This week I pulled the tank out and found the clunk in proper place and saftied but it wasn't reaching the bottom of the tank; I simply pulled the stopper, cleaned out the tank, rotated the vent a little to allow clocking the stopper so that the carb line was closer to the bottom of the tank. This tweak likewise allowed the clunk to touch the bottom of the tank. Reinstalled everything, charged up and went to the field today. With my wing tote, I had space to bring another gas powered thingy along - a weed-whacker - so I could gain access to drain the club's roller before the winter freeze.
Only one at the field as usual - oh well. Darn it, the wind is coming up too - probably won't be doing any trimming today if I even get airborne. While pulling fuselage from car by the fin, was not happy that the vertical stab shifted some and was rocking in it's slot between the horizontals. Since anxious to fly, I taped the fillet entry of the fin down to the fuse to preclude any chafe or wear. Still concerned over losing those hairpins that secure the jury struts and lift struts at the fuse juncture, I oriented the pins so they were aligned with the struts and simply taped them in place with what I had on hand which was Scotch Magic tape. Knew it would be a PITA to remove but I really wanted to fly.
This time I remembered to bring my Sullivan Tail Anchor so I wouldn't be trying to use one of those damn, geezer stands like I did on the first outing. Cheated and also brought along a Hi-Torque Sullivan starter. Well the engine runs - let's do a quick range test and then let's go fly. I did - taxiing is straight forward - once in position on the runway, power advanced slowly and with tail up, steering and take-off was easy - climbed to reasonable altitude (no higher than 399' of course!) mostly flying race-track pattern because we don't want to do anything risky here on the maiden... well... nah... let's try a few things. Performed a roll and noted a hiccup from the Zenoah during inverted - after a couple more rolls, a loop, a sloppy stall turn, without any more hiccups, I decided to land. In order to lose altitude in a hurry, executed a Split-S, pausing while inverted to see if the engine acted up - it didn't, entered a high down wind, turned base, then turned final - still a bit high - wow, no problem - plenty of drag I guess - landed with change to spare. Yay, first-flight jitters out of the way!
One thing I noted is a bit of slight surging at low throttle while I drained the tank empty.
Included picture of the black Ultracote sunburst trim on the left wing panel that began puckering on the rather cool, 59 degree day.
