Alberta Winter is here

 Yes bummer bummer we have lost site of summer.  Cold and snow is here so time to  work on plane #2 and to make bread during our Covid Lock down.

Annual Inspection and Prop Balance completed

 I completed the annual inspection on my Q2.  The oil and filter have been changed and all items on the annual checklist completed.  I also spent time to do the prop balance again since it had been a couple of years since the last on I completed.  The Prop balancer is a Dyna Vibe unit and it works very well.  Multiple test runs were completed and my results were the same as a couple years earlier.  Results were .02 which is an excellent result and no correction weights were required.

Bag Lunch & Homebuilt Aircraft Viewing

 August 14 2020  We were off in the morning to meet up with a few flyers in Medicine Hat Alberta.  I had a errand to deliver something to my wife's brother there and thought we could make it another bag lunch flyin affair.  I made contact with a flyer who lives there and he agreed, he and another homebuilt aircraft owner would show us their airplanes and hangars.  Melvin Reister  has a RV7 and a Glasair and  Allen Rose has a RV7.  These two fellows were amazing to talk with and hear all about their amateur built aircraft.  The details of importing from the USA and having them signed off for Canada was very interesting and quite a simple and inexpensive process.  We had three planes from Springbank head out at various departures to meet in Medicine Hat at around 1130.  Weather was totally clear and temperature was forecast to be about 24c.  Winds were forecast to be light but that was not what we received.  The NW wind came up in the morning and was about 15-20 knots which gave us a nice push on the way SE but was slower on the homeward heading. Brian in his Cardinal, Ralph in his RV7 and myself.  Mel and Allen were kind enough to also offer us the very nice COPA flight club house to eat our lunches and talk aviation.  Here is a peek.

Another Bag Lunch Flight (Rocky Mountain House AB)

 August 4 2020  I emailed out a new invite to local flyers to go to Rocky Mountain House Alberta for another bag lunch gathering.  From Springbank airport it would be a 45 minute flight for me and it sounded like there might be a couple of others joining me.  The view from the plane as I headed NW was of colorful farm fields  in shades of green to the pleasing bright yellow of canola fields scattered across the horizon.  Nearing Rocky Mountain House the farm fields reduced in numbers to more forested lands along the foothills.  We had seven airplanes and nine people attending.  The airport has a very nice terminal building and we met the nicest people while there.  Some were aerobatic pilots, fuel service personnel, airport management and locals.  We have been invited back for two events, a BBQ lunch and a Aerobatic competition later this summer.  A special treat for me was to meet one of my flight instructors who I had not seen in 30 years and now fly's professionally and fly's aerobatics.  It was a wonderful day with fantastic people.  Thanks to all who attended and to those we were lucky enough to meet.

Flight Test 2 of Passenger Carrying Capacity

 July 27 2020  Once again I wanted to do another test to see what I was comfortable carrying for weight in my Quickie Q2 with the Revmaster 65 HP engine.  My airport elevation is just under 4000 ft. at 3965 ft. and as a result I have been reluctant to carry a passenger in my aircraft from this airport elevation.  Note that in a previous post I did a short weight carrying test with 70 pounds of sand in the passenger seat and as a result was not happy with the climb out performance.  Once again I will mention that I purchased this plane from a sea level airport and we flew with two people on board with no problem.

On this day I flew a loop trip for 2.5 hours north from Springbank Airport to Glenifer Lake, Sylvan Lake, Gull Lake and finally Pigeon Lake.  Some segments were along the beaches and finally at Pigeon lake I did numerous circles over a location where I have friends with a lake shore house.

Temperature was 22 degrees C on my departure and the airport Density Altitude was 6000 ft.  My aircraft empty weight is 626 pounds and my gross weight on this morning takeoff was 921 lbs.  Just as in my previous test completed for this purpose my climb out was very shallow and slow to gain altitude.  My header tank has a volume of exactly 7 gallons, which I measured.  Therefore if I carry only the  7 gallons in the header tank plus my 165 pounds and 10 pounds of misc. gear, my max passenger weight would be 157 pounds based upon the 1000 pound max gross weight.

Present airport elevation CYBW is: 3965 ft.
Empty weight of aircraft:              626 lbs.
Pilot weight:                                  165 lbs.
Misc. gear wt.                                  10 lbs
Fuel weight carried:                         120 lbs (this is full header tank and 13 gallons in main)
Outside air temperature: 22 degrees C
Total weight:                                    921 lbs.

So I am flying my test flights on a warm day of 22 degrees C and at a weight of about 79 pounds under the gross wt. of 1000 lb.  Obviously I will not be carrying a passenger in my Q2 from my elevation airport of 4000 ft. in the summer.  Now on a cold day I may be able to carry that 157 pound passenger but I doubt that I will ever try it.  I have a friend with the same plane and same engine at a airport elevation of 2650 ft and he does carry a passenger so you can see that the elevation plus the temperature can make a very big difference to the performance of this marginally powered aircraft.

A note worth mentioning here is that when I bought my plane it came with a registered max gross weight capacity of 1100 lbs.  Now the regular Quickie Q2 as per the plans has a all up max gross weight capacity of 1000 lbs.  The owner however can do a weight/climb test and have his aircraft licensed for a new higher max weight and that must be what the previous owner did when at sea level.

Final note:  If used as a single seat aircraft at my airport elevation this is one sweet ride.  Performance speed, climb rate and handling are just superb.  As a cross country aircraft it is fantastic for covering distance with great visibility and comfort.  Airspeed is 130-140 mph in cruise at 3.5 gallons per hour.  For my airport at 4000 ft elevation to have a density altitude of the same value the temperature needs to be 7 degrees C outside.

Fly Out Bag Lunch Affair (Hanna AB)

June 10, 2020  I put out emails to see if I could get anyone to join me for a flight.  I figured I would treat myself to a flight to Hanna Alberta and have a bag lunch while sitting there in their nice airport terminal building.  This would be about a one hour flight for me in the Quickie.  One other friend said he would meet me there as well.  To my surprise on arrival there were many who got the email and were also excited to get out flying.  There ended up being 10 airplanes attending with people from High River, Medicine Hat, Airdrie, Kirkby Field, Three Hills, Springbank as well as farm strips.  We all had a great get together and chatted about all things aviation and engines.  I will be organizing more trips like this as it gives us an opportunity to fly to many airports where food is not easily accessible yet they have a nice terminal building.  Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the planes and people this time.  Thanks to all that came out flying.

First Flight on New SDS CPI Dual Electronic Ignition

May 9 2020
At 10:30 this morning I got my bird in the air once again, only this time running the new Electronic Ignition from SDS Ignition Management.  After a pre-approved clearance to get above the airport for racetrack pattern testing I climbed out toward my planned 7000-7500 foot pattern staying east of the airport.  I ran the engine full power for the complete 1 hour session and everything ran perfect.  Airport elevation is 3960 ft and the temperature at 7000 ft was 2.2 degrees C.  I ended up spending most of my testing at 7000 feet.  I am realizing 100 more RPM from my engine at full power static on the ground tests.  As a result I am now getting higher RPM in cruise and thus higher airspeed.   It is a bit early to tell but I am seeing almost 10 more mph indicated at this altitude and temperature.  My previous max RPM's  would be around 2950 and now I am seeing 3000 - 3180 rpm.

View actual ground speeds on the live version of this map at: https://aprs.fi/cgmbk

Electronic Ignition Switches and Battery

May 7, 2020
Last few days have been spent installing the wiring, the Emergency backup switch and the Emergency Backup Battery.  This morning I picked up a small 12 volt 5 AH battery for use as backup power.  Work was completed and the plane placed outside and started again for a test of the Emergency Backup Power source.  Switching onto the Emergency Battery and turning off the Main Alternator and Master switch kept the aircraft running fine.  The backup battery supplies power to the Electronic CPI programmer and Coils alone.  Numerous switching onto the backup at various RPM's was a success.  I made a battery box for the new Aux. battery out of foam/fiberglass.  It is mounted right behind the seat back in the luggage compartment and is secured to the floor.  There is a Emergency Ignition switch mounted on the far left of the panel.  Magnetos have been totally disconnected but not removed.  Each battery can be tested via a volt gauge prior to starting the engine and charge voltage can be tested after the engine is running.  The plane is all buttoned up and prepared for first flight on the SDS Electronic Ignition.

Electronic Ignition Full Power Test

May 1,  Today I got the plane out and ran the engine up to warm it up.  Now I wanted to test the maximum continuous RPM  power.  The engine performed great as I went through about 5 rounds getting the RPM up to maximum.   I am seeing a increase of the static rpm of 100, now registering 3000 rpm when leaned.  Everything went great and I am very happy with the performance.

One of the major reasons for installing the CPI was to get rid of excessive static noise in my headset which had been proved coming from the magnetos.  A test of the radio is now crystal clear with absolutely no static background noise at all.  Yahooo.

May 2/20,   Yesterday I noticed the first engine start of the day did not start quite as well as day one.    I noticed a slight bit of kickback if the engine did not fire  on first cranking attempt.  After a call to SDS Ignitions I was informed of a "Start retard" option in the programming which retards the startup timing so the engine fires after TDC.  The original default setting sets startup firing at 5 degrees after TDC,   A call to SDS  informed I should change the starting spark for 10 degrees after TDC because I have a small wood prop with low inertia compared to a metal prop on a Lycoming.  This fixed my problem of kickback on startup.

Next is installing the Emergency battery a small 5 ah sealed cell and a dual voltmeter for testing each battery.

First Engine Start on Electronic Ignition

April 30/20  Today I finally had everything connected.  It was time for the first start using the new CPI Electronic Ignition from SDS Ignitions.  The Revmaster engine fired up after three full revolutions which is it's normal cranking for startup.  The engine ran very smoothly through a few low RPM settings and then I shut it down.  A friend assisted me in setting up the initial timing of 10 degrees using his timing light.  The timing process was completed in fifteen minutes.  After timing was completed I went through the programming and set all the vacuum settings as per the default table in the user manual supplement.  The original magneto spark plug wires are tie wrapped up out of the way and the magneto switches are grounded so the mag cannot produce any spark or noise.

Electronic Ignition connections nearing completion

April 26/20,  The plug wires are connected and the CPI control unit has been wired up.  Initial timing of the CPI was completed as outlined in the user manual using a timing light and once completed doesn't have to be done again.
Below you can see the prop bolts with the trigger and sync magnets installed into the ends of three of the bolts.  The magnets protrude 3/16 inch.  This is a top down view .  The wire is a extension of the center line of the engine case to enable using a timing light to set the initial timing angle.

 The photo below shows a refinement of the timing mark (10 deg BTC) on the crank.  I placed a piece of black vinyl tape on the crank and then a small white piece on top of the black.  This trick was  advice given from a friend at the airport who has installed the SDS system CPI units a few times.

 Below is the CPI programming unit temporarily hanging on elastics during my initial start up, testing and programming.  You need access to the programmer to monitor some settings and adjust a timing parameter.  The ignition system company recommended I install a vacuum tube for the programmer to get a major benefit.  I did not have a vacuum connections on my Revmaster throttle body so installed a nipple on the main intake tube right behind the T-body.

Finishing up the Electronic Ignition (Continued from July 2017)

April 22, the cold weather has finally departed and it is back to the hangar to finish up the electronic ignition.  Major components had been fabricated and installed two years earlier, now to get it completed.
Below are the original plug ends and the new MSD plug wires included in the CPI (Coil Pack Ignition).  The original plug ends were about maximum size that could be installed on the bottom  plugs, the new ones were way to big to fit.  Fortunately the new wires have a small plug on the opposite end.  I was able to install the small end of the new plug wires onto the bottom plugs by trimming off a bit of the rubber nipple on the ends.  The small plug end can be seen in the photo of the coils where I am using 4 small and 4 large ended wires on the coils.  The photo below is a end view and a top view.

Below you can see the two sizes of plug wires that I have installed onto the coil packs.  The coil packs require a 10 amp fuse to each and the CPI programming controller requires a 3 amp fuse.