RV-7 N890GF

I’ve successfully completed all the tests necessary to exit Phase 1 Testing!

The EAA published v2 of their Flight Test Manual and Test Cards and my operating limitations allowed me to utilize these tests to complete Phase 1 (or 40 hours of flying). I opted to perform the tests in accordance with this test campaign and completed all the test cases in just under 14 hours of flying. Several of the tests were very straight forward, and others a little more involved. Nothing too concerning with any of the results.

I performed a short flight to warm up the oil, and then did the oil change at 10.4 hours on the Tach. After wrestling the oil filter off using special pliers, I completed the oil change and filled the sump back up to 8 Qts. Another short flight after to make sure everything checked out, and that was the nearly the last thing on my list.

The last test flight I completed was a long cross-country to Pine Mountain Lake, CA (E45). Testing Range and Endurance was quite fun, I was able to get pretty close to the Vans published numbers for range, but not having the landing gear fairings and wheel pants on the plane leaves some range on the table for now.

Phase 2 – Normal Operations

In order to celebrate completion of Phase 1, and to kick off Phase 2, I took my wife Britney as my first passenger!

We picked up flight-following to try and do a Bay Tour, but the fog over San Francisco never cleared. We then flew east directly over San Jose between the Charlie and Bravo airspaces to KTCY to get some cheap gas. Below is a screenshot of my analysis tool showing that flight.

Given the price of regular car gas these days, its nearly cheaper to fly my plane than drive my car, not that I need an excuse…

After filling up 30 gallons we hopped back in the plane and flew back to E16. 20 minutes later we were landing having used only 3.5 gallons of gas to get back. My flight computer said we used 31 gallons, but we only filled up 30. so slight adjustment to my K-factor on the fuel flow sensor is needed, but not much (its good to be conservative).

I still have some build items in progress – namely the landing gear fairings and wheel pants. Its just so difficult to go to the airport and not fly the plane now. But hopefully will have the fairings completed in the very near future – the estimated extra 12 knot gain in airspeed is very appealing.

A short edit from my flight with Britney on the Insta360