Flight #7. Jan 2, 2016.

I preheated the engine for 1:20 and saw the oil temps increase from 41F to 52F. CHTs from 40F to 47F.

Today I flew 1.8 hours and tested a variety of level flight cruise power conditions. This is without wheel pants and without gear leg fairings (worth a reported 15 knots extra) and without a calibrated airspeed probe.

146 KTAS @ 2500 RPM @ 18.5″ MAP @ 12,000 feet MSL

148 KTAS @ 2600 RPM @ 18.5″ MAP @ 12,000 feet MSL

Descended to 8000 MSL

156 KTAS @ 2660 RPM @ 22″ MAP @ 8,000 feet MSL

This is about 180 MPH.

During the descent, I saw 177 KTAS (Vne=200 KTAS). This is about 204 MPH.

Flight Data

Flight Map

Again I noticed the fuel smell in the cabin on two separate times for just a few minutes. The first time was on climbout, and the 2nd time was during a left 180 degree turn. After reading quite a bit about possible sources for this smell, I learned on VAF that sometimes with full tanks the fuel vents can burp a few drops of fuel on the belly. The first time I smelled the gas on this flight was with both tanks full just after takeoff. The 2nd time I smelled it in the turn was approximately 45 minutes later, and I’m not sure if I was still on the first tank (leaving the 2nd tank still full to drip in a turn). Apparently, if the drips hit the belly, the fumes can get sucked into the flap pushrod holes due to the lower cabin pressure. I’m still not giving up on searching for weeping fittings, but this theory may also have some merit.

I performed a few stalls clean during this flight. I let these stalls get just a bit sharper and deeper than previous flight’s stalls, but I’d like to get spin training before I push this any further.

Most annoyingly, the Garmin G3x MFD rebooted in flight twice. This is almost certainly a software bug and it happened during me fiddling with the knobs and buttons and the same sequence of button presses and knobs caused it to happen again after the first reboot. All I had to do was: Press NRST. Defaults to rightmost page: Airspace. Spin the knob rapidly to the left (trying to get to NRST Airports). Boom: Instant reboot. This “feature” might really piss you off if you needed to find the nearest airport in a hurry! I’ll need to notify Garmin and see if there is a software update.

I did not notice any fuel pressure dips during this flight, but post flight looking at the data, I see one did occur dropping to 20.4 PSI. I’ll need to read up on this and determine if this is normal.

1.7 hours engine, 1.8 hours electrical. 9.6/11 cumulative.

Post flight:

Removed top and bottom cowl. Wiped brake reservoir overflow (this seems to be decreasing).

Right tank dipstick: 8 gallons. Left tank dipstick: 16 gallons.Fuel totalizer used 17.9 gallons (24.1 remaining). Right tank fuel truck added 13.35 gallons. Left tank fuel truck added 4.75 gallons. Reset totalizer. Set 42 gallons onboard.