, we went and did the couple of hours of IFR training that Tanya already reported on. The whole flight we noticed a smoother engine at all RPMs. Very exciting stuff. Every little change matters.

Since Tanya has been having all the fun lately, I decided that I would go out and fly the next day while she was at work. My goal was high altitude engine management experimentation. It was about 95 degrees on the ground. I launched and left the power all the way in, brought the prop back to 2500 rpm about 1000′ off the ground and left it that way all the way up to 14,500′. I leaned as I went, watching CHT and EGT. I maintained about 86kts in the climb and never saw CHT above 406 degrees. Time to climb was 15 minutes from takeoff and fuel burn was 3.5 gallons. Outside air temp was 30 degrees F. Nice and comfy in shorts and a teeshirt under the clear canopy to the sun above.

I just cruised around up there for the next hour with the oxygen flowing listening to the XM radio. The whole system (airframe and engine) reacts much differently at altitude. Leaning the carburetor up there is kind of a magic dance of mixture, throttle position, and maybe some carb heat if it suits you, in order to produce some turbulence in the induction system for more even combustion. If you just open the throttle wide open at altitude we see very uneven EGTs and can’t lean near as much as if we close it a little. The carb heat can accomplish the same except the way it is rigged right now, it doesn’t want to stay closed at cruise speed. I may install a positive locking carb heat control at some point. Also, I was still noticing the improvement in engine smoothness after the ignition adjustments, especially in some of the rpm ranges that we had been avoiding because it was smoother elsewhere. I got more than my share of enjoyment out of that $20 worth of fuel. You might notice in the picture that I was sitting up there making 143kts TAS on 5.7 gallons per hour.

For those of you that have done this training recently, you know I am wiped out just from the first part of the title. Let’s be sure to add some holding patterns, fabricated ATC practice of heading and altitude changes, 360s to avoid other GPS IFR practice approach traffic, EFIS button pushing, autopilot GPS approaches, and some exercises designed on the fly.

Noted exercises would be Scott trying to help me get over some of my bumps in this road, and these were good ones. Huh, how do you maintain a speed of 80 knots down final with only small power changes? OK - let’s go practice that at 5500 down to 3500 at 500 feet per minute. No, let’s add another piece, 90 for the first half at 80 for the 2nd. Let’s be sure to make that transition. Huh, keeping the descent consistent down the glideslope since the vertical speed indicator is a bit of a laggard? Oh, the flight path marker and end of runway displayed on the EFIS. Makes me wonder if I could do this in a non-glass airplane. On the other hand, the gray-haired wonders out there all say it is easier in certified aircraft since they aren’t as responsive and don’t wiggle quite as much. Maybe it averages out?

It all added up to a little over 2 hours simulated. I was so tired that I couldn’t grease a landing in 5 knots (how pathetic is that?) and barely fueled her up before all the life drained out of me. I have officially pushed through the 20-hour half way point. I expect that the next 20 hours will teach me just as much and keep me just as exhausted!