Well,

About two weeks ago, I got the wrecked 182 off the shelf to strip and get ready for another plane. I got looking at the firewall and decided to try one more time. I cut out the old firewall, made a new one from plywood, and fiber epoxied it in, re-mounted everything and balanced the plane this time with a balancer instead of my fingers. I also changed from the OS .46 FXi to the 55AX. Same dimensions and weight, but a little different needle valve placement.

After the engine break-in, I decided to give it another try. The plane gained speed a lot faster with the 55 and a 12/4 prop. Good strong engine. It flew great this time after I got it trimmed out. The wind was blowing about 10 MPH straight down the runway and that helped too. I made a good landing and checked everything out. All was ok. So I decided to tempt fate one more time. IT FLEW GREAT! "Fly it like you stole it" is the way to fly this one. Compared to trainers, you must keep the power on and keep that airspeed up.

I'll be taking this one back out this next weekend again and look forward to some more advanced learning how to approach, climb, etc.

I really like the 55AX engine. It seems much more responsive and powerful than the 46 Fxi I was running.

More later