11 hours into Phase 1

[mike.smith]

Hi, all:

AeroVee 2.1 Flew 1.2 hours today. I tried richening the mixture 1/4 turn last night. It seemed to run the same, and leaning didn't seem to have much effect if any.

I flew 3.4 hours starting with a full tank of fuel. I filled up today at 9.6 gallons. That's 2.82 gph at full rich!! I must be running crazy lean! I'm going to richen the mixture another 1/4 turn tomorrow morning before I go out for a long flight. I'm hoping all this will get my temps down, which are still OK, but #1 and #3 are hotter than I'd like them. Over-lean would probably explain that.

Last night I also got my oil overflow outlet OUT of the low-pressure area at the cowl outlet. The bottom of the plane has been COVERED in oil after the last flights. After this flight... no oil on the bottom! The low pressure had been sucking the oil out instead of letting it stay in the air/oil separator, or return through the valve cover.

So during today's flight I did a left and right aileron roll, then finally got up the nerve and did my first loop! It went fine, but it did get my heart beating.

I also tried plugging in my MP3 player through my MGL V6 radio. It worked great! It was nice to have tunes while I was tooling around. The radio is set up so that when I transmit, or I'm receiving anything on the radio, the music is muted. So no music over speech.

My landing was really nice today :-)

Going out tomorrow morning: 6B6-FIT-3B3-OWD-LWM-6B6. That's the plan, anyway.

I'm using the FREE Avare moving map GPS on my Android tablet. It's really a great app! It has the ability to input ADSB weather, which I researched at OSH. Highly recommended if you use a portable GPS.

Blue skies!
Mike Smith
Sonex N439M (scratch built)

[Sonex1517]

Great report Mike! Have fun tomorrow!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

[GordonTurner]

So jealous................looking for the next report while the build goes on.

Gordon

[mike.smith]

Great report Mike! Have fun tomorrow!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

Keep on building!!!

Mike

[mike.smith]

So jealous................looking for the next report while the build goes on.

Gordon

Other builder reports and videos kept me going, too!

Mike

[Bryan Cotton]

Very cool Mike! Do you think you will fly to Oshkosh next year? I made the trip from KBDR one year in a Cherokee 6, it was a haul! We had luggage space for the two of us though.

[MichaelFarley56]

Thanks for the update Mike! Yes that does sound like an awfully low fuel burn, especially if you're running the engine hard to break in the cylinders. What CHT and EGT readings are you seeing?

Congrats on things going so well! Please keep us up to date on how Phase 1 progresses!

[mike.smith]

Very cool Mike! Do you think you will fly to Oshkosh next year? I made the trip from KBDR one year in a Cherokee 6, it was a haul! We had luggage space for the two of us though.

There are a whole bunch of us northeast Sonex owners that are planning/hoping to fly out together next year! Not sure a gaggle would be efficient or safe, so thinking flights of 2, with several landing/fueling/checkpoints along the way.

Mike

[Bryan Cotton]

Back in 1990 we flew out as a group - Cherokee 6, Bonanza, and a light twin. Same way, same day. Radio works a long ways and the fast guys would hang out at the fuel stops for a while.

[Sonex541]

Mike count me in for next years oshkosh trip , was considering this year but too much goin on with work , daughter , and my back issues , ,
Adam Simmons
Sonex 541 sx