Cotton Waiex 191 - N191YX

[Bryan Cotton]

We weighed the aircraft today.

676.5 lbs, 64.4" from our datum which is about 22.9% MAC empty.

[Sonex1517]

Excellent Bryan! Have you scheduled your inspection yet?

[Bryan Cotton]

Excellent Bryan! Have you scheduled your inspection yet?

Not yet - still need to get it registered. Hope to run it tomorrow and then I'm putting down money at the flight school for recurrency & proficiency.

[Bryan Cotton]

First engine start!

[Bryan Cotton]

For me, building an airplane has not been a linear progression. We keep doing other stuff. So until tonight I've not touched the airplane since my last post, May 15. We started the engine for the first time and had a few issues. Timing was buggered up, no RPM indication, high oil pressure. So what have I been doing? Lots of sailboat stuff. Though this is not relevant to airplanes, it is relevant to building an airplane because I think the guys who can do it in 6 months, or two years, or even 4 years vs my 8 are a lot more focused on the one thing. Along the way we have rebuilt cars & motorcycles, built hovercraft, been in the Boy Scouts, and lately sailing. Of course every sailboat I've bought is a project. The video below is my kid's latest sailboat video, and not to spoil it but it is one of the two videos were we destroy a boat. So if you find this interesting, click on the video and check out Adam's channel. Besides a couple of sailboat destruction videos there are some family cruising videos, Adam's first time flying a hull with his younger brother as crew, and a bunch of motorcycle stuff. If you are not into it don't click, and good for you, it should be less than an 8 year journey.


Oh and that timing issue I had - we had never set the secondary ignition. In fact the allen bolt was not socked down. I swapped the sense lead for RPM to the other side of the regulator, thinking that maybe the regulator grounds one side of the AC output and it appears I was right. Now I just have to set the RPM frequency scaling and I'm hopeful it will work. The engine ran great and I'll post the video when Adam gets it up.

[Bryan Cotton]

Here is the second engine run video.
https://youtu.be/bsoZdmA0sYw

[Bryan Cotton]

Third run. I think I'm getting 3150 static RPM.

[Bryan Cotton]

First taxi test.


We had to tighten the brake line compression fittings. Had two pop out.

[Bryan Cotton]

You guys are a tough crowd. Maybe this isn't as cool as I think it is!


It was not running great after heat soaking all day. Also it quit on me as I pulled up to the hangar. I've got some work to do I think.

I used to think all you guys who were complaining about the tailwheel noise on bumps were just being complainers. Now I get it.

[Bryan Cotton]

I did pull the trigger on my online airworthiness certificate yesterday. Hope to get it inspected in June.