A great day for flying??
It’s been too long since I updated this log. The weather in Seattle this winter has been crummy. At least from a flying perspective. I’ve been getting in short flights when I can, but mostly working on finishing up the leg and wheel fairings. I’ll post some more pictures on that soon.
I went down to the hangar today to work on a few things. When I got there I noticed a plane in the pattern. Sure enough, the ceilings were at 3000′ and it looked even clearer to the north. I was not really expecting to be able to fly today.
I pulled the plane out of the hangar, pre-flighted, and taxied to 15 for a run-up. A week ago I worked on my brake pedals a bit as the brakes were starting to drag. The pedals wouldn’t return completely, which seemed to get worse in the recent cold weather. Opening up the holes in the rudder weldments and loosening the castle nuts a half turn or so took care of it nicely. She taxis great again.
After an immediate clearance from the tower, I took off into the empty airspace around Renton. I climbed up to 3000′ east of Bellevue and noticed it was even clearer up north. So onward and upward toward Paine and 5000′. It’s somehow hard to believe how much I was enjoying flying on such a marginal weather day, but it felt really good to get up in the sky again. It felt like the clouds were clearing away just for me.
I leveled off and watched the airspeed climb. I recently finished installing my main leg fairings and intersection fairings. I was seeing roughly 165 knots at 24″/2400 RPM. I still have one remaining fairing to complete, and then I’ll do some official speed runs. But she definitely feels faster.
I also made a fix to my static ports a few weeks ago. Many people have been seeing problems with these Safeair static ports. They read the static pressure a bit too high, which causes the altimeter and airspeed to be slightly low (about 3-4 knots at cruise speed). The problem is that the ports are too flush and I guess are still in the boundary air layer. I drilled out the ports and epoxied in some dome-head baffle seal pop rivet heads that are identical to the stock Vans static ports. I tried to do some GPS ground speed runs, but it was a bit too bumpy. I’ll have to wait for a smoother day to verify that fix.
I swooped down into the Duvall/Carnation valley getting near Vne and then back toward Bellevue. I called up Renton and was directed right into 15. The controller even asked that I keep my speed up. (Like he even needs to ask.) I was at around 1500′ at the south tip of Mercer Island going around 150 knots. I eased the power back, slowed her down, flaps down, a slight touch of throttle on the way down, flare, gentle touch down, and off the runway in just over 1000′.
I was back at the hangar in 0.7 hours. Not a long flight, but definitely one of the most fun I’ve had this winter.