SonexBuilders.net

As many of you know I had my first flight 30 days ago. I have posted two cockpit videos on YouTube.

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The first flights are a true adventure! I can not imagine anything more thrilling!

These Sonex aircraft are great flying machines! I love every second of flying it!

I have five hours on it now. I had to make the usual tweeks to the mixture, timing, fuel line insulation, and baffles. Now she is flying great.

Look how fast I get airborne in the video. Note how I can get my speed up in a gentle descent and how little I need to move the stick. The Sonex is a very responsive aircraft.

Great fun!

Jake,

Looks good! I am curious, since you have the center stick is there some reason that you do not sit on the centerline when flying alone?

Tom

Thank you for sharing the great videos, and I'm thrilled to hear your Phase 1 testing is going well. Hopefully you'll be able to get you cylinders all balanced up and then you'll be all set to go!

I'm glad to hear you're having so much fun with the Sonex. They are great little airplanes and a blast to fly! I can't wait to see your beautiful airplane in person someday!

Keep the videos coming!

Here is a short video of a take off and landing as part of my eight test flight.

I have a new camera mount for a much better viewing angle than previous videos. Every now and then it shakes a little but not too bad.

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Here is my second video of the day. It is of a high speed go around to make room for a landing business jet behind me and a touch and go.

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Here is a video of todays test flight, my ninth. I used a better mount so no vibration this time.

It is a video of a take off, getting a long downwind leg and 360 from the tower to make way for a TBM700 with a pilot who spoke little English. Then a go around and a landing.

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I got a new microphone and camera mount. Like Tony Spicer, I put the microphone in my headset ear cup. The sound is now crisp and you can hear the engine and the radio transmissions. I have the Garmin digital radio so the sound is very crisp and clear. My new mount put an end to the vibrations and results in a clearer picture quality.

The red lights blinking on my panel are due to an anomaly in the oil pressure reading. I am working to sort that out. It shows very high oil pressure when I reduce the throttle or go to idle.

Also, I am a little concerned that my prop may be a little biased to being a cruise prop so I am worried that my rate of climb may not be sufficient, or perhaps my engine is not producing enough power.

Enjoy the video and let me know what you think!

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Hi Jake, enjoyed your videos, well done. What camera are you using that allows you to patch in audio from your headset ear cup? How is it set up? Thanks and look forward to more videos.

David
Onex (N951X reserved)

In my videos I am using a GoPro Hero3. I use a GoPro mic adapter cable with an audio input jack that plugs into a small Olympus microphone via a 3.5 mm connector. I then put the Olympus microphone in my headset ear cup. I got the earcup trick from Tony Spicer's video. The GoPro Mic adapter hàs a Mini USB connector that plugs into the port on the side of the GoPro.

I mounted the GoPro mount on the turtledeck bulkhead, just below where the canopy crossbar support rests with the canopy closed. I screwed the mount in place and put the screws through a six inch 1x2 piece of wood behind the bulkhead to eliminate vibration.