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.