MOVE IT - TEST IT - FLY It

 

The time eventually came when the project was ready to leave the garage and go to the airport to join its relatives.

 

Once it got settled in it was time to do 'weight and balance' and it was ready for some final testing and tuning.

 

 

And then the first taxi run.  The excitement was building. But it took some work to install ballast up front to get the CG (center of gravity) into the right place when there was only the pilot in the airplane.  I installed some removable lead weights.

 

Things progressed, and it was time for some high-speed taxi tests; on the actual runway. Cool!

 

The taxi speed was limited to 65 KIAS (knots indicated airspeed).  Fast enough to lift off if I'd pulled the stick back.  Things went well; that was cause for a little joy.

Finally, on August 4th, 2006 all things were ready, and the test pilot (yeah; my insurance wouldn't cover me to do it, so I hired test pilot Michael Sizou) worked me into his schedule.  We rolled it out, did the briefing, and the plane had its first experience of being airborne.  Very exciting day!

The early test flights indicated that there was too much canard lift, and that the oil cooling was marginal.  After some checking I learned that the fast build canard made by Wingco had 8" wider span and higher camber than the stock factory version (I have no idea why); and that it needed to be set with about 1 degree less incidence than shown on the incidence gauge provided.  It was very disappointing no one had told me that, and I had to change the incidence and mess up and patch some of my nice paint job.

The oil cooling was improved by modifying the inlet scoop, and later improved further by adding a small oil/water heat exchanger in the cowl.  As with any experimental aircraft, there were various adjustments and fixes made to the point where it is now (June, '08), and it has become a very fine craft approaching 100 hours in the air.

I am very pleased with the smooth power of the 3-rotor rotary engine.  With a Catto fixed pitch prop (66" dia, 80" pitch) I get a takeoff roll of about 1300' at sea level, an easy cruise of 170 KTAS at 7500' with about 50% power and 9.5 gph (21 mpg), and a top speed of 210 KTAS.

Here's a link to an 8 minute video of a fly-by, touch and go, and landing; all set to music with appropriate titles.  http://photofu.com/darryl/Velocity_Vignette.wmv