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DaveG601XL
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Posts: 351
Location: Cincinnati, Oh
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 Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:03 pm Post subject: N554SG First Flight! |
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The first flight this morning of my Jabiru 3300 powered Zodiac 601XL, N554SG, was a great success. The skies at Lebanon/Warren County Airport north of Cincinnati were clear, the windsock was limp and the temperature was in the 70's. I flew for 0.9 hours just to the east of the airport around 3000 AGL. It flew like a dream. I had one pucker moment on initial climb out around 1200 AGL when after turning off the electric fuel pump, the fuel pressure dropped to .8 PSI. I turned back towards the airport and switched tanks and turned the electric pump back on. The pressure went back up to the more normal 1.8 PSI and I continued on with the test flight. I don't know if I have a real problem, an indication issue, or if my limits are set too high. Questions to Jabiru while at Oshkosh and troubleshooting to follow.
The rest of the climb out was at 80-85 MPH and I saw 1000 FPM climb on the VSI.
The left aileron trim had to be actuated up to around 10-15 degrees indicating a heavy left wing. Questions to Zenith while at Oshkosh and a Matronics archive search for solutions will follow.
Basic maneuverability checks went very well. The rudder is not needed much. With the self-centering design, you really have to want to make rudder inputs anyway. I made banking turns up to 30 degrees and it felt very good. My hingeless ailerons do require a bit of muscle but once in a coordinated turn it holds it's place very well. The view outside the canopy during turns is beautiful. Holding a 30 degree bank seemed effortless.
No flaps stall was at around 39 MPH indicated. A quick glance at the GPS showed around 45 MPH. The wings stayed level and there was no abrupt break to either side. When it started to mush, I pushed the stick and flew out. I did not keep holding to a full stall break on this flight.
I then put in half flaps. The nose dropped down and I had to pull full stick back to maintain level flight and ran out of nose up trim. I was already a fair amount of nose up trim for level flight anyway. I put the flaps back up and left them for the duration of the flight. Looks like I need to re-pitch the horizontal stab.
I continued to fly north-south circuits and performed a couple of practice patterns, descending from 3000 to 2000 AGL from the imaginary downwind to final. I re-entered the airport pattern and flew it flaps up. Reference speeds that I used were downwind = 80 MPH, base = 75 MPH, and final at 70 MPH. I began rounding out at around 65 MPH and obviously did not look at it during the final flare but it was probably under 60. Touchdown felt very good. I may not be using the flaps much at all as the entire landing circuit felt very good to me. Since my knees were not shaking too much, I taxied back to the active, took off and flew one more pattern circuit.
The taxi back to the hanger was all smiles from both me and my ground crew. I tucked it back away in the hanger and downloaded my Dynon EMS data. I leave for Oshkosh tomorrow so post-flight inspection and any modifications/troubleshooting will have to wait until the week after next. Any notes or questions for me may not be answered until I get back.
Hope to see some of you at Oshkosh!
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_________________
David Gallagher
Cincinnati, OH area
Last edited by DaveG601XL on Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:31 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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jmaynard
Joined: 27 Feb 2008
Posts: 394
Location: Fairmont, MN (FRM)
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| Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject: N554SG First Flight! |
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On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 01:03:33PM -0700, DaveG601XL wrote:
| Quote: | The first flight this morning of my Jabiru 3300 powered Zodiac 601XL,
N554SG, was a great success.
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Woohoo!
| Quote: | The left aileron trim had to be actuated up to around 10-15 degrees
indicating a heavy left wing.
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Don't worry about this unless it does it with load in the right seat as
well. I crank in a fair amount of right aileron trim when flying solo.
| Quote: | The rudder is not needed much. With the self-centering design, you really
have to want to make rudder inputs anyway.
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I pretty much don't use the rudder except on initial climb and in a
crosswind landing. Yes, it does take some push to move the rudder in flight,
though they tell me that'll loosen up as the nose gear bungee breaks in with
use.
| Quote: | I then put in half flaps. The nose dropped down and I had to pull full
stick back to maintain level flight and ran out of nose down trim. I was
already a fair amount of nose up trim for level flight anyway. I put the
flaps back up and left them for the duration of the flight. Looks like I
need to re-pitch the horizontal stab.
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Yeah...you should have some trim left even at full flaps.
| Quote: | I may not be using the flaps much at all as the entire landing circuit
felt very good to me.
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I really don't think the flaps make a lot of difference on the Zodiac one
way or the other.
| Quote: | David Gallagher
601 XL, ready to fly.
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Time to change the signature!
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (got it!)
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_________________
Jay Maynard, K5ZC
AMD Zodiac XLi N55ZC |
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leinad
Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 283
Location: Central Virginia
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| Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: N554SG First Flight! |
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Dave,
That's fantastic! Congratulations and good report.
Dan Dempsey
Plans building 601XL/Corvair
do not archive
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Scratch building XL with Corvair Engine |
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Iberplanes
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 174
Location: Igualada - Barcelona - Spain
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| Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject: N554SG First Flight! |
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Congratulations! That is good news!! Another builder happy and flying. I´m a little behind you.... probably 18 months... but happy.
Take care,
--
Alberto Martin
www.iberplanes.es
Igualada - Barcelona - Spain
----------------------------------------------
Zodiac 601 XL Builder
Serial: 6-7011
Tail Kit: Finished
Wings: Not Started
Fuselage: Ordered
Engine: Jabiru 3300
[quote][b]
| | - The Matronics Zenith601-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
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_________________
Alberto Martin
601 XL - Jabiru 3300
http://www.iberplanes.es
Igualada - Barcelona - Spain |
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