Two Week Update

It’s now been two weeks since our first flight.  We now have 8 flights and 5.3 hours on the airplane.  The temperatures and oil consumption have stabilized, so I think the engine is pretty much broken in.  The erratic RPM reading is still there–it’s better since I increased the resistance in the sensor line, but I need to add more.  Still have the heavy right wing, so am really going to have to try hard to resolve it.  Everything seems straight, so I’m wondering if the left aileron underside is slightly concave (which I’ve heard has happened to people).

On Saturday, I did a short flight in the morning (after trying, but failing, to calibrate the left fuel tank sensor).  I went back in the afternoon and successfully calibrated the right tank sensor and went for the longest flight yet: 1.5 hours.  On Sunday, I flew to Arlington to drop off some scales for John Marzulli (CH 701), which was my first landing at an airport other than Paine Field.  By the time I left, it was really windy and I was hungry, so I just went back to Paine.  Winds were gusting to 22 knots and I made my first landing on the small runway (34R), so that was fun.

The weather looks like it’ll be decent a couple days this week, so hoping to get some flights in after work.

Here are a couple pictures.  At Paine on Sunday morning, I took off behind a 747-8F.

Since Boeing is still working on certifying the 787 and 747-8 series, they can’t deliver these airplanes, but they’re still making them, so they’re running out of space to park them.  They’re so desperate for room, they worked out a plan with the county to park them on the crosswind runway (11/29) through at least the rest of this year.  Here’s the first one, parked just beyond the end of our hangar building.