Perfect Morning To Fly!

[MichaelFarley56]

Now that a cold front has moved out of the midwest, I woke up this morning to clear skies, light winds, and cooler temperatures. I had some time to kill in the morning and couldn't think of a better way to spend it than going flying, so after a 30 minute drive to my hangar it was time to check over the Waiex and get ready to go! It was in the mid 50's this morning, so I was curious how the engine would run since it was 25 degrees cooler today than last weekend.

First things first however; before I could actually get up in the air, I needed to get the oil warmed up a little. My own limit is to make sure I don't perform a takeoff until the oil is at least 100 degrees, just to make sure I don't blow a cooler. For today that meant firing up the engine, running it 900-1000 rpm for around 7-10 minutes until the rear cylinders got up to around 250 degrees, then shutting it back down for around 10 minutes. This allows the oil time to absorb that engine heat, thus warming it up.

Once that was accomplished, it was time to hop in, check the fuel level (8.9 gallons), fire up the freshly rebuilt AeroVee, and taxi out to the runway. Full throttle today gave me around 3150 rpms, and at a stabilized climb of 95 miles per hour I was getting a sustained climb rate of around 850 feet per minute. My rear two cylinders slowly crept up to and stabilized at around 370 degrees, but upon leveling out and setting cruise power they quickly fell and stabilized around 310-320 (at 3100 rpm).



From there, I simply flew around just to enjoy the day and the calm morning air. Thankfully it was smooth and clear...in other words a perfect day to fly!



I landed after 45 minutes and checked my fuel level. Turns out I burned 3.6 gallons in 45 minutes, so it looks like I average just under 5 gallons per hour at around 3100-3150 rpms. Not bad!

Hoping to see everyone at Crossville! And for those of you working away on your projects at home, keep at it! These planes are amazing!

[Sonex1517]

Thanks Mike! I needed that!


Robbie
Sonex 1517
Working on the fuselage

[vigilant104]

Mike,
Thanks for the report, it looks like you had a great day for flying. For those of us not able to get away, this was a good "fix".

Mark

[EricS]

Mike,

Very glad to see your oil pressure and temps running well after all the time you spent on the rebuild. Thanks for today's flight review!