Good old number 29

I'm near Kenai, AK. Great place to fly. I spread my wings a little and got most of the cross country dual instruction out of the way, today, with a nice flight down to Homer. You're just up north in the valley somewhere, aren't you?

I'm really sorry to hear of your loss. I'll keep your family in my prayers. That's a terrible thing to have happen. 

I remembered it wrong. My original manual called for 2" twist. Most 1-3s are 1-3/4". Mine is 1-5/8 and draggy like a parachute. Model 4-1200 called for 1/2".

I've seen a lot of mixed reports on the Tiny Tach. People either love them or can't get it to read right, no matter what. So, I'm just going to describe everything I did to finally make it work right. First, I hooked it up like it said. It worked perfectly. The End. No, wait.... the next time I ran it, it worked at lower rpm's, but went wacky over 5k. Okay, so I had coiled up the slack and wire tied it after the first test. I undid that and zip tied it along the tubing, away from other wires, so it wasn't coiled up or looped next to itself. It worked. The End. No, not again.. it worked, but the next time I ran it, it did the same thing. I tried coiling it again. No. I wire tied the spark plug wires to have more separation between them. It worked once, again. Just once. I put ignition shielding over the spark plug wires and kill switch wires. No. Finally, I cut the tach wire, put stainless shielding on it, fed it through a separate hole in the firewall, and made it as short as possible. No. I had left one unshielded spot on the plug wire to wrap the tach wire. I moved it and wrapped it around the shielded portion of wire, nearer the coil. It didn't read at low rpm's, then stayed at 19,900. I put it back where I had it. By then, the end of the wire broke off from overworking it, so it is just long enough to complete one wrap around, but not back over itself. I wrapped it with splicing tape to hold it on, then wrapped that and the ground wire both with tempered aluminum tape. While I was doing that and changing the jetting, I found that one spark plug cap was loose. No apparent reason. The clips were there. The terminal was tight. It had a positive snap on, but had 1/4" play in it, up and down. I replaced that spark plug cap. The tach works right now. It might have been the extra shielding. It might have been the noise from the bad connection. It's pretty nice when it works. 

Not a big, stupid stunt, but it could easily have become one. One of my spark plug caps wasn't locking down tight. Single ignition. I could pull it up and down about 1/4" with no resistance after it snapped on. The plug terminal was darkened from arcing. Glad I happened to grab it while changing jetting today. I managed to find one at a local auto parts store. As a side note, that might have been what was affecting my Tiny Tach, because it finally reads right after I fixed that cap. 

My original model build manual specifies 3/4 inch of twist. My plane was built with 5/8" twist on both wings. I see no need for more twist than that. Did they really specify 1-1/2"? Seems extreme, especially since they started at 3/4" and ended up at 1/2". 

Having explored the horizontal limits of my student pilot cert, today I explored the vertical limits and reached new heights. The limits for sport pilots is 10,000 msl or 2,000 agl, whichever is higher. The local airport is at 108, but today’s density altitude was 1,000 feet. Based on that rule, the highest I can legally fly locally is 10,000 feet, unless I flew over one of a couple nearby volcanoes. Then I could fly over 12,000 feet, but sadly, said volcanoes are a little beyond my 25 mile radius, so that will have to be another day and a new thread. 

Flew to the southern end of my short leash, this morning. Beautiful flight along the bluff. Got a good look at the dipnetters and the setnets that were fishing today. That panel tank doesn't hold enough fuel. Great for keeping me in the 25 mile radius, though. 

Quick flight yesterday morning before the weather moved in. Still in that 25 mile radius. I hope I can get the dual cross country with the instructor before things get any busier. Short flights are better than no flights. I saw AKFLYERBOB out in his model 4 later in the day. That 670 must be fun. 

You should get that. 

Thanks, everyone. It's been really rewarding. I'm glad I stuck with it, finished the project, and am able to enjoy it. I got frustrated with the obstacles in ever getting to fly it, and came close to throwing in the towel. That was after I had it airworthy, and didn't get to fly it for months. It was several month after the inspection before I got to fly in it. After that, I got maybe an hour or two of instruction over the course of a couple months. Then, with the FAA... first, dealing with the registration set me back several months, then I waited eight months to get my medical card. That was ridiculous. There were a couple days where I thought seriously about putting it up for sale. I put an awful lot of work into it to not be able to fly it, so being grounded by weather, schedules, and bureaucracy really got to me. But, it is worth it. It's great to be flying. I wanted to do this for a long time. It's just in the nick of time, too, as my summers are so busy that I wouldn't be able to schedule any flying with the instructor. I need to work on the cross country to expand my horizons, but, as you can see, there's some pretty nice flying to be done in the immediate area. Thanks, everyone, for your support, parts, information, and encouragement that helped me get this far. It's good to be here. 

I’ve been getting as much time in the air as I reasonably can, since I got signed off to solo. It’s all been within a 25 mile radius. I’d have to go further to find something less beautiful. It looks tropical, with the pale blue water of the glacier-fed lake. https://youtu.be/mP2QAMC01Ww

It was a beautiful morning to enjoy my newfound solo privileges on this Memorial Day. It's good that we have this day to remember those who lost their lives protecting these freedoms we enjoy. 

Got busy with the D7 this spring. A few acres for hay, a couple for pasture, an 800 x 100 foot strip, and a bigger garden that is ready to plant today. Some of these pics were from earlier in the project. My employer had a big pile of fill that they needed to move, so I got about twenty loads of good 1 1/2 - and got my building pad at the airpark nearly done for just the cost of the skid steer rental. If I can pull this off, I'll be able to fly from my house and cut out seventy miles of driving. 

Had some good company next door, today. Nice 801.

https://www.facebook.com/296559114117701/posts/750804768693131/?vh=e&d=n

I looked up the number, and it appears that the registration has been canceled since 2013. That 175 has been sitting there with flat tires for awhile, before yesterday. My guess is that maybe he just bought it, or they just showed up here to get it going, and did everything wrong. Maybe it was an engine problem. I should have heard it, but there was a big snowbank between me and the plane, and the snow could have muffles the sound. Watching his departure stall, it was obviously climbing too steep, but he recovered quickly without losing any significant altitude. I'd guess that they weren't familiar with the plane or the airport. 

This plane was taking off when I showed up to the airport, earlier today. He was climbing way too steep. I saw what was coming, and tried to get video on my phone, but he made a quick recovery from the stall and went on his way. I don't know how I didn't hear him flip the plane a hundred yards away from me, a few minutes later, but I missed it somehow. It looks like he tried to land on the ski strip and just nosed over. 

Here is a good one for somebody. The wings need more than a little work. 

Here is a good one for somebody. The wings need more than a little work. 

The front spar of the wings uses a clevis pin, rather than a bolt, for ease of folding.