Second Flight

I wrapped up the inspection from yesterday and turned the oil pressure regulator all the way down.  I pulled the plane out and took it for its second flight.  This was mostly a duplicate of the first flight to get a little more confidence in the engine and other systems, but I stayed up for nearly an hour instead of 30 minutes.  I kept the power up over 75% for most of the flight, but slowed down to do a few more stalls and a couple of power on stalls (both in the video below).  You can see the power on stall by how high the nose is above the horizon.

I also had a chance to test the autopilot a bit.  Since I was mostly flying racetrack patterns around the airport, I engaged the altitude hold mode at 5,000′ and used the heading bug to drive the plane around.  I also tested the vertical speed hold mode and altitude intercept, and everything worked beautifully.  On the descent, I tested the roll hold mode which keeps a constant bank angle.  This was great for spiraling down to pattern altitude.

The plane ran great, and the oil pressure is down a bit, but I’m still getting over 95 psi at takeoff.  This is the red line that AeroSport recommended I set, but Lycoming allows up to 115 psi for takeoff.  I’m running about 85 psi in cruise, so I may be just fine.

I also had a chance to test my oil cooler butterfly valve effectiveness, and I’m very pleased with how well it works.  In cruise, I was running 185º F with the valve wide open.  I closed the valve and the temp climbed up to 223º F within just a couple of minutes.  It was still climbing, but the engine monitor was complaining about the high oil temp, so I opened the valve back up.  The temp rapidly dropped back to 185º F.  This should be really useful in cold temps to keep my oil temperature up.

I remembered to turn on the forward facing GoPro camera in the cockpit, and I also hooked up a camera under the tailwheel spring.  That provides a nice view of the main wheels during takeoff and landing.

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