Flight testing Diary OF Z-HI-MAX serial 566. The First 100 hours This document is provided as entertainment only. November 22, 1993 After several hours of crow hops the maiden flight was made at 5:04 P.M. Flight lasted approximately 15 minutes. Did several coordinated turns. In general though, I just enjoyed the flight. Did a power off stall and indicated airspeed at stall was 25 m.p.h.. I made the first landing at about 50 m.p.h. just to be safe. Landing was perfect. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 hours HOBBS = 6.8 hours. November 23, 1993 Made just a short flight from Swaffords field in Vonore. This was flight demonstration for Susan and Kids and no flight maneuvers were performed. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 hours HOBBS = 7.1 hours. February 8. 1994 Took the MAX down to Fergusons and did some demo flying for Mike Anderson. Did some minor flight testing in the climb and approach areas. Best climb appears to be about 45 m.p.h.. Approach speed feels good at about 45 m.p.h. also. Did some slips to landing. Control feels pretty good once you get used to the light inputs needed for a decent slip. Control harmony a little off in the aileron/elevator area but not bad. Did a little tour around area. Down Watts Bar lake toward Kingston and back to Fergusons. Did four landings. One was a crow hop. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 hours HOBBS = 7.5 hours. February 16, 1994 Made first flight from the farm. First landing was OK but not very smooth. Cleared the fence by about 5 ft. Used a little less than half the runway. On the second flight of the day I went up to the Montvale area and did some steep turns around Steve Kagleys house. Still having some coordination problems but not as bad as it was. Also tested the LORAN unit out. LORAN showed a ground speed of around 63 m.p.h. on return to the farm. The second landing was scary. I misjudged altitude and cut the throttle too soon. This resulted in the main landing gear clipping the top wire in the fence at the bottom of the field. I have been using the fence as my landing target hoping that the flare would take me well beyond it. So far I have found that there is plenty of room so there is no need to cut it that short. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 hrs HOBBS = 8.2 hours. February 17, 1994 Made a 30 minute flight from the farm . Flew down to Vonore and around that area. Did some turns about a point. (Gary Holloways house) Noticed that if I took feet off pedals that aircraft starts into a left hand turn. I think this may be due to unequal pressure on the rudder petal springs. Another problem is unequal fuel usage from wing tanks. This may be attributed to the low pressure area above wing where the fuel cap vents are located. It may require that a ram-air tube be added to the tank caps. It was a beautiful day for flying. Landed in about half length of field and cleared fence by about 20 ft. This was a much better line than yesterday. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 hours HOBBS = 8.9 hours. March 5,1994 Flew around local area again. Finally established minimum flight speed of 30 m.p.h.. I have yet to verify my airspeed indicator but this seems to be pretty low. Power off stall comes at about 25 m.p.h. although there is quite a bit of sink before it breaks. Started getting much better on the coordination. Took my eyes off of the turn and bank and put them out the window. Found that I could make a much better coordinated turn. At least it felt a lot better. Almost 1/4 of the way to fly-off. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 hours HOBBS = 9.4 hours. March 6, 1994 Tested elevator trim setup (Bungee cord). Works OK but have to lean forward to set it. This causes a change in CG so care must be taken. Timed a flight over a 3 mile course in both directions. One way was 3:14 seconds and the other was 2:41 seconds. This works out to about 62 m.p.h. cruise speed. Airspeed indicator is off by about 5 m.p.h. low. Made a high speed approach to simulate a 15 m.p.h. tail wind. Used about 3/4 of the runway. Care will have to be taken to keep a 45 m.p.h. approach speed during these conditions. Did a Long slip to the landing. Slips now feel very good with plenty of control. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .4 hours. HOBBS = 9.8 hours. March 17, 1994 Tested rudder trim setting again. There still seems to be a rigging problem. I must cruise with some right rudder and it requires quite a bit of rudder in a right turn. With feet off the pedals the aircraft goes into a left turn. Going to try an re-rig at the rudder turn buckles. Tried some radical slips to landing. Getting pretty good feel for these now. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 10.5 hours March 24, 1994 Static engine testing. Carb Idle adjustment. Run-ups to 6000 rpm. Fuel flow testing of new fuel line. Blue urethane. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 0 HOBBS = 10.7 April 4, 1994 First cross country. Made flight to Fergusons strip and then down to Clevelands. Shot an approach at Clevelands strip. Don't like the trim changes I made to rudder. Putting stronger springs on the pedals takes away from rudder "Feel" . I suppose the next thing to try is a trim tab on the rudder. Adjusted aileron linkage prior to this flight and will have to set it back as I seem to have stick un-centered in level flight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.2 HOBBS = 11.9 April 17,1994 Tested rudder rigging again. Think I am close to getting it the way I like it now. Moved the VHF radio antenna to the turtle deck. This eliminated most of the interference with the loran and as an extra bonus, seems to have corrected a small yawing to the left problem. Its hard to believe that the rubber duck could have caused that but I didn't have it occur on this flight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 12.4 April 18,1994 First morning flight. Trim is nice. Smooth air on first part of flight. Landing was with a rear quartering tail wind of about 5-10 m.p.h.. Interesting. Good throttle setting for approach seems to be about 4000 rpm. This gives about 200 f.p.m decent at about 45 m.p.h.. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 13.1 May 11, 1994 Flight test of seals in elevator and rudder. Couldn't tell if there was an improvement of speed or not. If there is it would be very small. Seems that the aileron trim is off the mark again. I need to check incidence of right against left just to be sure that it isn't out. If it is, its a very small amount. Flew to Fergusons field and landed. Talked to Bob Lewis who was working on his Challenger. Arrived back home right at sunset. Both landings were good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 13.8 May 22, 1994 Tested a small trim tab on the rudder. Works very well. After landing I added a little more offset in the tab. Tracks good at cruise. Did some steep turns about a point. A very pleasant flight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 14.4 May 23,1994 Got rudder trim tab set for cruise at 5300 rpm. Landed at Fergusons strip. Adjusted trim and did flight speed test between Fergusons and the Farm. Ground speed was approx. 69 M.P.H. Both landings were fair. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 15.2 May 30, 1994 Engine Run-up test after inspecting and doing mods to pistons. (See Aircraft logbook.) Tests were OK at all power settings. Temps running within specs. No flying time. HOBBS = 15.4 May 31, 1994 Mainly just a pleasure flight. Down to Vonore and circled Garys house and back up around home. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 16.1 June 5, 1994 Flew N566AJ to its first fly-in at Seymour Airpark. Joined up with Fred Smith and Bob Lewis at Maryville. Rough trip back due to developing storms. Engine seems to be running a little rich in the mid range due to high air temps and humidity (thin air). TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 17.1 June 29, 1994 Static testing of engine. Re-jetted carbs and dropped needle one notch. Engine smoothed out and ran much better. Main jets were #168 and the needle clip is set in the second notch from the bottom TOTAL FLYING TIME = .0 HOBBS = 17.3 July 24, 1994 First flight after carb adjustments. Engine ran perfectly. Cruise EGT was 1050' and CHT was a shade over 300' . This was a high humidity day. Temperature around 85' Also tested new electric trim system I made up out of spare parts. The preliminary tests were very encouraging. The aircraft could be trim easily for climb, cruise or descent. There seems to be a little bit of slop in the actuator but that can be adjusted out. Made a trip down to Butch Fergusons field and around area. Had a very good landing. The best I have made to date on my strip. I held a little higher speed and flattened out the approach. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 18.3 August 3, 1994 Short hop around the area. Line of rain was moving up from the south. Did some 45' 720 turns. Made 2 approaches. Landing was fair. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 18.6 August 18, 1994 Put 170 main jets back in to lower CHT a little more. Seems to be running about the same. Hot day. Takeoff was long at gross. Climb was poor. Flew down to Fergusons strip and then down to Dick Clevelands. Dropped in and talked to him a while. His grass was high and took off uphill so ground run was long. Did a few maneuvers around the house and had a pretty good landing. There still is a little bit of imbalance in the ailerons. The aircraft still will go into a shallow left bank without a little extra right rudder. This may be the "P" factor and I may just need to put in a little more right trim. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 19.7 August 19,1994 Adjusted rudder trim tab one more time. Made a small hop down to Mike Swafords. Terrible landing. Must have bounced 4 times. Rudder trim is right on now. Flight back was a little choppy. Landing OK at the Farm. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 20.3 August 19,1994 Local flying. Mostly just out sight seeing. Lots of coordinated turns. Took video camera along and took some shots around area. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 21.0 August 23, 1994 Tested fairings on the front struts. Preliminary tests show about 5 M.P.H. gain. Flew up to Cashes strip. Had to do a go around as I bounced way off the ground. I don't know if this has something to do with the fairings or not. I did the same thing on landing at home. I am going to go ahead and put the other fairings on and see what kind of results I get. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 21.8 August 24, 1994 Tested full set of fairings. Didn't see much more of an increase in speed but noticed that the climb and glide are much better. First landing today was as bad as the ones yesterday but on the second landing I made a much flatter approach and had a better landing. A new landing technique will have to be developed. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 HOBBS = 22.7 September 12, 1994 Local sight seeing flight. Climb is much better with the fairings on the struts. Just flew around and looked at stuff. No major tests of any kind. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 23.3 September 15, 1994 Local flight testing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 23.8 September 21, 1994 Flew down to Fergusons field to take video tape to Bob Lewis. Takeoff was with about a 5 M.P.H. tail-wind. On landing back at the farm there was a pretty good cross wind and some turbulence on approach over the trees at the end of the runway. Landing was very good though. I am now starting to develope a better technique on landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 24.5 September 29, 1994 Another video taping trip. Flew down to Vonore and then over to Fergusons. Met up with Bob Lewis over Tellico and then flew over Fergusons strip and videoed George Nannys Falcon XP in flight. Made return trip back by Vonore to agitate Gary Holloway who is covering his miniMax. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 25.5 September 30, 1994 Just a short hop around local to test some adjustments to trim. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 25.8 October 6, 1994 Test flight after condition inspection. New trim tab position seems to work better. Not as sensitive as before. Made a full gross takeoff and had strut fairings removed. I could tell the difference as soon as the airplane left the ground. The fairings will be going back on. Another nice landing made with a much higher approach and throttle back. This seems to be the better way as the field is in good view at all times. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 26.4 October 7, 1994 Flew over to Fergusons to see if anyone was around getting ready to make trip to Rome GA. Fly-in. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 27.2 October 8, 1994 The trip to the Rome GA. Fly-in. Range test and cross wind operations. Winds were 9 to 20 m.p.h. at Decatur. Good flying experience. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 5.1 HOBBS = 32.3 October 16, 1994 N566AJ was videoed from the air by George Nanny with Bob Lewis at the controls of his Challenger. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 33.3 October 17, 1994 Short Demo flight for cousin from GA. Slow flight. Landing was best ever on my strip. Tail wind caused a long run-out. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 33.6 October 18, 1994 Morning flight down past Madisonville and back up. Very pretty morning. Encountered quite a bit of tail wind on landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS= 34.2 October 18 , 1994 Flight out to Lequires field in Rocky Branch. Did a practice approach to Steves strip to be. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 HOBBS = 35.1 October 25, 1994 Just a little sight seeing trip around the area. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 35.8 November 3, 1994 Before the flight I changed the spark plugs. Old plugs looked OK but I figured that the 30 hours that these had were enough. Can't change them in the air ya know. Hop down to Fergusons in windy conditions. Pretty good landings. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 36.8 November 4, 1994 Before the flight I changed the main jets to 168 from 170's. I hope this will get the CHT up a little to prevent loading up. Local flight testing. Found that I could climb at 35 m.p.h. at cruise throttle setting. Only about 100 f.p.m. Did some steep turns and some high speed descending steep turns. A most enjoyable flight. Did some sight seeing and just puttering around. Pretty good landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 HOBBS = 37.7 November 5, 1994 Local morning flight. Intended to go to Monroe Co. airport but ran into some very rough air over Tellico lake. Came back home and landed after a little flying around the immediate area. Wind got up to about 20 m.p.h. a short time after I landed. A fast moving cold front came through later in the day. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 38.0 November 6, 1994 Made a run down to Monroe Co. to get a sectional chart. He didn't have any so I just picked up a Tennessee aeronautical chart. Cross-wind landing was good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 38.8 November 12, 1994 Late afternoon flight. Beautiful weather. 68 ' and smooth as silk. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 39.4 November 14, 1994 Morning flight down to Vonore direction. Landed at Swaffords and visited a spell. Had windows installed and noticed that a small amount of rudder was needed to hold plane straight. I cold take the trim tab off the rudder if I kept the windows on. Had about a 5 m.p.h. tail-wind on landing back at the farm. Slips are very nice with the windows on. There is no buffeting of the rudder in an extreme slip. Wish it would slip this nice with the windows off. This is the last flight under the 40 hours flight restrictions. I may now go anywhere in the United States. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 40.0 November 14, 1994 Evening flight around the area. Photographed some property on Tellico lake. I had taken the windows back off for this flight. The Z flew hands off. Excellent flight. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 40.8 November 29, 1994 Flew up around Walland and checked out Roger Delozers landing field. I don't think I can get in there because of power lines. Overcast day and cold. About 40 -45 degrees. Heat in the cockpit would be nice if it got much colder. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 41.5 December 1, 1994 Short trip to experiment with video camera. Shots of control surface movement in turns. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 42.0 December 8, 1994 Flew over to West Knox co. Circled Bob Lewis's house and then went BlackOak ridge and circled Fred Smiths new house. Did some touring around south Blount co. too. Light chop was encountered during most of the flight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 43.1 December 12, 1994 Short hop down to Vonore and circled Gary Holloways house. Cold day and bumpy near the ground. Good landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 43.6 December 14, 1994 Made a circle from Farm to Fergusons and then down to Dick Clevelands then back up to Vonore and up 411 to about BrickMill road. Took a thermometer along to check temps. The Cabin temp at about 2200 ft. was 62 degrees. Outside temperature was about 43 degrees. Airplane is comfortable to fly when outside temps are down in the mid to lower 40's anything lower than this would be a little cool without some heavy clothing. Parking the airplane in the sun an hour or two before flying gets it warm and toasty inside thanks to the skylight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 44.6 December 15, 1994 Just a little local flight around the house TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 45.1 December 21, 1994 Flew to Vonore and then back up towards town. Mostly just sight seeing trip. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 45.9 December 28, 1994 Another Vonore Maryville loop. Many thermals around today. Poor landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 46.6 December 31, 1994 Flew up to Steve Kagleys and landed on his strip. It was a little muddy. Landing at Steves was good. On the landing at the farm I had a scary experience. The brakes locked up on landing without me touching them. I bounced a couple of times and the brakes locked on each bounce. After close examination, I found that mud must have packed up on the sides of the tires and that when the tire was compressed on landing the mud caught the bracket that holds the brake cable and pushed it in far enough to activate the brakes. Easy solution would be to not get the tires muddy. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 47.1 January 9, 1995 Prior to today's flying I cleaned and greased the landing gear. Pretty nice day but it was bumpy the whole time. Flew down to Fergusons and then up the interstate to about Lenior City. Made a cut back across to Steves house. While flying over Calvin Willocks house I noticed that he had his MAX out. I circled around for a while but he never came up. Made a dandy landing back at the Farm. Started to put the "Z" up but it was so nice I had to go up again. (see below) TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 48.1 January 9, 1995 Made a little jump down over Garys to see if he was out. Nice sunset. The reflection of the sun off of Tellico Lake was beautiful. Should have had my camera. Landing was OK but not as good as the first one today. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .4 HOBBS = 48.5 January 10 ,1995 Madisonville to Maryville (Montvale area) loop. Climbed to around 3000 ft. MSL. Highest the Z has been. Air was pretty smooth except over Tellico lake. Fair landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 49.5 February 3, 1995 After 50 hr checkup I decided to take a little spin around the patch. There was about a 20 m.p.h. wind out of the south at about 300 ft. . Landing from the south was tricky and the touchdown was pretty rough. I didn't have smooth enough air to test the trim or anything else for that matter. Bad weather front is moving in. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .2 HOBBS = 49.7 February 14, 1995 More systems tests after 50 hr inspection. With the exception of rudder trim needing to be tweaked, the aircraft performed well. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 50.3 March 5, 1995 First flight test with the droop tips. Slow speed maneuvering seems to be better. Flight conditions weren't favorable for testing other aspects of flight. Landings was pretty good with little ground roll. I noticed that right before touchdown I had about 40-45 m.p.h. airspeed. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .4 HOBBS = 50.7 March 6, 1995 First real testing of the droop tips. Climb seems a little better. Slow speed maneuvering is definitely better. Airplane also seems to float a little better in ground effect. Speed seems to be about the same. Almost scud running today. Flew down to Vonore and back up and round Montvale airpark. Flew through a small cloud, another first. Landing was superb. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 51.4 March 13, 1995 Flew up to Steves and did some low level fly-bys so he could see the new wing tips. Then went down to Fergusons strip and talked a little to Dick Cleveland. Return trip to the farm was VIA Gary Holloways. First part of flight was a little bumpy but it smoothed out as the day went on. Landing at Fergusons was good but bounced a bit on the landing at the farm. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.2 HOBBS = 52.6 March 15, 1995 Local flight. Minimum Flight speed. (35 M.P.H.) . 720 ' coordinated turns. Approach stalls (27 M.P.H.) . Slipped it in on landing, control was solid and precise. Landing was so-so. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 53.1 March 16, 1995 Nice warm day. Took the windows off and went up at about mid-day. Dodged many buzzards and hawks. Thermals were very strong. Made an approach to Swaffords and also looked at a possible landing site at Gary Holloways moms house. encountered some very rough air on landing. Landing turned out better than I though it would. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 53.7 March 29, 1995 Late flight after work. Air was smooth but moving fast. Made an approach from the north-west to see what it was like. Mostly did just maneuvers around the farm. Landing was poor. I noticed that touch down speed was around 40 m.p.h.. There was still some elevator left so I think I'll experiment with holding it off as long as I can. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .4 HOBBS = 54.1 April 5, 1995 The old Maryville to Vonore loop run. Nice and smooth. Did a few steep turns and steep climbing and descending turns. Nice landing. I used a little bit of power on the flair which seems to help. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 54.9 April 14, 1995 Local flight consisted of S turns, 360 turns, and an approach to an off field landing on big mud flat on tellico lake. Landing approach at the Farm was too hot. Bounced the landing. Nice and clear day with unlimited visability. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 55.6 April 15, 1995 Flew up to Walland and did a low level flight down Rocky Branch past Lequires strip. Held it at about 20-30 ft above the ground all the way down the strip. Traveled down to Vonore from there and flew over Garys house. He had his MiniMax together and from the air, it looked ready to fly. Nice and smooth. An excellent day for flying. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 56.7 April 22, 1995 Local climbing tests. Pretty good climb at about 40 M.P.H. While flying over the lake, I observed a Lake Buccaneer flying under me. It was a pretty sight. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 57.7 May 3, 1995 Did some slow speed maneuvers. Min. flight speed. Turning departure stalls. Flying without strut fairings on. There is a difference in climb and cruise. Fairings will have to go back on. Made 2 landings at the farm. Both were pretty good. Nice and smooth flying. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 58.8 May 7,1995 Flew down to Swaffords and videoed Gary flying his Max. This was not the first flight, but it was close. The first flight was this morning. Landing at Swaffords was good but the one at the farm was terrible. The brakes gave me problems with hanging up in tall grass at Swaffords. The brakes will need to be modified. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 59.1 May 8,1995 Dropped in at Swaffords again and talked to Gary. We went up and shot some video of Garys plane. It was nice and smooth. Got some very good shots. Made three landings total today. All were fair. ( A bounce or two). Modified brake controls. (See aircraft logbook) TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS 59.9 May 20,1995 Flew down past Swaffords and meet up with Gary. Then went over to Fergusons and landed but there was nobody around. Flew back to Swaffords and landed to chat with Gary a little before heading back to the farm. It was great flying and the air was nice and smooth. I made 3 landings on the outing and all were just about perfect. Maybe I'm on a roll or something. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 60.9 May 22,1995 Low level round the county run. Fun! Fair landing back at the Farm. Flared too soon this time and dropped it in a bit. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 HOBBS = 61.8 May 25, 1995 Around the patch run. Down to Vonore and back up along the mountain. Did some rudder only flying to check out control. Smooth flight and good landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME =.8 HOBBS = 62.6 May 31, 1995 Flew in some rain showers. Pretty nasty day. Made two flights. Landings were fair. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 63.1 June 5, 1995 Flew down into Vonore an just messed around. Landed at Mike Swaffords and walked around a little. Landing was excellent as was the takeoff over the trees. Landing back at the farm was also very good. I think I have finally learned how to land the Z-MAX. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 64.1 June 24, 1995 First flight after California trip. Landed at Swaffords and flew down around Gary's. Landings there and back at the farm were excellent. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 64.9 June 25, 1995 Gary Holloway and I left out from here and went down to Swaffords to get Gary's headset. We then made a short hop down toward the Sweetwater direction. It looked like a storm was brewing up in the southwest so I headed back toward the house. Both landings were very good considering the weather conditions. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 65.7 June 26, 1995 Another round the patch flight from here to Swaffords. Excellent landings at both places. The takeoff at Swaffords was pretty bad though. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 66.1 June 27, 1995 Round about flight down to Dick Clevelands. Hooked up with Gary Holloway on the way down. Strong wind out of the SW. Landings were pretty good. Nice and smooth on the way back to the farm. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 67.2 June 28, 1995 Local loop to Steves and back. Tested vent in left side window. Air comes through pretty good but not enough to cool the cockpit down to the OAT. Should work OK in Fall and Spring time flying weather but its much nicer to have the windows off in the summer. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 67.7 July 1, 1995 Put in new set of plugs (NGK B9RES resistor plugs) . This helped cut down on the RF noise on the radios. Improvements in noise reduction was about 50%. Rough air due to T-storm buildup but landing was a three pointer. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 68.0 July 2, 1995 Just a short hop around the patch before going in to work. Lots of thermals around. Landing was good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .4 HOBBS = 68.4 July 3, 1995 Flew down to Fergusons VIA Vonore area. Bob Lewis flew part of the way back with me. Stopped in at Mike Swaffords field on the way back home. All landings were good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 69.4 July 5, 1995 Late in the day flight to Monroe county. Picked up Gary on the way down. Landing at Monroe was good. Pretty strong S.W. wind made for low Ground speed going down. Landing at farm was good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .9 HOBBS = 70.3 July 8, 1995 Trip out to Fergusons and back. Good landings. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 71.0 July 9, 1995 Made a trip over to Meadow Lake airport to look at a miniMax that had a Volkswagen engine on it. It looked good but was very heavy. Flew back in twilight. Nice and smooth on the way in. Did a little videoing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.5 HOBBS = 72.5 July 14, 1995 Flew down to Tellico Plains for the first time. Went directly over the mountains VIA Ballplay road. Air was hot but smooth. Return trip was VIA Swaffords. All landings were very good. Nice Flying!! TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 73.5 July 15, 1995 Sevier Gatlinburg pancake breakfast fly-in. With a stopoff at Seymour Airpark. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.4 HOBBS = 75.1 July 16, 1995 Local flight consisted of different departure procedure. Did a couple of aborted landings to see what it would be like from a low go around. Tried do develop a consistent approach regime. 300 ft AGL pattern looks pretty good if base and final are kept tight. Made 2 landings, first was fair but second was just the way I like it. Touchdown looks to be about 35-40 MPH with tail wheel touching right before mains. 3000 RPM helps to float it in. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 75.6 July 20, 1995 Down to Swaffords and then down to Fergusons. Did some turns about a point and some slow flight maneuvers. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.3 HOBBS = 76.9 July 22, 1995 Breakfast flying at Mark Anton in Dayton TN. Gray, Bob and I meet at Fergusons strip and then flew down to Dayton. While there, a heavy rain shower came through. The trip back to Fergusons required a lot of scud running and at one point it looked like an off field landing may have to be made. As it turned out, an opening appeared to the east and we made it over to interstate 75 and followed it up to Fergusons. From Fergusons back home it was on the deck flying to get under the low ceiling. Landings were pretty good. Also flew in some rain but nothing heavy. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 2.1 HOBBS = 79.0 July 29,1995 Local Vonore to Montvale area loop. Nice and clear. Some rough air at altitude but fairly smooth. Low laying fog in the hollows was pretty. Good landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 79.8 August 10,1995 Around the patch. Made a few practice approaches to the other field from both directions. First landing on regular strip was a bad bounce. The second was very nice. Long slip to landing felt very good and solid. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 80.6 August 11, 1995 EMERGENCY LANDING!!!! Flew over towards Bob Lewis's house. Circled a couple of times and then went down towards Lenoir City. About a couple of miles before getting to 321 the engine lost power. It ran at about 5000 rpm for a few seconds and then quit. I was at about 500 -600 AGL and didn't try a restart. I picked out one field but noticed that there were some high tension lines running through the edge of it. So I picked another and committed to it. There were power lines along the end of it and I came over a little too high and fast. This carried me all the way across the field but luckily there was another small field just off the end and to the right around some trees. I landed pretty good but hit a ditch or gopher hole pretty hard. Other than that, the landing was successful. Gary was flying with me and made a bee line back home and got Dick Clevelands trailer. We were back home at about 10:45. Examination of the engine showed that the left piston had seized. Why, I have no idea yet. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 81.2 August 21,1995 Started the Engine testing after left cylinder rebuild. Ran the Engine a total of 30 minutes approx. Temperatures look good but the engine would only turn about 5700 rpm static. Maybe as engine is run a little more the rpms will come back up a little. Plans are to run the engine another 30 minutes or so before flying it again. Ran engine a total of .5 hours. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .0 HOBBS = 81.7 August 27, 1995 Checked left and right gauges for accuracy. Swapped the senders from one side to the other and temperatures were consistent. EGT temps seem to be a little lower now and the CHT is up around 300 in static. Engine will now turn up to 6000 rpm static. Ran engine a total of .5 hours. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .0 HOBBS = 82.2 August 28, 1995 Swapped the carbs to see if there was any difference . The CHT seemed to come up a little on the left cylinder but after a few minutes running they leveled out. About the only thing to try now is to fly it. Ran the engine about .4 hours. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 0 HOBBS = 82.6 August 30,1995 Ran the engine about 5 minutes on the ground and temps looked good so I decided to take it up and see how it would do. After a full power climb to about 6-700 ft. the CHT came up to about 320. (About 335 if temp adjustment due to ambient temp of 87' is taken into account.) EGT was about 910 on the climb . Throttling back to a 5300 rpm cruise showed about 1010 on the EGT and the CHT dropped back to about 300. Both Cylinders were exactly the same. I had never gotten readings this close before so something has changed. I hope plugging the compression release valve has solved the problem. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 82.9 Sept. 3,1995 Flight testing engine. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS 83.6 Sept. 4,1995 Static ground tests. Left EGT has intermittent problem. Raised needles one notch to make richer. EGT temps and CHT temps looked good. Flight testing will reveal if changes were good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .0 HOBBS = 83.9 Sept. 7,1995 Local flight to check engine temps again. EGTs read around 1050 on cruise and a a little higher. CHTs where around 310-325. Still can't figure out why the EGT is running so high. Vonore Maryville loop. Nice and smooth but a little hazy. Fair landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 84.6 Sept 15, 1995 More local flight testing TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 85.1 Sept. 17,1995 More local flight testing. Did some low level flying down the west side of 411. Good smooth air and nice and cool. Looked over the west pasture strip after I mowed it on the 16th. Looks good from the air. Engine ran good and temps were not too high. Exceeded 1100 on the EGT once during a prolonged high speed run. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 85.6 Sept. 19,1995 Hopped down to Fergusons strip. After a brief stopover we (Gary and I), continued on to Dick Clevelands. Flew direct back home. Nice and smooth in later part of the flight. A little hazy but nice and cool. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.1 HOBBS = 86.7 Sept 26,1995 Flights down around Madisonville. Did a couple of landings at swaffords. Practiced some wingover and slow flight. Took some pictures of Garys airplane in flight over Tellico lake. All landings were pretty good. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 87.7 Sept 27,1995 Local sightseeing flight. Steep turns, slow speed flight. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .7 HOBBS = 88.4 Sept 28,1995 Delivered Spanner to Swaffords field. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 89.1 Oct 5, 1995 Did carb adjustments and ran engine. Every thing seems to be OK. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .0 HOBBS = 89.8 Oct 7, 1995 Made a trip over to MeadowLake to see how Young Eagles rally was going but everyone had done left. It was pretty bumpy with lots of thermals. Landing at Meadowlake was excellent. Flight back VIA Swaffords. Flew at about 3000 ft. Strong thermals would sometimes shoot us up hundreds of feet. At times I could point the nose down and still climb. TOTAL FLYING TIME =1.6 HOBBS = 91.4 Oct 9, 1995 Loop up to Steves house then back down to Swaffords. Took several pictures of Gary's Max in flight. Landing at Swaffords and at farm was good. Nice and smooth air. TOTAL FLYING TIME =.7 HOBBS = 92.1 Oct 12, 1995 Flew down to Swaffords and put new leading edge tape on prop. Nice and smooth flying. Landings were good. TOTAL FLYING TIME =.5 HOBBS = 92.6 Oct 13, 1995 Local flight. Front moving in made for some nice and smooth air in the morning. Rain came in about 20 minutes after I got back on the ground. Nice landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME =.6 HOBBS = 93.2 Oct 15, 1995 Local flight. Morning flight in rapidly heating air made for some rough flying. Wind was picking up pretty good about the time I came in. Had about a 10 m.p.h. cross wind on landing but managed to execute a fair landing. TOTAL FLYING TIME =.5 HOBBS = 93.7 Oct 17, 1995 Replaced wood rudder pedals with metal tubing pedals. Will take a little while to get used to them as feet slide easier on the metal. Flew down to Ferguson then to Clevelands. Then made a little trip down to another strip a little below Clevelands. Left there at about 10 till 7 and got back to the farm after sunset. It was dark 10 minutes later. Smooth air on way back. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.4 HOBBS = 95.1 Oct 18, 1995 The Maryville, Vonore loop. Testing carbs after an teardown inspection. Nice day. climbed to 3500ft over Tellico Lake and flew all the way back to the Farm at about 3000. Made a couple of landings. First one was pretty bad but the next one was nice. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .8 HOBBS = 95.9 Oct 25, 1995 Went up to Lequires and dropped in for a spell. Checked out all the projects going on. Nice day with fall colors at or about at peak. Gary was wingman. Tested sound deading modifications to front fuselage sides. It helped in certain rpm ranges but here is still some booming at higher rpms. I noticed that the skylight was drumming some too. You don't notice these problems with the windows off. Did a little maneuvering down near the lake. TOTAL FLYING TIME = 1.0 HOBBS = 96.9 Oct 30, 1995 Morning flight up around the Montvale area. Did some steep turns and turns about a point. EGT temps are stiff running way to high. It looks like the engine is going to have to come down and be checked for an air leak somewhere. I may also need to raise the needle another notch. Air was smooth at altitude but a little bumpy near the ground. I landed with about a 5 MPH tail wind. Landing was fair. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .5 HOBBS = 97.4 Nov 10, 1995 Inspection of engine showed that there was a leak in the front seal. After tear down it was evident that the front crankcase bearing race had also been turning on the crank. Sent it off to TPI and they replaced the crank,bearings and seals at no charge, cool! Reassembled engine and did some static run-in for about half an hour. Temps looked good. Was this the cause of all my troubles from the start? TOTAL FLYING TIME = 0 HOBBS = 98.0 Nov 16, 1995 First flight after engine rework. Everything looked pretty good. Stayed around the house just in case I needed to bring it down in a hurry. Landing was superb. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 98.3 Nov 19, 1995 Made the trip down to Swaffords to see what Gary was doing. A little bumpy at the start but it got a lot better ad time went on. Nice landing at Swaffords and at the farm too. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .6 HOBBS = 98.9 Nov 22, 1995 TWO YEARS!!! Made a symbolic flight around the farm in celebration of 566AJ's Two year anniversary. A little wind out of the west but for the most part it was almost as smooth as the day of the first flight. Left the ground at approximately the same time as the 5:05 P.M. The landing was almost as good as the first one I made too. TOTAL FLYING TIME = .3 HOBBS = 99.2 Two Years and 100 hrs. This concludes the 566AJ flight test diary... Foot note: Almost 5 years and 300 hours later. Still going strong and almost every landing is a good one now.