This week I got in touch with a San Diego-based inspector and received some documents to fill in and look over. It will take a while to go through the inspection checklist to see what I might not have done but one thing I did know hadn’t been done yet was to safety tie the turnbuckles.
It wasn’t obvious from the Construction Standards what to do so a little Google search brought up some pictures and the technique was copied to the four turnbuckles that make up the rudder controls.
The main event today was to get some engine tests done with the cowling on so after a quick wipe down from Teri (the plane, not me) I pulled the plane out and did an engine start. We were particularly interested in whether the spinner would rub on the cowling. There’s enough gap that they shouldn’t but I wanted to know for sure.
Everything checked out well, no evidence of any chafing and all the engine instruments were in the green.
With that done, I decided to try a genuine taxi, the first one with everything on the airframe, just went on a minute or two drive around the hangars.
After pushing the plane back into the hangar I took the cowling off for an inspection of the hoses etc. I didn’t see any leaks, nothing was burning, although I did identify a couple of places I want to tie things up a bit more.
I want to do some more extended engine tests. For one I want to try higher RPM, been keeping it below 3500 so far until I trust the brakes, and also need to check the MAG leads and so on. Unfortunately, with the temps now in the low 100s every day it is a bit warm for such things, no opportunity for the engine or cowling to get cool.
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