Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 15:57:06 -0500 (EST) From: SMilesCozy@aol.com Subject: COZY: Test Flying: was Pat's accident Hi All, In the discussions about Pat's accident, I haven't heard any reference made to wether or not he had a parachute on. Does anyone know the answer? This next question is addressed to JD and any other professional pilots out there. What are some good references for layman pilots that may be considering test flying their own aircrart. Currenty I have Martin Hollman's book "test flying." Perhaps someone could also post their test flight schedule, or an outline of how they plan to procede with the flight testing of their aircraft ie. expanding the speed envelope, flutter testing etc Thanks in advance, Steve Miles Cozy MkIV 272 Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 15:04:28 -0800 From: rfisher@spacetech.com Subject: COZY: Test Flying: was Pat's accident Steve Miles writes: >In the discussions about Pat's accident, I haven't heard any reference made >to wether or not he had a parachute on. Does anyone know the answer? This >next question is addressed to JD and any other professional pilots out there. > What are some good references for layman pilots that may be considering test >flying their own aircrart. Currenty I have Martin Hollman's book "test >flying." Perhaps someone could also post their test flight schedule, or an >outline of how they plan to procede with the flight testing of their aircraft >ie. expanding the speed envelope, flutter testing etc Don't know whether Pat had a 'chute on or not. Probably not or he would have used it. I have read in a couple of publications that the National Test pilot School (NTPS) is offering new light-aircraft test classes. There are 4-day "long weekend" classes and 5-day midweek classes ranging from $900 to $1100. They don't claim to make you an instant test pilot, but instead give you a healthy dose of respect for the disigner's dilemmas, implications of modifications, flight-test lessons learned, and methodology for flight testing. Considering the amount of time and money we are spending on our planes, this seems like a small price for test-pilot training from professionals. Contact: Al Lawless - (805) 824-2997 email: ntps@ntps.com web site: www.hughes-ec.com/org/ntps Just getting started, Russ Fisher Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 22:38:26 -0500 From: INFINITY Aerospace <72124.347@compuserve.com> Subject: COZY: Test Flying Hi Steve and All, >Steve Miles wrote:< >In the discussions about Pat's accident, I haven't heard any reference made to wether or not he had a parachute on. Does anyone know the answer?< Jeff Russell can probably answer this since he has been in touch with Pat. >This next question is addressed to JD and any other professional pilots out there. What are some good references for layman pilots that may be considering test flying their own aircrart. Currently I have Martin Hollman's book "test flying." Perhaps someone could also post their test flight schedule, or an outline of how they plan to proceed with the flight testing of their aircraft ie. expanding the speed envelope, flutter testing etc< I haven't read Martin's book on test flying, but it's probably a good start/book. You can hopefully find my previous post concerning where to find out more about Test Flying your Sport Aircraft in the archive, and getting with your EAA Flight Advisor and Technical Advisor. Your EAA Flight Advisor will have a video covering test flying, and a lot of info and documents concerning test flights. My previous post 10/16/96 concerning Test Flying your Sport Aircraft partially contained: >>, and was on a committee of 5 that wrote the AC on how to Flight Test Homebuilts. This became "AC 90-89A Amateur-Built Aircraft & Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook".<< >Al Wick wrote 10/17/96:< >I've read that sucker. Best written gov't publication I've ever seen. Nice work!! I wondered how it was that it had special considerations for canards. I downloaded it from that free faa bulletin board. Recommend it to all.< >>Try the "U.S. Government Printing Office" (GPO) at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces001.html and the "FAA Advisory Circulars" at http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/acs/ac-idx.htm<< My previous post concerning EAA Flight Advisor and Technical Advisor was included with Sport Aircraft Insurance dated 11/06/96 for the archieve search. If you can't find these archived posts, let me know and I'll send them to you directly. HTH. Infinity's Forever, EAA Member EAA Technical Counselor JD EAA Flight Advisor AOPA Member Test Pilot James D. Newman, President LCDR F-14 USNR INFINITY Aerospace Mailing Address: P. O. Box 12275 El Cajon, CA 92022 Shipping Address: 1750 Joe Crosson Drive, D-2 El Cajon, CA 92020 (619) 448-5103 PH & FAX 72124.347@compuserve.com OR INFINITY_Aerospace@compuserve.com Checkout our Stick Grips, Retractable Main Landing Gear and the Infinity 1 Home Page http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/INFINITY_Aerospace From: AlWick@aol.com Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 14:14:05 -0400 (EDT) Subject: COZY: Warning: potential builder problems Spent a few hours visiting a builder doing the last of his taxi tests on canard. Learned a lot. Brake lines: the plastic lines have a brass insert that goes INSIDE the tube. This is needed IN ADDITION to the normal brass compression fitting. This prevents air from being sucked in during hard braking. I misunderstood the warning about this in instructions. I thought Nat was just referring to the need for a compression fitting. Result: not enough stopping power. Ran off runway into grass. Engine Fire: He has fuel injected O360. Boost pump left on for more than 10 sec causes fuel to dump out of air intake. Collected in bottom of engine cowl. Caught fire. He also had leaking injector, not readily noticed. Recommend fuel drain on cowl bottom, add alum to cowl bottom, don't run boost for more than few seconds. After fuel burned, fire source was epoxy. Remove injectors at corners of engine during install and ship. They easily get dented and may not show leak till after engine shut off. He was smart to have two fire extinguishers avail. Hops out and looks after start up of engine. No signif damage. Spark plug wire: chaffed on cooling baffling. Probably source for engine fire. Prop wipe out: hit a piece of fabric lying on runway. Any little thing on runway can wipe out prop. Just wanted to warn everyone. I place a lot of value on problems other builders have had. This guy is very cautious about fuel. Even then, in sample you can see little flakes floating around. FWIW -al Ps. He's not member of list and I forgot to ask permission to post this. But it's too important to not post. So will keep it anonomous. by SERV05.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (PMDF V5.1-7 #16063) with SMTP id <01INO5OEZKPQ001RSB@SERV05.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> for cozy_builders@hpwarhw.an.hp.com; Mon, 15 Sep 1997 11:56:07 PDT Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 12:03:42 -0800 From: hrogers@SLAC.Stanford.edu (Howard Rogers) Subject: Re: COZY: Warning: potential builder problems To all, I haven't seen Nat's literature (as opposed to Rutan's literature that comes with my Long EZ plans), but this type of stuff has been covered several times, in print before. I am specifically referring to the fuel related problems. It is always a good idea to run up that engine for the first time, with the cowl off, and an observer (or two), off to the side with fire extinguishers in hand. Had this been done, the leak would have been caught, as well as the over-boost situation, even before cranking the engine. There would have been no pool in the bottom of the cowl, and probably no fire. This is good practice with ANY aircraft, after things have been disturbed, such as a hose change, replacement of fuel system components, engine change, etc. Howard Rogers, A&P 2005148 From: cdenk@ix.netcom.com Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 19:14:36 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: COZY: Warning: potential builder problems On 09/15/97 14:14:05 you wrote: > >Spent a few hours visiting a builder doing the last of his taxi tests on >canard. Learned a lot. >Brake lines: the plastic lines have a brass insert that goes INSIDE the tube. >This is needed IN ADDITION to the normal brass compression fitting. This >prevents air from being sucked in during hard braking. I misunderstood the >warning about this in instructions. I thought Nat was just referring to the >need for a compression fitting. Result: not enough stopping power. Ran off >runway into grass. > >Engine Fire: He has fuel injected O360. Boost pump left on for more than 10 >sec causes fuel to dump out of air intake. Collected in bottom of engine >cowl. Caught fire. He also had leaking injector, not readily noticed. >Recommend fuel drain on cowl bottom, add alum to cowl bottom, don't run boost >for more than few seconds. After fuel burned, fire source was epoxy. >Remove injectors at corners of engine during install and ship. They easily >get dented and may not show leak till after engine shut off. >He was smart to have two fire extinguishers avail. Hops out and looks after >start up of engine. No signif damage. >Spark plug wire: chaffed on cooling baffling. Probably source for engine >fire. >Prop wipe out: hit a piece of fabric lying on runway. Any little thing on >runway can wipe out prop. >Just wanted to warn everyone. I place a lot of value on problems other >builders have had. This guy is very cautious about fuel. Even then, in sample >you can see little flakes floating around. >FWIW >-al >Ps. He's not member of list and I forgot to ask permission to post this. But >it's too important to not post. So will keep it anonomous. > > > The real issue here is check, double check another day, and do it over again. If at all possible have someone else looking over you shoulder regularly. Be humble and ask for help, pay if necessary for an certified mechanic or inspector to look at times. I am not talking of any offical inspections, just friends looking out for your opposite of front side. Make friends with the local aircraft repair facilities, buy some parts (a set of sparkplugs, harness, etc) from them, it'll be a little higher cost, but you will have someone to bounce questions off. Visit their facility frequently and look a how a certified aircraft is made, wires and tubing routed and fastened. I befriended an Aerostar repair station and the local maintenance hanger. I poked my head everywhere it would fit, making a pleasant nuisance of myself. I saw engine going off, accessories bing transfered, on; gear up landings repaired, etc. I am a educational nosy type person, you need to be if you build an aircraft. This is a classic situation of even following the plans, having problems. Re: Prop damage: Wheel pants should be on at all times to minimize prop damage, and landing brake deployed whenever taxiing. I had damage the day before the F.A.A. came. An injected engine with updraft engine, probably won't run right due to fuel vaporizing in the little stainless lines. I mounted the distrubution block on the prop governor pad. Airflow made special length tubing. AN injected will leak fuel frequently, and should be planned for! My engine an IO-320-B1A from a twin commanche has the servo mounted forward (for us) on the vertical face of the oil pan. If anything flows this way, every thing is pitched to drain and drain holes properly located. The engine itself has drain plugs on the bottom of the oil sump, to the induction area. On mine their is a sniffle (check)valve located with tygon tubing to the outside. This builder should hunt out his model engine installed on a certified aircraft, talk to mechanics to determine how to handle the situation. I'll post in several days a book list of references that I found very helpful, and the cost is minor compared to the cost of the plane. While waiting for epoxy to cure, at work lunch, etc. read, understand. Evrything from wiring details, material specs, and WHY things are done the way they are. In the 2 weeks I have been on this mailing, I have spent more time trying to keep people from having bad experiences, I would much rather spend the time describing neat items I have done/seen. BUILD BY THE PLANS. From: Lee Devlin Subject: COZY: Wing incidence/Flying in primer Date: Thu, 23 Oct 97 10:05:28 MDT Denk writes and > How may planes out there have shims or none?? I don't know the answer to this, but here is Mike Melvill's advice from one of the Canard Pushers regarding straightness. It indicates that a lot of planes require tweaking during the test flight period. It's a little lengthy but important enough that I think it deserves to be posted in its entirety to the group. I got it from Stet Elliot's electronic CP's which I highly recommend. HOW TO CHECK IF YOUR AIRPLANE IS STRAIGHT. So you have a few hours on your new EZ/Long/Defiant/etc., and you are buzzing around within your limited 25 mile radius of home base - why not spend the required hours you have left to take a close look at your airplane. Specifically, checking the rigging, the "straightness", if you will, of your brand new creation. Assume you have built a "perfect" airplane, both wings are mounted to the fuselage at the correct incidence with zero relative difference, the canard is straight and at the correct incidence, and the two winglets are correct and exactly symmetrical relative to each other. This airplane should fly at cruise power, level flight, with the ball centered and both ailerons even and faired with the wing trailing edges. Depending on the CG and the speed, the elevator may also be perfectly faired with the canard tips. Since elevator CP60, Page 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------- position is a function of speed and, to a lesser degree, to CG position, I will limit this discussion primarily to rudder and ailerons. How many of you have reached this goal? Not many I would bet. I know my own Long-EZ certainly is short of this state of perfection. How important is it to have a perfectly straight airplane? Difficult to say. Obviously, the straighter it is, the less control surface deflection there will be in high speed flight and the lower the drag and the greater the efficiency will be. How do you check for a straight airplane? First of all, you will have to have a slip indicator, accurately installed. This can be a short length of yarn stuck to the canopy on the aircraft centerline with a small piece of masking tape (this will only work on gliders and pushers!). Place it about 12" up from the leading edge of the plexiglass canopy. If you have a needle and ball, a turn coordinator and ball, or just a ball, it must be mounted in the panel, ball centered with the wings exactly level. Be sure this is correct before attempting to evaluate the airplane. Now, before you conduct the following flight test, check to see that the two elevators are rigged perfectly, relative to each other. You will have to remove the canard to check this out. Simply eyeball along the elevator trailing edges. They should be in a straight line. If they are not, you must correct this before doing the flight testing. Elevators rigged incorrectly will roll the airplane. Also, stand behind your airplane looking at the center of the spinner. Raise or lower your head until your eyes can see along the top skin forward of the trailing edges of the wings. You don't want to be looking down on top of the wings or up at the bottom skins. You must be able to see the trailing edges and the top skins as a line. Now, without tilting your head, look from the right wing to the left. Any differences? Shouldn't be. If you can see more of the top of one wing, you have a relative incidence problem. Make a note as to which way it should roll and verify this in flight. Take off and establish a high cruise in level flight, feet off the rudder pedals and ailerons perfectly centered (if you can't see your ailerons, take a passenger along to help you get them centered. Remember, your limitations allow you to carry a passenger if they are essential to the mission)! Now, look at the ball. Is it centered? Are the wings level? Probably not! Bummer, oh well, take comfort in knowing that almost everyone else is in the same boat! Keep the ailerons centered (visually verify this), and "step on the ball", that is, step on the rudder to center the ball. Step on the rudder opposite the direction of the yarn slip indicator. Lock your feet, ball centered (yarn centered), keep ailerons centered, and carefully observe the horizon and your DG (if you have one) to see if the airplane is flying a straight course over the ground or if it is slowly turning. If you have no turning rate and your wings are level with the horizon, you have one or both winglets attached to the wings slightly crooked. Even though you have a small error in your airplane, at least you know what is wrong and it can be corrected. What if you are turning? Carefully null out the turn. Use just enough aileron in the proper direction to zero the turn. Verify this by watching for zero heading change on your DG or by observing a distant peak or other prominent object on the ground at the horizon. This takes a little time and patience but you can get it perfect if you try. With zero turn rate and the ball centered, check how much aileron and rudder deflection you have and in which direction. An assistant can be a great help here. Have them write down, for example, "right aileron up 3/16", left aileron down 3/16" and left rudder outboard 1/4", right rudder at zero." These dimensions can be quite accurately "eyeballed" with a little practice. If you doubt your passenger's ability to judge this, before you fly, have him or her sit in the passenger seat and you move the ailerons and rudders, using a scale and have them call out what they see. Now you know you have a relative wing incidence problem, as well as a relative winglet incidence problem. Block the rudder out to whatever the eyeball estimate was by taping a small wood block to the inboard trailing edge of the winglet. When the rudder is released, it should close on this block and remain deflected outboard the estimated amount. Repeat the flight test and CP60, Page 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------- verify that the ball is centered with zero turn rate. Now, in the case of a Long-EZ or Defiant, you will have to install shim washers on one of the outboard wing attach bolts such that the wing incidence is altered in the proper direction, i.e., in the example above of the right aileron trailing edge up, this wing would need to be shimmed by perhaps one thin washer (AN960-816L) on the bottom outboard bolt. The left wing probably should be left alone until you look at the results of this change in flight. Fly it and see if this was enough and if it was in the correct direction. Remember, do this kind of adjusting only in small increments. Use thin washers or thin shim stock, one piece at a time, starting with the wing that appeared to be off when you eyeballed the airplane from behind, whichever wing needs to be shimmed to raise the trailing edge. If one washer on one wing does not do it, add one on the other bolt on the opposite wing. Keep both wings even by eyeballing from behind - do not get one wing much different than the other. Continue using small increments until the airplane flys wings level, ball centered with zero turn rate. You now have a straight but ugly airplane! Unfortunately, if you have already painted it, you will have some work to do. If it is still in primer, fair the fuel strakes to match the wing roots with dry micro (West System). To fair the rudder with the upper and lower winglet (on a Long-EZ), use a hacksaw blade to cut through the outboard skin along the rudder hinge line to the top and bottom of the winglet. If necessary, widen this saw cut as required and cut through the foam core to the inside of the inboard skins above the rudder and below the rudder. Check that you can now flex the trailing edges of the top and bottom of the winglet til it lines up with the rudder (still in its blocked outboard position). Now, reduce the amount the rudder is blocked out by approximately 10 percent, fill the saw cuts with micro and force the top and bottom outboard to exactly match to the rudder. Clamp them in this position and allow to cure. Layup a 2-ply BID repair over the saw cuts and fill, sand and finish. Install a permanent block, full span along the inboard trailing edge of the winglet to block the rudder in its proper faired position. You can use wood or a piece of pre-cured glass here. Your airplane should now fly straight and the winglet repair will not be detectable. This works great on a Long-EZ, but what about a VariEze? Since it is not possible to adjust the incidence of the wings of a completed VariEze, you will have to do surgery to the TOP of whichever wing it takes to correct the tendency to roll. If it rolls left (ailerons centered), you will have to slit the top skin of the right wing, outboard of the aileron along the aileron hinge line and bend this trailing edge up as described for Long-EZ winglets/rudders. If you have to do this to your VariEze, call me at RAF and let's discuss it before you do it. Well, I hope this is helpful and not too confusing. I'd be happy to discuss this with any builders or flyers who may find themselves having to make this kind of correction. Mike Melvill