5/24/16
Returned to the airport to investigate the oil pressure gauge problem. The goal was to get the sensor to do its off-scale high in the pattern, land, and investigate by probing the wires, switching the gauge plugged in, and cycling power.
Preflight: Measured 5.9 quarts on the dipstick. Added 0.5 quarts oil.
Fuel totalizer not reset from yesterdays 2nd short flight.
Time before: Engine 16.8, Total: 19.4
Time after: Engine 19.0, Total: 21.6
Flight time: 2.2
Well, I filed a flight plan to depart, on the off chance the gauge behaved. It did, and so I departed Manassas and did a climb to the moderately high altitude of 13,500 feet.
I spent a hour or so flying straight and level doing the first leaning of the mixture. Till now, I have almost entirely been flying full rich. This is pretty costly as I’m burning 14+ gallons per hour. This is done to help keep the engine cool during this break-in period. During the leaning, I was able to see the EGT’s rise from ~1200 to ~1550 before peaking and going lean of peak. I continued to lean and saw 7.2 GPH before I noticed any engine roughness; the engine was really beginning to threaten to quit at 6.9 GPH. I didn’t want to push it further, and returned to running full rich. I’ll need to check with VAF to see when I can stop burning 14+ GPH.
Spend the remainder of the flight doing 2600 RPM climbs and 2650 (Full) RPM climbs. These performed better than the 2400 and 2500 RPM climbs from flight #11. I will need to download the data and add it to that flight’s data table.
Oil pressure was entirely nominal throughout the flight. Weirdness.
After landing:
Fuel totalizer: Remaining: 19.1, used: 22.9 (includes flight #13 & 14)
Gauges: L Remaining: 11, R Remaining: 13
Dipstick: L Remaining: 8, R Remaining: 10
Fill: L: 11.4, R: 10.4 (T:21.8)
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