Engine Run out and Maiden Flight

Engine
OK, learned something. Once you pre lube everything up including the little bit in the carb as suggested, you need to pull the glow plug and blow all of the excess oil out of the cylinder. The engine wont run on 5W20. I literally almost burned up a starter trying to get it to fire off until I realized what was wrong. When I pulled the glow plug it was soaking wet with motor oil.

During this time I had a lot of trouble and undoubtly put a lot of stress on the engine parts I assume bacause the engine was so darn hard to turn over. Apparently the sudden stops as the engine would hit TDC slightly loosened the header which eventually came loose in flight. Once it came loose the vibration very quickly broke the header support bracket.. This was my fault and fortunately the engine is ok
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Again, PULL THE PLUG AND BLOW OUT THE PRELUBE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO START. and you will avoid this problem altogether.

Once I blew out the oil, I followed Earl Haurys starting technique and it fired very gently immediately as I energized the glow plug. This engine is UNBELIEVEABLE!!! It would idle right out of the box as slow as I cared to go and have asolutely seamless transition to high throttle through 2 full tanks and infinite idle times. I ran it super rich for 2 tanks and it ran rich like a sewing machine (2+ rounds open on the needle.) I cannot see the need to adjust the low end, it seems perfect. IT has ridiculous power even brand new and sloppy rich.

It performed equally as well in flight even as sloppy rich as I had it. Magnificent power and really quiet with the 15x11 4B. I cant wait to see what it will do leaned out... This plane should hover at 1/4 throttle and accelerate vertically like a rocket.

Maiden Flight

Well after I got the engine running right I decided to see if I had followed Mr. Bloses assembly and setup instructions correctly.
Fortunately I did, and it flew beautifully.[8D]
It needed 2 clicks of down elevator and it was hands off level flight.


It definitely flies very well, the wind laid down and so I tried a few things.

No noticeable knife edge coupling and it tracks well for the initial flight..

It was arrow straight in the yawaxis on a horizontal line, but in a vertical upline i had to give a good bit of right rudder to keep it straight, I may need to increase the throttle>rudder mix a bit .

I even got brave and tried a couple of reverse avalances and the snap. Snaps beautifully and stops on a dime, I have never snapped any plane that will snap so hard and then stop where you want it with so little effort. You let off the sticks and it just stops.. Very nice.

Bad news was that the header came loose so I had to cut it short. Im glad I took Keiths advice and fuelproofed the pipe tunnel, chin cowl and engine compartment....

Last, even with the header loose and the pipe off the header while landing, the engine STILL would not die for me at rock bottom idle on the slider. I had to open the canopy and pinch the fuel line to kill it on the ground. Nothing a little linkage correction wont fix,,,, but I cant get over how slow the engine will idle and not load up. Unbelieveable!

Now I can relax and start the trimming process..

Mike