First Passenger Flights
Added 2/26/2006
For those who've been looking for pictures since the
flying has started, there hasn't been much of an opportunity.
Flying alone isn't conducive to good photos, and the weather has
been pretty cold. With the wind, we've had an unusually bumpy
winter for the past couple weeks, making it a bit less fun to get the
flying time in. Not to be deterred too much, I made it a point to
adjust my work schedule to accomodate plenty of flying time whenever
the weather wasn't too uncooperative. With that motivation, I was
able to get the time flown off (25 hours) in short order. It's
more tedious and time consuming than one might think to get that
initial time in.
The first 4 photos are during the flyoff time, but the remainder are of
the flights this weekend. The kids are comfortable with plenty of
room in the back. They're patiently waiting for me to complete
the entertainment package for the rear seats. Our first jaunt was
over to Airlake airport near the Twin Cities to take Stein for his
RV-10 Intro flight. With him being one of the major sources of
guidance in coming to many realizations during the panel build, I
wanted him to see the results of the process. He happily took the
controls for a bit of flying, and had an enjoyable time. We got
to see the TIS traffic work on my GNS480, which is amazing stuff.
I can't wait to get it working on my Chelton screens. He
then shot some of the ground photos below and we went on our way to do
some sightseeing.
The next day we hopped back out to the airport to get some aerial
photos. AJ, the instructor at my home airport (KLUM) was a
willing pilot who was happy to trade his services flying my wife around
for an aerial photo shoot in return for a flight in an RV-10 with a
glass panel. I can tell that this is going to be a fun plane to
take pilots in for a new experience. After that, we rented the
local Warrior to do some photos. The weather wasn't great, and it
was a tad bumpy, so we didn't dare get too close. All of the
photos were shot with full zoom on the camera. The white and hazy
sky didn't help either. We'll be having to go up again to redo
the photo shoot until we get some real good ones. We also shot
some video that I'll stick below. Nothing too exciting, but at
least it's moving pictures. One thing about photographing an
RV....it would be easiest if you used another RV. I was seemingly
in slow flight for a long time during the photo shoot so that I
woulnd't outclimb or slide by the Warrior. The RV-10 isn't
anywhere near full-speed-ahead yet without it's wheel fairings, but
it's still faster than most of the small rental planes you'd rent.
After flying close to 30 hours now, I do notice that I may need to add
that small block of rudder trim. It's not 100% perfectly in trim
at cruise, but it's not far out either. I also have decided that
I'll probably go for adding the Ray Allen speed control for the
elevator trim. I layed a binder on the stick briefly while
working with the autopilot one day and when the trim switch moved, the
airplane reacted with a very fast climb. It sure gets your
attention. The RV-10 has PLENTY of elevator authority at most all
airspeeds. I do use the aileron trim too. It's very strange
for me, as in well over 200 hours in my beech, that plane didn't
change much in roll as you burned fuel. the tanks though were
narrower and deeper so there was less weight out towards the ends of
the wings. The RV-10 really should have aileron trim to keep
everything balanced. I'm glad I added it. I don't see that
I'd use Rudder trim much though. As far as speeds go, I'm not
really in a position to comment much yet. The wheel fairings will
make a huge difference, and not only is it slower without, but as I'm
breaking the engine in, I'm not leaning or operating at high altitudes
yet. The one comment I do have is that the #1 cylinder especially
could use a tiny bit more cooling, and possibly even the #2.
Extended climbs, even in these cold temps, usually result in #1
going up over 400, to near 410, and sometimes even up to 418. I
may have to trim the front air dam down just a touch. So now that
the time is flown off, it's time to re-focus on some work. I need
to wrap up those wheel fairings first and foremost. Then I need
to stick in the carpet and front side panels that I left out during the
flyoff to improve access for inspections.
Here's some Aerial Video