After 3 months of working on my new-to-me Rose Parrakeet ("while the wings are off I might as well...") I finally flew it today!
What a sweet flying airplane! It jumped off the ground and climbed like a homesick angel. Trim is good in all 3 axes and the handling is delightful. Cruise is around 90-95 at 2250... though at one point I was trying to figure out why I was losing altitude until I remembered it was a backwards tach so I was trying to cruise at 1750 instead of 2250!
As I passed through around 800' AGL the engine sagged and lost power, but I lowered the nose and reduced power and it came right back. I had been warned this might be an issue when the tank was less than half full (as it was) as the head pressure in a steep climb might not be enough to supply the engine at full throttle. Supposedly adding a forward facing vent fixed it, but I was (rightly) skeptical. I immediately turned crosswind and then downwind, of course, but as even at reduced throttle and lower pitch I was still climbing; by the time I turned base I was well above pattern altitude and the engine was running fine so I decided not to land just then and continued on an upwind opposite the pattern, still climbing.
I found that as long as I kept the airspeed at 80 (considerably faster than its best climb speed) the engine had no trouble, but if I pitched up to 70mph or slower, the engine would sag after a minute or so, once it ran out the fuel in the bowl. Every time, it came back immediately after reducing power and pitching down slightly. I spent some time doing stalls and just generally feeling the plane out (it's much livelier than the Hatz!) and getting comfortable with its handling, then (I was at 5000' by this time without even trying) I put the nose down and and set up for landing.
The landing was a breeze... it's livelier than the Hatz on the ground, too, but not as twitchy as the Starduster. Even though I was carrying some extra speed, I had it stopped before using half of the 900' grass strip alongside the paved runway. And I was being careful with the brakes because the tail is so light (I couldn't do a full power runup on the ground with the wheels chocked because even with full back stick the tail wanted to raise once I got much over 2000 rpm, though I did do a runup with a friend holding down the tail).
I decided to quit while I was ahead and taxied back to the hangar. Do I look happy?
Other than the engine, I couple of minor adjustments were needed, and which I've already done. One of the flying wires was vibrating a bit in some flight conditions, so I tightened it a half turn. The ailerons were drooped a bit (we actually noticed this before flying but left them that way as it wasn't that significant); a couple of turns on the rod ends cured that. I was tempted to fly again but I figured that was enough for one day, besides, I have to be in NY later, so opened a beer to enforce that decision.
I'll fly again tomorrow if I make it back home in time.
What a sweet flying airplane! It jumped off the ground and climbed like a homesick angel. Trim is good in all 3 axes and the handling is delightful. Cruise is around 90-95 at 2250... though at one point I was trying to figure out why I was losing altitude until I remembered it was a backwards tach so I was trying to cruise at 1750 instead of 2250!
As I passed through around 800' AGL the engine sagged and lost power, but I lowered the nose and reduced power and it came right back. I had been warned this might be an issue when the tank was less than half full (as it was) as the head pressure in a steep climb might not be enough to supply the engine at full throttle. Supposedly adding a forward facing vent fixed it, but I was (rightly) skeptical. I immediately turned crosswind and then downwind, of course, but as even at reduced throttle and lower pitch I was still climbing; by the time I turned base I was well above pattern altitude and the engine was running fine so I decided not to land just then and continued on an upwind opposite the pattern, still climbing.
I found that as long as I kept the airspeed at 80 (considerably faster than its best climb speed) the engine had no trouble, but if I pitched up to 70mph or slower, the engine would sag after a minute or so, once it ran out the fuel in the bowl. Every time, it came back immediately after reducing power and pitching down slightly. I spent some time doing stalls and just generally feeling the plane out (it's much livelier than the Hatz!) and getting comfortable with its handling, then (I was at 5000' by this time without even trying) I put the nose down and and set up for landing.
The landing was a breeze... it's livelier than the Hatz on the ground, too, but not as twitchy as the Starduster. Even though I was carrying some extra speed, I had it stopped before using half of the 900' grass strip alongside the paved runway. And I was being careful with the brakes because the tail is so light (I couldn't do a full power runup on the ground with the wheels chocked because even with full back stick the tail wanted to raise once I got much over 2000 rpm, though I did do a runup with a friend holding down the tail).
I decided to quit while I was ahead and taxied back to the hangar. Do I look happy?
Other than the engine, I couple of minor adjustments were needed, and which I've already done. One of the flying wires was vibrating a bit in some flight conditions, so I tightened it a half turn. The ailerons were drooped a bit (we actually noticed this before flying but left them that way as it wasn't that significant); a couple of turns on the rod ends cured that. I was tempted to fly again but I figured that was enough for one day, besides, I have to be in NY later, so opened a beer to enforce that decision.
I'll fly again tomorrow if I make it back home in time.
