Sonex 1566 First flight 25th June

[sonex1566]

Good evening everyone,
Last Tuesday was MY special day, I have watched so many of you other 'first timers', tried to soak up as much info as possible, over thought the process to the point that I consciously had to begin another session of thinking about over thinking the thinking process......
Well it flew like it says in the brochure, like an absolute peach. It was hands off straight and level. To say that I am pleased is a massive understatement. Of course, I have a 'but'. Which was that I really should have leaned the motor a little more, it was running very rich the longer I flew, I fiddled with the mixture for a few moments but I am afraid Captain Cautious here chickened out and landed where I can do some more tweaking in a bit more safety. The ink on the tail dragger endorsement on my license hasn't properly dried yet, but the landing was a piece of cake. I really hope that I haven't put Lady Luck on my tail now because of that!

What I do want to know, is that I now have conclusive proof that I am a much better aircraft builder than you tube video maker......what program is the easiest for a dinosaur like me to figure out how to use and use on a Windows computer? I have watched my fair share of youtube content, it is far easier to criticize someone else's crap effort but entirely different when I've got to do it myself! Any suggestions?

[rizzz]

Good evening everyone,
Last Tuesday was MY special day, I have watched so many of you other 'first timers', tried to soak up as much info as possible, over thought the process to the point that I consciously had to begin another session of thinking about over thinking the thinking process......
Well it flew like it says in the brochure, like an absolute peach. It was hands off straight and level. To say that I am pleased is a massive understatement. Of course, I have a 'but'. Which was that I really should have leaned the motor a little more, it was running very rich the longer I flew, I fiddled with the mixture for a few moments but I am afraid Captain Cautious here chickened out and landed where I can do some more tweaking in a bit more safety. The ink on the tail dragger endorsement on my license hasn't properly dried yet, but the landing was a piece of cake. I really hope that I haven't put Lady Luck on my tail now because of that!

What I do want to know, is that I now have conclusive proof that I am a much better aircraft builder than you tube video maker......what program is the easiest for a dinosaur like me to figure out how to use and use on a Windows computer? I have watched my fair share of youtube content, it is far easier to criticize someone else's crap effort but entirely different when I've got to do it myself! Any suggestions?

Congratulations Richard!
Feels great doesn’t it?

Wondershare Filmora is what I use.
It’s not free but not very expensive either. Most importantly, it’s very easy to use.

[Rynoth]

Congratulations Richard, nice scratch build if you got it to fly straight and true on the first flight, even my kit-built didn't do that!

For video editing I use Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, mostly because I had learned Sony Vegas a long time ago and didn't want to re-learn new software. I'm not sure I can recommend it over other options since I haven't tried anything else, and I doubt that it's the "easiest"." Video editing can be quite time-consuming!

[WesRagle]

Hi Richard,

Congratulations!!! Beautiful air plane! Scratch builders are the heart of experimental aviation.

All the Best,

Wes

[gammaxy]

Great Job!

Almost everyone has to make some adjustment to the Aeroinjector (I assume that's what you're using?) after their first flights.

After my first flight, I misdiagnosed my engine as being too rich and made several adjustments lean. Each flight got progressively worse before starting over and realizing my error. The decreasing fuel pressure as you burn off fuel and the higher RPMs in flight both act to make the mixture at a fixed setting leaner in flight than on the ground. I'm not sure how it would get richer during flight unless you were climbing high or maybe a small effect due to the fuel atomizing better as everything heats up. Without actually pulling the mixture out and seeing the RPMs increase, it's hard to know for sure.

My point is, unless you're certain you're too rich, don't be like me and keep adjusting the mixture leaner. Full rich when tuning on the ground at ~2800-3000rpm has to be a little richer than needed if it's going to deliver enough fuel when you're at 3400rpm in flight. Also, when you adjust the needle, remove the air filter and use a sharpie to draw a mark on the needle so you can physically verify how far you adjust it--it tends to turn a little extra when you tighten the set screw back down.

Also, there's other issues like vapor in the fuel that could potentially be misdiagnosed as mixture issues.

[XenosN42]

Richard,

Congrats on your first flight!

I use Shotcut for my video projects. The price is right - FREE. Their written documention is great and there are many videos on the net which cover everything you'll need to know. Here is their 'getting started' video: https://www.shotcut.org/tutorials/

-- Michael
OneX N169XE
author of the 'Flight Data Viewer'

[Bryan Cotton]

Congratulations Richard!

[sonex1566]

Great Job!

Almost everyone has to make some adjustment to the Aeroinjector (I assume that's what you're using?) after their first flights.

After my first flight, I misdiagnosed my engine as being too rich and made several adjustments lean. Each flight got progressively worse before starting over and realizing my error. The decreasing fuel pressure as you burn off fuel and the higher RPMs in flight both act to make the mixture at a fixed setting leaner in flight than on the ground. I'm not sure how it would get richer during flight unless you were climbing high or maybe a small effect due to the fuel atomizing better as everything heats up. Without actually pulling the mixture out and seeing the RPMs increase, it's hard to know for sure.

My point is, unless you're certain you're too rich, don't be like me and keep adjusting the mixture leaner. Full rich when tuning on the ground at ~2800-3000rpm has to be a little richer than needed if it's going to deliver enough fuel when you're at 3400rpm in flight. Also, when you adjust the needle, remove the air filter and use a sharpie to draw a mark on the needle so you can physically verify how far you adjust it--it tends to turn a little extra when you tighten the set screw back down.

Also, there's other issues like vapor in the fuel that could potentially be misdiagnosed as mixture issues.

Hi Chris, thanks for that. I kinda made the exact opposite decision as you which is how I got to be now. I was concerned about overheating, too lean take offs and all the assorted horror tales that I have heard. So I thought I would richen my initial setting on my needle which is #1. The engine was a sputtering mess, wouldn't idle on the std #2 needle even when it was screwed all the way down. The #1 transformed it. But, just to check, I richer 1 full turn to see what would happen! As you can imagine it made a bloody big difference. I since have been leaning it back incrementally where it is now 1/8 turn lean from the initial setting. I have read through quite a fair bit of the aerocarb thread, the general consensus seems to reflect all the subtle differences in installation and scowling installation.

Anyway, I'll be out at the airfield enjoying my day off playing planes.

[sonex1374]

Richard,

Although there is no hard or fast rule of matching a needle to a particular engine, the #1 needle is quite a lean running needle. If you adjust the #1 needle to run well at WOT then the idle rpm range might or might not run well also (this isn't really a big deal). The problem comes in if you try to adjust the #1 needle at a mid-range rpm, or anything less than WOT (as in the max fuel demand the engine will impose). This situation can easily lead to an overly-lean condition as the engine unloads in flight (as a previous comment pointed out).

I would suggest that you be very cautious and ensure that the tuning is appropriate at WOT with that #1 needle. It's easy to miss the signs of running just-a-touch-too-lean at WOT, and that can cause problems down the road (as a number of people running AeroVees have found out).

Jeff

[davion]

It must be a wonderful experience for you! Nice