skelrad
AeroDog RV-12 First Engine Start
IO390’s Weekend
I flew to Scotland which is one of the few places around here where you can enjoy some low level flying. Overnight at Glenforsa as usual. I've had some great experiences in aviation but landing at sunset after several hours flying around the Scottish highlands and enjoying a beer next to your aeroplane is very hard to top. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos this time and I didn't adjust my polarising filter so the canopy reflections ruined some good photo opportunities.
I've done this trip 3 times now, it's a two day route that begins with flying from my base on the south coast to Perth and refuelling. After that I get 3 or so hours in the afternoon to cross the highlands at low level wherever possible and then enjoy the views of the west coast. On this occasion I had enough time to stop at Plockton and dip my feet in the sea before heading to Glenforsa for dinner.
Update Airmotive FI Idle Stop Screw
…dbuds2
I looks like the cause was my alignment shim moving and pulling the whole cable end farther away from the throttle body. When I got close, the throttle stop was about .030 away from the stop set screw. I'm going to move the alignment shims around so gravity and vibrations don't move the to change the position.
RE Check Your Tubes
…RV-9erA
These are what my polyethene rudder cable tubes look like after 21-years and 1800 hours of operation on my RV-9A. The left tube shows some inside wear but at the end only. And, the right side shows virtually no wear. I will probably rotate them 180 degrees at my next condition inspection. The cables came from Vans with a light coating of grease on them and still have some residual grease (always been hangared). More residual grease appears to be on the right side cable. So, I will probably reapply a light coating of Aeroshell grease on both cables to reduce frictional wear. The brown residue you see on the cables is the residual grease.
Quirky Seen From the Air
….Vlad
A vein of gilsonite.
RE EZ Cool Cowl Flap
…Scott Hersha
Well, I’m not claiming victory, but it’s a place to start further testing. I slightly modified my cowl exit opening today, and added a bent aluminum lip to see if the would make any difference. Well…. it did make a difference, and I’m skeptical about my results, so further testing is in the works. Here’s what I did - I cut the bottom of my fiberglass cowl exit to make it straight/vertical with the firewall and cowl juncture. This is how it is supposed to be, but when I was building my cowl I had some extra length in that dropped down exit area, so I just left it there and tapered it forward to match the edge of the firewall. It gave that opening a sort of “raked” look, and I thought that was cool. Well,,,, shame on me for being so shallow and putting form over function. Today I cut 3/4” off the bottom of the cowl exit and added a bent lip, in theory to encourage increased exit velocity. Did cutting back that exit bottom cowl make any difference? I don’t know, but when I look at my firewall mounted exit Venturi that I fabricated, it seems like not opening up that space on the bottom of my cowl fully, where the air is trying to exit, might minimize the efficiency of the exit Venturi. Maybe that didn’t have any effect, but something did. It was probably the bent aluminum lip that I duct taped to that area. The pictures show the Venturi that I made (RV6), and a couple pics of the bent Al lip that I duct taped in place. If I decide to make this more semi-permanent, I’ll use screws to mount it. The duct tape on the bottom was slightly giving way when I stopped for fuel, but the inside gorilla tape held on.
So here’s what I found: takeoff OAT was 91* (2* less than what I had on Saturday). OAT at 3000’ msl was 81* (same as what I had on Saturday). KHAO - field elevation 640’. Full power climb to about 3,000’, power reduced to stay under the CVG Class B, then full power climb to 6500’ msl. Highest CHT didn’t exceed 386. Two days ago, I don’t think that would have happened, I would have had one, or maybe cylinders above 400 (not that that’s bad….). At 6500’ I went to full power, 2680 RPM, not sure what the MP was, and initial fuel flow eventually reached 15.2 gph full rich. I leaned to about 12.5-13.0 gph, indicating 80% power. My KTAS was 187 - 5K above my redline, so I don’t think the cowl lip had a noticeable affect on speed (if it was still attached). Landed at KOXD (Miami University/Oxford) for fuel. Quick turn for fuel, still 91* on the ground, cowl lip still there, but the bottom layer of duct tape had loosened. I took off with full fuel, so my weight was about the same as what I had on my second Saturday young eagle flight under almost identical weather conditions. This time, trying to mimic what I did on Saturday, the highest CHT I experienced was 395 (vs 437 on Saturday). It was more humid on Saturday, so I don’t know how much that affects it, but I was impressed with what I saw. In fact, I don’t know if I believe such a small change can have that much effect, so more testing is in my near future. Maybe the cutback had an effect, maybe the cowl lip did, who knows - maybe my testing is faulty. More of that to come.
First cowl pic is the original “raked” exit. After that is the cut parallel exit with the lip. Did any of this make a difference? Who knows, but so far it works for me.
dwollen89
OFF TOPIC:
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Older issues of the ‘VAF News’ can be found at:
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"EZ Cowl" 3D Printed Jig
I'm just getting ready to deal with the cowl fitting. I didn't have the PVC or plastic bits on hand to make the EZ Cowl jig, and I didn't want to spend $400 on the super nice machined ones, so I decided to 3D print it instead. TBD if it works, but for less than $10 in filament, worth a shot...
vansairforce.net
AeroDog RV-12 First Engine Start
Problem after first engine start of ULS
The first engine start of my ULS two days ago went well. The engine fired right up, and with the exception of a low idle and lower-than-expected voltage, things looked good. Today I did the second start for the purpose of balancing the carbs. Again, it fired up immediately, let it warm up...
vansairforce.net
IO390’s Weekend
I flew to Scotland which is one of the few places around here where you can enjoy some low level flying. Overnight at Glenforsa as usual. I've had some great experiences in aviation but landing at sunset after several hours flying around the Scottish highlands and enjoying a beer next to your aeroplane is very hard to top. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos this time and I didn't adjust my polarising filter so the canopy reflections ruined some good photo opportunities.
I've done this trip 3 times now, it's a two day route that begins with flying from my base on the south coast to Perth and refuelling. After that I get 3 or so hours in the afternoon to cross the highlands at low level wherever possible and then enjoy the views of the west coast. On this occasion I had enough time to stop at Plockton and dip my feet in the sea before heading to Glenforsa for dinner.
WDYDWYRTW? Aug 16-17, 2025
...getting this weekend's thread started. Hope you're having a nice one. v/r,dr
vansairforce.net
Update Airmotive FI Idle Stop Screw
…dbuds2
I looks like the cause was my alignment shim moving and pulling the whole cable end farther away from the throttle body. When I got close, the throttle stop was about .030 away from the stop set screw. I'm going to move the alignment shims around so gravity and vibrations don't move the to change the position.
Airmotive FI Idle Stop Screw
Has anyone ever experienced the idle stop screw rotating to increase the minimum idle RPM during a flight? This is the screw with spring tension that sets the arm closed limit. During a landing it seemed like landing with a tail wind as I kind kept flying down the runway. When I braked and...
vansairforce.net
RE Check Your Tubes
…RV-9erA
These are what my polyethene rudder cable tubes look like after 21-years and 1800 hours of operation on my RV-9A. The left tube shows some inside wear but at the end only. And, the right side shows virtually no wear. I will probably rotate them 180 degrees at my next condition inspection. The cables came from Vans with a light coating of grease on them and still have some residual grease (always been hangared). More residual grease appears to be on the right side cable. So, I will probably reapply a light coating of Aeroshell grease on both cables to reduce frictional wear. The brown residue you see on the cables is the residual grease.
Check your tubes!
Hello. The rudder cables ride inside a piece of nylon tubing where they exit the fuselage near the tail of the RV-8. I'm sure it's similar in other models. The tubing is held in place with an adel clamp affixed to the the side skin on the inside. In any case, over 2000 hours and 18 years...
vansairforce.net
Quirky Seen From the Air
….Vlad
A vein of gilsonite.
RE EZ Cool Cowl Flap
…Scott Hersha
Well, I’m not claiming victory, but it’s a place to start further testing. I slightly modified my cowl exit opening today, and added a bent aluminum lip to see if the would make any difference. Well…. it did make a difference, and I’m skeptical about my results, so further testing is in the works. Here’s what I did - I cut the bottom of my fiberglass cowl exit to make it straight/vertical with the firewall and cowl juncture. This is how it is supposed to be, but when I was building my cowl I had some extra length in that dropped down exit area, so I just left it there and tapered it forward to match the edge of the firewall. It gave that opening a sort of “raked” look, and I thought that was cool. Well,,,, shame on me for being so shallow and putting form over function. Today I cut 3/4” off the bottom of the cowl exit and added a bent lip, in theory to encourage increased exit velocity. Did cutting back that exit bottom cowl make any difference? I don’t know, but when I look at my firewall mounted exit Venturi that I fabricated, it seems like not opening up that space on the bottom of my cowl fully, where the air is trying to exit, might minimize the efficiency of the exit Venturi. Maybe that didn’t have any effect, but something did. It was probably the bent aluminum lip that I duct taped to that area. The pictures show the Venturi that I made (RV6), and a couple pics of the bent Al lip that I duct taped in place. If I decide to make this more semi-permanent, I’ll use screws to mount it. The duct tape on the bottom was slightly giving way when I stopped for fuel, but the inside gorilla tape held on.
So here’s what I found: takeoff OAT was 91* (2* less than what I had on Saturday). OAT at 3000’ msl was 81* (same as what I had on Saturday). KHAO - field elevation 640’. Full power climb to about 3,000’, power reduced to stay under the CVG Class B, then full power climb to 6500’ msl. Highest CHT didn’t exceed 386. Two days ago, I don’t think that would have happened, I would have had one, or maybe cylinders above 400 (not that that’s bad….). At 6500’ I went to full power, 2680 RPM, not sure what the MP was, and initial fuel flow eventually reached 15.2 gph full rich. I leaned to about 12.5-13.0 gph, indicating 80% power. My KTAS was 187 - 5K above my redline, so I don’t think the cowl lip had a noticeable affect on speed (if it was still attached). Landed at KOXD (Miami University/Oxford) for fuel. Quick turn for fuel, still 91* on the ground, cowl lip still there, but the bottom layer of duct tape had loosened. I took off with full fuel, so my weight was about the same as what I had on my second Saturday young eagle flight under almost identical weather conditions. This time, trying to mimic what I did on Saturday, the highest CHT I experienced was 395 (vs 437 on Saturday). It was more humid on Saturday, so I don’t know how much that affects it, but I was impressed with what I saw. In fact, I don’t know if I believe such a small change can have that much effect, so more testing is in my near future. Maybe the cutback had an effect, maybe the cowl lip did, who knows - maybe my testing is faulty. More of that to come.
First cowl pic is the original “raked” exit. After that is the cut parallel exit with the lip. Did any of this make a difference? Who knows, but so far it works for me.
EZ Cool Cowl Flap
I’m looking for comments/advice on anyone that has tried the ASA EZ cowl flap mod on your RV. I have an RV6 with a carbed O-360, and a Sensenich GA prop. My engine runs hot (CHT’s), especially this time of year during full power climbs at normal initial climb speeds - 100-115 KIAS. I usually...
vansairforce.net
dwollen89
Gap Fairing and Countersinking Longerons
I'm getting ready to countersink my longerons. I've been checking and re-checking to make sure that I don't countersink something that I'm not supposed to. In looking at the rivet callouts, it appears that all the holes get countersunk. However, in doing my due diligence I stumbled on the gap...
vansairforce.net
OFF TOPIC:
Please consider donating yearly to help keep this American 1-person pirate ship afloat:
Get your VansAirForce.net Charity Cap!
VAF Charity Cap: Help your charity and promote this site.
Get the cap all the cool kids are wearing! I don’t get a penny. It’s around $15. $5 more if you want your N-number on the back (I put 'STAFF' on the back of mine because it makes me laugh. Put STAFF on yours too if it makes you smile). And down the road $10 to the charity of your choice...
vansairforce.net
Older issues of the ‘VAF News’ can be found at:
Doug's Area ...The VAF News, About VAF, My Resume
Pushed out every now and then.
www.vansairforce.net
THE VAF LIST (a list of RV-related lists)
THE VAF LIST (a list of RV-related lists)
The VAF List ...a list of RV-related lists. RV-related things you might want to browse over (a closed post that is sticky and maintained by dr). Link to this in 'Links' in the menu. v/r,dr Small businesses that help bring you this list of RV-related lists: 360 Avionics www.360Avionics.com Ace...
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