Conducted 11/24/2012 –
The weather on Black Friday was as frightening as the crowds at the mall. Very high winds and a bit of snow. We finished up the post flight and got the plane ready for the next flight which was to be a mid weight / mid cg test at 1900lbs and 99.5″. We decided to get out to the airport early again and see if we could get multiple flights in. John’s report to the cozy list is below:
“Aside from a bit of snow and wind late Thanksgiving day and into Friday, the weather has been mostly cooperating for the past week. This morning was yet again clear skies and calm winds. We loaded up some more plates from my weight bench so I could ballast the plane for mid CG (99.5) at my mid weight point of 1900lbs. I guess for the next few weeks if I want to do any real lifting it will have to involve reballasting the Cozy. Seems flight testing can also be good for your health!
It was definitely cooler this morning with temps at -3F, so the takeoff performance was actually a bit better, despite the added weight. I climbed up pretty fast, and headed out to my test area. First the stability tests went with no surprise, the only real note I had was that it seemed the to need much more aft pressure when doing my pitch down (+10 kts over trim) followed by quickly pitching up (-10Kts from trim) test. But the oscillations to recover stayed the same as the prior 99.5” CG test.
The stall testing caught me by surprise though. My previous 99.5” straight ahead stall was 58kts at about 1600lbs. Now at 1900Lbs the stall came at 68Kts. I wouldn’t have thought it would be such a difference, and it had me concerned. I did notice that the airspeed indicator seemed sluggish in responding, so I decided to run a quick ASI calibration at 80Kts just to see (I had plenty of extra fuel as ballast anyway).
The results of the calibration was the same 1kt error I was already aware of. I decided proceed with the rest of the stall series. All were much higher than I thought they should be with the 60deg stall at 87kts!
I came back in carrying a bit of excessive speed for the landing (90Kts), but as I neared the ground I realized I would be touching down mid field if I didn’t slow it down. I trimmed back to 85 and touched down just a little further than normal. After getting back to the hangar I ping a couple folks about my stall results and returned a missed call from a buddy who flies a Velocity.” …To Be Continued…