Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I made a few more short flights over the weekend. I went up Saturday and the engine felt a tiny bit rough and I noticed one of the exhaust gas temperatures (EGT) values getting much higher than the others. I decided to go around the pattern and back in for a landing. A little research showed two possibilities: a clogged fuel injector or fouled plugs. I took out the fuel injector and inspected. I did find a tiny bit of something, but not enough to block all the flow. I also checked the fuel filter just to be safe and found only a few minor flecks of stuff. A run-up afterward confirmed the issue was fixed.

While I was checking stuff out, I removed a few access panels and double checked the wing bellcranks and elevator push tube/horn connection. All looked good.

I wasn’t sure I was going to get a flight in Sunday. The weather was kind of dicey with an overcast layer 4k-5k’ threatening to lower, dark skies up north, and cumulus clouds to the south. I figured it was good enough for a short check-out flight. Wind was straight down the runway, although a little bit gusty. The pattern was empty.

I went up for 1/2 hour circling over the airport. Everything worked great, although the cylinder head temperatures (CHT) are still a bit high on the back 2 cylinders. They’re hovering just above 400°F at 24″ of manifold pressure and 2400 rpm.

After about 3-4 laps overhead at 2000′, I came in for a landing. It was difficult to descend down to pattern altitude and slow down. I never really stabilized until I was on short final and then the gusty winds were blowing me around. Still made a pretty smooth landing, but in the future I need to get speed and altitude stabilized much earlier in the pattern.

Back at the hangar I pulled the top cowl and everything looked good. I still have a few drops of oil coming out of the bottom oil cooler fitting. I think I’m going to have to completely remove it and use some fresh teflon paste on it. I originally used fuel lube for some reason, and it’s just not making a good seal. I suspect it doesn’t hold up well to the hot oil. Oil consumption has been about a quart so far over about 2.0 hours. Since it still has 7 quarts in there, I’m going to let it run down a bit more and then start refilling.

The Advanced Flight Systems AF-3400 EFIS and EMS flat screens are working well. There are a few minor glitches, but Rob at AFS has been very responsive in debugging them and getting out updated firmware. I’ve downloaded all of the flight data and I’m working on a way to easily create a graph from it.

The Garmin GNS-430 is driving me a bit crazy. When I was descending down into the pattern it was flashing up terrain and obstacle warnings. I’m sure there’s a way to turn them off. I just haven’t looked into it yet.

Overall, I’m feeling very confident in the engine and plane. I’m planning on leaving the airport vicinity on the next flight. I think I’ll do some runs up and down the Snohomish River Valley to work on breaking in the engine and maybe try out the autopilot.

I’m not going to be updating this log as often anymore. The building phase of the project is essentially done, except for a few minor details. I’ll post when I’ve got something interesting to report.