Knuckledragger

I've been working on cars and bikes most of my life.  This Hacman kit has me thoroughly confused.

The instructions leave a quite a bit to be desired.  The kit itself is mostly plastic fittings, where the pictures on the website show nice brass - oh well I paid $160 for a fancy gate valve and some piss poor instructions/pictures.  In particular, the step attached has me baffled.  "Earlier castings have neither and must be replaced"  Have neither ___ what?  ... must be replaced with what?  What threads onto the hollow threaded rod that is shown being installed into a "boss" I don't even have?

AFAIK about the only thing that will lift powder coating is heat or abrasion. So perhaps aircraft paint remover to get the pink stuff off?

0:18 Pilot closes canopy and commences starting engine.

1:05 Engine lopes to life like a top fuel dragster.

1:18 Pilot decides glass should not be between his ears and that idling awesomeness; re-opens canopy. 

About 12 hours SMOH now on the 582 GH.  I decided to check the plugs.  Clearly the engine is running rich.  Based on my observations and what I've read here and elsewhere, I moved the clips on the two needles from the middle to the top groove.

I did a WOT static and noted 5900 RPM, and 1000 EGT with the engine at 160 water.  Climb out saw 6300RPM @60MPH, 900-1000 FPM to pattern altitude.  Field is 100'MSL and DA was about 500' during the runup and trip around the patch.

Upon return I pulled one of the plugs and noted light brown color.  Tomorrow I will take it up and cruise a bit to observe temps and put a bit more time on then check the plugs again.  I look forward to your comments and input.

I was taught to make a "sight picture" using the cowl, the left A-Pillar, and the horizon as the frame of the picture, then refer to that "picture" from time to time as I might a gauge or section of the sky.  I had to learn what it looked like in straight and level flight, then in turns and climbs.

The other thing I learned was to sight the runway down between my legs.  I've never flown a tandem/single seat and I still wanted to line the runway up with the prop & center of the cowl.  Once I got the "between the legs habit" I started to just watch the far end and let the runway find its way to me.

Now I hangar and fly out of a 1600x70' grass swale ended strip on a hill with trees at either end. 

I prefer to drag my nose wheel through the air as long as possible both on t/o and landing and keeping the stick in my lap while taxiing in calm conditions to keep the nose light.  When doing short/soft field maneuvers i can just about pick the nose up just by going WOT and holding the brakes.  Great fun!  It feels like doing wheelies. Fun also to balance it with the tail just about touching the dirt while rolling out. 

To to me it appeared the pilot I the video held the nose up until it was no longer possible to keep it up wth stick. I did not sense the application of brakes at all. Adding brakes with the nose up would have slammed it in. Adding brakes during the grind, I would think would just cause the nose to griind in extra hard. All in all to my rookie eyes it was a well executed e-landing

Are you guys installing the Hacman on the 582 gray head? I have one but have not tried to install it yet

takes me back to B Dub'l E :)

No worries, I'll use YouTub from now on. 

Engine porn!  No good forum is complete without it 

sweet ride joey!

Wow!

indeed they ARE gator farts. Fortunately they were the dry variety on this flight. 

The rear of my port wing tip is near the hanger door.  I've come through that door with things on my mind or in my hands and caught that spot square in the forehead several times.  The wing tip has softened up a bit now, so I'm more careful not to keep running into it and hurt it more.

??  This was filmed in 1080p, 16x9.  Then produced at 1280x720 (720p 16x9).  Jim, did something go wrong?  can you show me how its looking narrow to you?

I like Joey's idea and I like to make videos.  Today's flight is a joy ride from this morning.  It was HOT and super muggy, so I just kept climbing until it cooled off.  Took it to 6000' AGL

Great Job!

I think a 582 will fly the plane just fine.  I flew out this morning 85 degrees F and 90% humidity and flew to 6000' AGL in about 15 min, 5800-6000 rpm.  The air was MUCH nicer up there too!

At the flyin last week, I was the only OD plane out of ~200.  But there weren't any black with red accents planes either, which is what I might eventually go with - or maybe just have fun with the rattle cans...

Dare I ask? Perhaps a pm ...

sorry about that! Next time, I promise 

I should have made a video because a lot of the clouds had lightening 

Great write up JJ. I really appreciate it. It's hard to tell, but I do pull power to idle in this vid right about when I'm finishing up turn dw to base  (last  couple of landings) and always at least during final.   

I'm away from the plane while at work. I'm looking forward to this weekend where I can put all this great input into practice!

it will feel good to know how big I can fly the pattern and still make the field engine at idle.   

I've been experimenting with flaps. 

For take off I put in about 1/3 (I pull the little chrome tube up about 1/3 of it's travel).  Take off flaps seem to make little difference, at least the way I'm using them. 

On approach it feels better leaving the flaps out most of the way adding them in when very near the threshold.  Then rolling along on the ground I push the handle back to the floor.

I leave them out when the crosswinds pick up.

I went to a Fly In this weekend.  A first for me.  It was at 9FL1, Flying W Airranch.  Whoa!  What an experience.  Nothing like a cruise-in for cars until you're 'parked'.

As luck would have it, no one within 50 miles of me was burning *anything*.  The windsock at the field I found after I parked, nestled among the graceful oaks.  Fortunately this is FL and plenty of water around to at least get an idea of surface winds.  That and watching the other little planes.

The pattern was busy and I ended up deciding to go around halfway into final on my first try.  As I lined up the approach, a stream of planes, 5-6 of them were back taxiing down the runway to my right.  Then two RV's kicked tails out and started to take off in front of me.  Yikes!  "72MT turning right leaving final, climbing out".

I get about 500' above the pattern and circled wide to come back to 45 into DW and took that time to watch operations a little more closely.  If I was going to have pancakes, I would have to land behind someone and to the left of the back taxiing traffic.  I set up the approach and made a great landing.  The experience was worth it.  However I did not fly to the two other nearby fly-ins. One was enough for today.  I also lost interest in the pancakes.  BUT, I saw so many very cool aircraft and highly skilled pilots.  The scenery both moving and parked was stunning!  Plenty of great folks to make conversation with too.  Had a great time.

I waited for most of the heavy metal planes, squadrons of RVs with their cowboy pilots, and smoking biplanes to fly out before making my humble departure   Taxi and take off went well too!

It was a great day and I love flying even more!