Test Flight 4: Auto-pilot, Vx, Vy, Engine Leaning in cruise

Test Flight: 4

Date: Saturday January 30th 2021

Hobbs Start: 5.0 Hobbs End: 6.7

Description: A very busy airspace, but overall productive flight. With extended time on the ground I worked on ground leaning procedures a bit and that turned out well with a very clean ignition check. Each ignition was a drop of 50 or so. Audio recording finally worked, but a couple of notes on that. My helmet ANR was set for mono, 3D audio on the GMA245 was on. I changed those two settings as well as unplugged and plugged my phone in after the audio panel was booted and everything finally started working. CHTs came down a good 50 degrees from the previous flights. My max CHT was in the 345 range on a WOT 85 knot climb. I ran a slow injector data gathering leaning run. My injector spread is .8 GPH. I will run that again before I start swapping out restrictors. Climbs were awesome being able to hold stable at +2000 FPM without hitting CHT overtemp. (it was 46F though)

Objectives: Fuel topoff, preflight and run-up of the aircraft, normal take off with 0 degree flaps, depart the pattern for engine break in, auto pilot deployment, verification of squawk resolutions (max RPM, Autopilot servo configuration), engine leaning data gathering, race track Vx and Vy runs (1 minute pulls), return to base, normal full flap landing.

Airplane Start Condition: 60 gallons of fuel, 10 qts of oil as read on the dip stick (fresh after oil change) , 50lbs of ballast in the baggage compartment, single pilot (150lbs)

Airplane End Condition: 38.4 gallons of fuel, 9 qts of oil as read on the dip stick (A lot of this went to the oil filter), 50lbs of ballast in the baggage compartment, single pilot (150lbs)

Test Flight Track Log:

Pilot Notes:

1) Max RPM on takeoff was 2700. The governor appears to be perfect now. Also adjusted the cable itself and got rid of the play at the full forward end.

2) Autopilot HDG, ALT, YD modes function well. Used the following settings:

Roll Servo
Servo Direction = Normal
Max Torque = 75%
Servo Gain = 0.80
Fine Adjust Time = 0.20
Fine Adjust Amount = 0 (disabled)

Pitch Servo
Servo Direction = Reversed
Max Torque = 100%
Servo Gain = 2.50
Fine Adjust Time = 0.20
Fine Adjust Amount = 1

Pitch Gain
Min Airspeed Limit = 70 kt
Max Airspeed Limit = 180 kt
Vertical Speed Gain = 1.40
Vertical Accel Gain = 1.00
Airspeed Gain = 1.35
Airspeed Accel Gain = 1.00

Yaw Servo
Servo Direction = Normal
Max Torque = 100%
Servo Gain = 1.50

Manual Electric Trim
Airspeed Threshold = 80 kt / 140 kt
Roll Trim Motor Speed = 100% / 50%
Pitch Trim Motor Speed = 100% / 50%

3) CHTs really came down. Pushed the engine hard for VX VY testing and only saw 379 as a max CHT on a 85 KIAS climb.

4) Worked on engine leaning at cruise. Got some good data on EGT/CHTs on leaning again. My Fuel Flow spread is .8, but I think I need to take a look at cylinder 2 and see if perhaps that injector needs a cleaning before I start messing with restrictor sizes.

5) There is something weird with recording the audio if the phone is connected before the plane is powered. Reset the connection after the avionics were powered and everything was fine. Also though I turned off 3d audio and flipped my helmet to stereo opposed to mono mode.

6) Flew some initial Vx and Vy tests. Used 4500ft as my floor, would stage at 4000, set the auto pilot for an IAS climb, mixture forward, prop forward, power forward. Upon crossing 4500 when stable, start a 1 minute timer. After 1 minute drop back down to 4000ft while turning to the reciprocal heading and starting over again.

7) I realized after doing this that I did these runs in Reflex mode. Re-run this test again with 0 flaps.

Open Squawks:

1) COM2 breaking squelch on COM1 TX. COM2 sensitivity weaker than COM1. COM2 could use a ground plane.

2) Need to set "Flight" vs "Ground" calibration on the fuel levels. 

5) While the charging system is stable, I would still like to see if I can get the 0.2v differential out of the x-feed contactor. That is, my AUX bus when the alternator is on runs at a voltage 0.2v lower than MAIN. It is not that surprising given the number of connectors between the two busses. In order for the AUX battery to get alternator voltage it has to get through terminals on the MAIN contactor, X-FEED contactor, and then the AUX contactor. One or more of those terminal to terminal connections needs to be cleaned. 

Verified Closed Squawks:

1) CHT1 is no longer the hottest cylinder. Cut back the Right air dam and now Cylinder 2 is the hottest but the spread is much smaller. Going to run it like this for a while.

2) Max RPM on takeoff was 2700. Proper Governor Max RPM is good.

3) Flaps are now configured for position based deployment. Confirm working well

4) Autopilot servo settings are holding heading and altitude well

5) Changed oil at 5 hours to 65

6) Added Tanis pre-heater system.