Today was spent working on the bird. Most of the work was easy to take care of but time consuming. This is turning out to be a great shake down cruise.

Replace the Trio autopilot. I had inadvertently installed a A/P with old beta test software in it (I did a lot of development testing for Trio) and it was acting a bit flaky. They sent me a loaner overnight with the latest production software installed. What a great company. The dash had to come apart, but it gave Lee a chance to check out the wiring…fixed

Number 1 EGT probe was working but intermittent. I tracked it down to a connector that needed to be snugged up…fixed.

The lighting system need to be modified. I had hooked up a micro-switch wrong so the Aero LED lights weren’t functioning quite like I wanted…fixed.

Finally. the Lightspeed ignition was removed from the plane. It involve taking off some panels and a bit of interference, but it quickly came apart. When I built the plane, I was concerned about future maintainability so most everything can be easily taken out for repairs.

After pulling the cover of the electronics module, I found a power diode had split in half . This is why I had the burning smell and why the fuse did not blow. Interesting. I’ll be sending it back to the company for repairs as it is a very easy fix.

What an interesting day. Lee worked on Don’s plane (fixing a radio issue), I worked on Pat’s plane, Don worked on Lee’s plane. An aviation circle jerk.

I could go no further so Lee and I took off for home to see if UPS delivered the new ignition system and dinner. Ya!!! the system arrived. It’s late in the day and we are going out for dinner and margaritas, and home for a bottle of wine and some stories. The wine was gift from Ed and Sue Richards who gave it to me at RR for me giving them a prop after their plane hit a turtle on their runway on take off. It was HUGE, almost 18″ across. About like hitting a bolder with the plane. The turtle broke the nose wheel off, which went through the propeller breaking part of a blade off. The poor guy was eventually found with a big hole in it’s shell. I told Ed he should have saved it and mounted the shell and the prop on his hangar wall… unfortunately he had thrown it away. What a story….

Alcohol, aviation and good friends make for great stories.

This morning I was greeted to a wonderful sunrise. I am sat in a chair, looking across an open fields with nothing between me and the rising sun except some horses and rabbits. I love the west, so open, so vast. Beautiful. I want to greet the sun and toast the morning with a warm coffee and be thankful for another day. Burrall has a great at place. 7 acres, a nice house, a huge hangar with lots of toys and planes in it on the edge of an airpark. Wide open spaces with beautiful views. What a place to live!

Time to get started on the plane to see what is going on. Off goes the cowls, and I started checking the Pmag. Hum, this is interesting. It is powering up like it should. I called Brad (at Pmag) for some tech support and after a long chat, went back to the plane. After further testing I found the Lightspeed igntion system had failed. Wow, this is interesting! I have not heard of one failing before. Coils yes, electronics no. This would account for the burning smell in the cockpit since the unit is mounted IN the cockpit and the Pmag is mounted on the engine side. I called Brad back and apologize for assuming his equipment was at fault. I have a Pmag in my plane for the last 4 years and it has worked flawlessly. They seem to have their product refined to the point one rarely fails.

A call to Lightspeed, and Klaus said he would ship a new unit out to me via overnight delivery. This is great, my trip can continue.

I remember when I lived out west as a kid, the great root beer (in a tall frosted much) from A&W. When I headed out for lunch I passed one and had to stop… The root beer was just like I remembered it…… yummy!

I made the decision to ferry the plane (30 minutes) to Greeley as I was already planning to spend a few days with Lee and if I had to do more trouble shooting, I would rather be at his house. Burrall was having two more guests showing up today (Bill Allen and his buddy) so two is company, three would be a crowd. I hope to spend some more time visiting him as I really like Burrall a lot.

Another nervous flight to Greeley, the plane is now in the hangar and it is time to relax. Tomorrow I’ll be out there (after fedex delivers) and I’ll be ready to continue on with my trip.

After parking the plane in Lee”s hangar I met his buddy Don who is here at work on Lee’s airplane in the hangar next door. Don used to be a film editor in Hollywood before he retired and worked on quite a few major movies and TV shows.

Time to head out for a bite to eat at a TexMex restaurant with a little music. I love the western part country…..

I wanted to leave RR fairly early in the morning as I had a LONG flight out to Colorado. About a 5.5 hrs flight. I was …I think… the first plane to lift off off at 8:15 am. I wanted to do a fly by, so a quick call on the radio and I overflew the air field on final at an eye popping 238 kts indicated. That is 273 MPH. Wow, this plane is REALLY fast. All felt well and it was very stable. Later I was wondering where all the cold air was coming from and found I had left my landing light down. Am extra bit of drag. Heck I might have gone even faster!!

First stop is a 30 minute flight to Sturgis for fuel. Yikes, $5.40 per gal.
Sec0nd stop is an hour flight to Rolla National for fuel and to take my buddy Chris up for a quick flight. Chris has been following the restoration of the plane on my blog and really wanted see it up close. He is the young man who I have know from Oshkosh through Lee Devlin. Chris usually camps with us and it has been fun to see him grow and develop over the last few years. When we first met (he was a hyper 15 yr old), I used to yell at him “run Forest, run” because he had so much energy he ran everywhere. A brilliant home schooled kid. I still call him Forest.

After a quick lunch and even quicker loop around the pattern it is off for a 4 hr flight to Colorado Springs to visit with Burrall Sanders.

About 2.5 hrs into the flight at 10,000 ft is when the fun started. I was cruising along, writing emails on my ipad when all of a sudden, I smelled weird odor…. a burning electrical sort of smell. SHIT. I quickly switched the EFIS panel to the engine page and saw the oil pressure bar graph was showing 0 psi oil pressure.

Oh shit. (that is a technical term you NEVER want to hear a pilot say). I called Kansas center and immediately found a close by airport to head toward. I was in the middle of freaking nowhere, somewhere in Kansas, so off I went. What struck me as funny was I didn’t get any alarm on the EFIS panel and when I looked closely, I noticed a number above the bar graph.

Hum, could it be me? I had played with the setting of the GRT EFIS, and apparently I set the bar graph setting wrong (teaches me) and when I changed it, sure enough I had oil pressure (the small number). I decided to land anyway to check the bird out. Something still didn’t feel right.

I landed at a 3000 foot strip in the middle of ??? nothing there except one lonely plane.

After finding nothing wrong, I was ready to head out and continue on my trip, and when I did the mag check, I found one of the ignition systems had failed. Shit! That was what the burning smell was. Frying electronics. My Pmag had failed (the other side is a Lightspeed which is bullet proof).

What to do? I am in the middle of nowhere land, no hangar, no FBO, not even a road close by, so I elected to travel on to Burralls (1.5 hrs away) as he has a repair facility where I can fix her. Off I went, picked up flight following in case anything else would happen and routed myself over a series of small airports which I could easily glide if needed. Nothing out here except fields, isolated farm houses and nice long dirt road I could use if needed.

Here is what I wrote while flying….

I am currently at 10,000 ft typing away with my iPad (in it holder) which really works great and was worth the effort.
I have sitting in this plane for 3.6 hrs with 1.6 to go and I can tell you these seats suck. My legs are not too comfortable. My plane has temper-pedic foam and I have sat for almost 6hrs comfortably. Ouch…
This is the longest leg. UuuhhhOoooo
Back in the air. Crap I had do an emergency decent. Travel plans are now shot. Oh well stuff like this makes life exciting an gives me another story to tell.
I miss my tweedy bird. She would never do this to me.
one hour to sit here at 10,500 ft on pins and needles.

After a nervious flight to Colorado Springs and I am on the ground. Burrall greeted me and escorted me to his HUGE hangar where is repairs canards (Free Flight Composites).

After a beautiful sunset set over the mountains,

I need a drink (a frozen margarita please) and food. The plane can wait. Off to a fantastic TexMex restaurant for a real chili relleno made with real a roasted fresh poblano pepper. They just dont know how to make a good chili rellenos in Charleston. Yummy…. life is good.

It is unusually cold here today. The morning was in the 40s. After breakfast its out to the flight line.

I took off the cowls of the plane and quickly a small crowd gathered around the plane checking it out. The day turned out to be windy and cool .

Over 65 canards showed up. Lots of new faces, lots of people asking all sorts of questions of me. Apparently I must be a sort of go-to kind of guy for tech stuff. Just call me Yoda. I really enjoy sharing what I have learned over the years.

Ed and and Sue Richards. Great firends.

The work I did on the bird turned out to be a BIG hit. This is one of a kind plane for sure and with a new paint job and interior, it will be show stopping LongEZ. It is the most technologically advanced LongEZ in the world and I am almost positive the fastest one in the world. I am glad I had the chance to work on it even though I cant wait to deliver it and move on to other projects. As much as I liked building her, I definitely I like wiring the best. Wiring in a plane is the brains and nervous system of the bird. After a plane is built ANYONE can fix the engine, and fuselage, but if the wiring is mess up you have MAJOR problems. One can spend endless hours trouble shooting the problem. Most can do good glass work, but I see very little outstanding wiring work. It is complex and mystifying to most. I find it challenging and artistic in some ways. If I ever work on a plane again for someone else I will ONLY do the wiring aspect of it. I’ll leave the engine and glass work to someone else

After lunch in the tent, I check out the plane flown by my cabin mates, Gram and Mary were late arriving in RR due to a radio issue. They asked me to check it out and found the radio connection had come loose from the panel because a wrong retaining ring was used. Why their mechanic or radio shop didn’t see this is beyond me. I did a quick field repair and life was good again. They can now use it on the way back to Texas.

Had a wonderful day with my friends. I love coming to this event because it is canard….only canards.

Well, I headed out to Rough River, KY for my airshow early this morning.

After washing the bird, I filed my IFR plan and took off, climbing to 4000 ft due to head winds. I had 40 kts on the nose.

After passing Columbia, had to climb to 8,000 ft with a 52 kt head wind to get across the Smokey Mountains. Yikes! I was cruising 180 kts plus yet my ground speed was about 126 kts. Wow, I had flown my plane I would have been going as fast as a car on the ground. It took about 3.5 hrs to get to RR which is close to 45 minutes longer than I had planned for.

After overflying the airport at 200 kts (just for fun), it was a smooth landing, parking the plane and chatting with people when I saw a Glass Air 3 take off. What a beautiful sounding engine. I assumed it must be a 6 cylinder Lycoming. The owner did a quick flyby when it happened. Weird popping sounds from the engine. He turned around on down wind, trying to make the airport, kept on going losing altitude and crashed. A huge fireball about .5 miles from the end of the runway. Crashed into a hotel. …more details…

You know, I was sort of numb to it. Watched the plane, saw it descend, knew it was going to crash, fireball.

Later that night, in bed thinking about it all I realized the reason it didnt have a visceral effect on my is that the fireball looked just like the fireballs you see at Oshkosh during the warbird re-enactment. Boom, fireball. Maybe too, I didnt know the guy, only saw the plane taxiing and was not emotionally connected.

He had built the plane and used a corvette engine it it (hence the smooth sound) and a funky redrive. Apparently the reduction drive decoupled the engine from the prop and he no thrust. I have never liked auto engines in plane and have NEVER seen a successful installation. Heavy, problem prone, troublesome. In almost all cases the builder eventually installs a Lycoming or Continental engine and begins to enjoy his plane. Why in the hell would you want to fly an experimental plane with a REALLY experimental engine? Isn’t one enough?

Off to dinner with friends and beer with my buddies. Life goes on.

Tonight was THE last dinner with my special gal and am filling a bit down.

On  March 25, 2009, a little girl arrived in my world.   What a mess she was!   Nose broken, out of shape and generally in need of a new life, a new personality.

After 2569 hrs of careful restoration and upgrade she is now moving away to California to live with a Doctor.

I knew she had to leave home sometime and like most parents, I couldnt wait until she moved out and was on her own.   Now that she is is leaving me and I just cant help but remember all the good times we spent growing, changing, improving and learning together, Yes I am a bit sad but happy too.  Tomorrow, she will be winging her way across the USA on a short vacation, to finally end up in Los Angles, where she will meet up with the new man in her life..

She’ll be gone, but having more fun, traveling, seeing new and wonderful sights than she ever would with me.   He’s a professional man who only really knows her via the internet, but he is well established with the financial resources to treat her like a lady and keep her in a lifestyle I could only wish for.  I can’t help but be jealous of him and the wild and crazy things he’ll do with my baby, but also understand that sometimes I just have to let go.

I’ll see her off at the airport tomorrow morning, never to return to my home.   At least I can fly to L. A. occasionally to visit her.

Yes, it tears at my heart but I always knew the day would come when  I would have to give her up.

I couldn’t ask A better home or better man for her to go to……

Go with my love,

Your Daddy

These last few weeks have been absolutely crazy for me.  I am leaving for our annual Rough River flyin in this weekend (Friday morning) and only have two days left to go.  Seems like I been doing a million things at once to try and prepare to leave.  Lots of little squaks on the plane lots to do around the house.

Later when I get back from California I will detail the work I did on the plane and catch up on the past enteries in my blog.  Here is a few things of interest for you…

I installed an “In the wing oil cooler” which is working really well.   The oil temp is now between 190-200 f at any power level.    Before I installed it I tested various locations while flying.

I also tested foam samples for heat damage prior to starting the project.

I really like the fact that it is no longer in the engine compartment.

Cowl mods came out really well.  I extended the cowls 4 inches and built in some eductors.

The wing mods came out really well too.  The upper wing air flow is terrific the bottom is fairly well too.

Today I made an iPad knee board.  It has a hinge on the bottom and one on the side, so I can write on my paper pad (as as I am used to) and it flips to the side and the iPad tilts up and locks.  I think it is really cool… and suits what I really need for flying.  I couldnt find what I wanted from any vendor, making it was the only option I had….

Tomorrow will be be mainly dedicated to preparing for my flight out on Friday.  It will start my odyssey of the cross country trip…  How exciting!

As I get closer to completion on this project, I have starting planning for the trip to Los Angles, CA at the end of Sept. I WILL be delivering the plane in October 12th.

This is my tentive flight path. After the canard fly-in at Rough River, KY I’ll be winging my way out to St Louis to visit Chris, on to Denver (to see Lee), Salt lake City (Ric) and then ??? I have sent a note out to my flying group to see if anyone would like to meet or if there is anything interesting I MUST see. Should be an interesting trip in a great airplane.

I purchased a new ACES engine balancer at the 2011 Oshkosh which has some great features I am looking forward to trying out this weekend.  In talking to Gary Hertzler about his experiences using the balancer I found a few short comings with the unit.

First is the mounting brackets.  As you can see there are two sensors (a position sensor and a movement sensor).  Shown are the two brackets.

The right two are the original ones for the sensor, but I decided I wanted them both together for ease of use and to better position them.  Today I constructed the one on the left.

Made of heavy aluminum angle it mounts the sensors on the center line of the crank case.

A second issue with the unit is the power switches.  It is very easy to turn on or reboot the unit as the switches are ultra sensitive.  I took a grommet and cut it in half and RTV glued it to the face of the unit to prevent inadvertent activation of the unit.

Next week I plan to balance the engine on the plane when I get her back to the airport….

I decided to try a second type of earth bucket.  The first type of earth bucket was a pain to make.  I felt if I just used gravel (river stone) as a storage medium would make the earth buckets much easier to fabricate, although it would not store as much water.

I tested river stone (small stone) or the larger decorative stone.  Much to my surprise the decorative stone held a little more water.  A little over 3/4 of a gal.  Yah!   The river stone can be purchased for about $3.50 per bag and the two bags will make 3 earth buckets.

To make the bucket, a center tube (3″ pvc) is cut about 8″ long.  I put tape across the top to prevent the rock from filling the “wick” tube.  I then filled the bucket with gravel to about 1″ below the wick.  Drill some holes in the side of the bucket at the top of the gravel layer to allow excess water to drain out.

I found it easiest to install the fill tube after filling with gravel .  After inserting the fill tube, I covered the gravel with some weed barrier cloth, cut open the center tube to allow the dirt to fill the wick tube and filled the bucket with water.   I am not sure if you really need to cover the gravel or if you can just put soil directly on the rock.  I am sure the soil would not migrate into the rock area very far.   Put in your plant, and fill the storage area with water and you are done.

The plane is looking good!  Soon I’ll be flying her.