First engine start!
Started the engine for the first time!!
I got to the airport before Julie and Adele and checked a few things. First, I made sure the prop was tracking. That looked perfect. I then checked every oil, fuel, and wiring connection to make sure nothing was loose. I pulled the plane out front of the hangar, chocked the wheels, tied the tail to the fence, got the fire extinguishers handy, and moved the cars well away from the scene. All systems are go!
The engine didn’t kick the first couple of tries. I had the throttle closed the first try, and I think should have re-primed it for the second try. Maybe it just needed to get some fuel through the system. The third time she started right up. Unfortunately, I followed the directions from AFS and moved the RPM feed from the P-mags to pin 33 of the EMS harness. No RPM at all. I ran the engine for a minute, but decided not to go any further. Still a very cool first start!!
I changed the RPM wire back to pin 32 and tried again. Bingo. All sensors were working great. I ran the oil temperature up to about 90 degrees, the engine up to around 1700 RPM and tried cycling the prop. Worked on the first try. I cycled it a couple of times. The idle is a little low at 600 RPM, but otherwise the engine is purring like a tiger. I was hoping to catch the stats for the event from the engine management system, but for some reason the Advanced Flight Systems AF-3400 didn’t capture any data. Strange.
One bummer on the day is that the stupid tip-up canopy decided to catch in a major way when I opened it. It’s been fine for weeks, but the engine must have settled it somehow. I’ve got some repair work to do there.
