May 2011

05.05.2011: Today I prepared my plane for the noise measurement, which takes place next Saturday in Grenchen (LSZG). Also Experimental planes need a noise certificate in Switzerland, and the EAS organises two measuring campaigns every year. The only way to avoid having to do the measurement is If the same plane with the same engine and propeller has already been tested, but that's not the case with mine. Preparation included checking the propeller setting, and making sure that all paperwork is ready. I could not do a short checkflight, as my licence expired four days ago and the FOCA (Federal Office of Civil Aviation) did not yet sent me the new one. I gave them a call two days ago and they promised I will have it by Friday.

While I was in Lommis, an Antonow AN-2 arrived. It is one that has been rebuilt with a "business jet" like interior, just without the performance of a business jet. The fuel consumption seems however to be similar to a jet, as when they were refuelling they asked for "around" 1000 litres...

Note the screen on the picture below, which gives passengers a bird's eye view during takeoff and landing.

06.05.2011: I of course did not have my licence in the mail today, so after a phone call with the FOCA they sent me a copy by email (but pointing out that I am only allowed to fly with it within Switzerland). Like that I can at least fly to Grenchen tomorrow.

07.05.2011: This morning I flew to Grenchen for the noise measurement. I had to be there at 9:00 for the briefing, which meant I had to ask for a permission to take off in Lommis before our regular opening time of 8:00, as the flight from Lommis to Grenchen takes about an hour. Luckily there was no morning fog, which we have regularly in Lommis, so I arrived in time. I was the second one of the five planes that were announced for the measurement, which included a Kitfox, a Sonex, a Europa, an RV-7 and my SportCruiser. Here a picture of the planes parked in front of Grenchen tower.

I also took a close up picture of each plane,...

..with the exception of the RV-7, which I somehow forgot. It can be seen here however,...

and also on this photo, which I took during last years EAS meeting.

After the briefing all planes hat to be prepared for the flight, which included installing an optical tacho, OAT thermometer and measuring the exact wing span. This data is used to correct the values measured to a standard atmosphere, as well as to verify whether pilots fly at the correct altitude. The altitude is measured by taking a picture when passing the micro, and then comparing that with the measured wing span. I wonder how exact that is...

Below Thomas, the Europa builder, helping measuring the wing span of the RV-7. Thomas and I have studied engineering together nearly 30 years ago, then lost contact only to met again when he showed up with his Europa on the trailer in Lommis. His plane is HB-YNK, mine HB-YNL, quite an unbelievable coincidence.

The actual measurement then took place a few kilometres south of Grenchen, in a quiet valley with little ambient noise. Each plane had to make seven passes over the microphone in climb configuration and with Vy, approaching at a pre-defined altitude and then going into climb about 1 km before the microphone. That went actually quite well, it's nearly like flying circuits with go-arounds. It took about 45 minutes per plane, which meant we were only finished middle of the afternoon.

After the measurement we flew home again, and as Thomas and I were heading in the same direction we did a little formation flying. Actually I just flew straight and level, and Thomas flew the "formation". He spent nearly 30 years flying for the military, first jets and then PC-9's in target towing role, so he is definitely qualified for that type of flying.

Below an enlargement of the Europa, a really nice plane too.

When I arrived at home I found my licence in the mail! It took the FOCA two weeks to complete what is normally done in three days, maximum, and if I would not have called them it might have taken even longer. This is already the third time in less than a year that they are loosing or delaying applications, I had similar problems with the initial permit to fly and also with the final one. I really wonder how they are organised....

08.05.2011: Unfortunately I had to notice today that the muffler on my SportCruiser has a crack around one of the inlet tubes. That is a common problem all early SportCruisers have, mine just lasted a little longer that others. The new muffler has a different design with reinforcements to increase the strength around the inlet and outlet tubes.

Unfortunately my plane has originally been manufactured by Czech Aircraft Works, which was then been transformed into the new company Czech Sport Aircraft after the first company went bankrupt. The made sure that nobody lost deposits during the transition to the new company, but now they don't consider that a warranty case anymore. They gave me a good price for a replacement and shipped it immediately, so I should have it in a few day.

11.05.2011: Today I went to Copenhagen (for work), when I saw this nice Austrian Airlines Airbus in Zurich Airport. I have already seen quite a few of these retro liveries over the last year (Lufthansa, Air France, Qantas), it seems to be fashion these days to paint one of the planes of each airline in an old livery.

19.05.2011: My wife has started taking flying lesson, but not on my SportCruiser as it is not insured for basic flight training, not part of our flying school fleet (again an insurance issue) and due to the quite light controls probably also not too well suited for basic flight training (even though this is disputable). Non the less we sometimes go flying together, but typically concentrate on issues like visual navigation where I do most of the flying.

Today was on of these days, but with pretty dark clouds and a small front passing our airfield. We took off before the front arrived and then had a look at it by flying around it.

This was actually quite a good lesson in meteorology, especially as I could show that with a careful selection of the route one can often circumvent weather, or at least the worst part of it. We also flew a bit into the rain showers, to show that rain does neither significantly affect performance nor visibility.

Behind the front there was blue sky again

24.05.2011: I received the new muffler today, and after about two hours of work it was installed on the plane. The new one has reinforcements where the cracks occurred on the old model, and according to the experience from others that should solve the problem.

Of course I did a checkflight with the new muffler, below a picture from our airfield webcam (www.mfgt.ch).

25.05.2011: I went to Munich today on business, and saw the following food stand outside the airport terminal:

Now that's a cool idea, turning an airstream trailer into a plane by adding a radial engine to the front and some wings on top. Maybe that's an idea for my next project....

28.05.2011: Today I flew with the father of a friend of mine to Biel-Kappelen. His kids have asked me whether I would fly him there as a birthday present for his 84th birthday, and I of course agreed. He is amazingly fit for his age and really enjoyed the flight, taking a lot of pictures. He worked for many years for an agricultural organisation, meaning he new every farm during at least the first half of the flight. He was amazing in recognizing all the time where we were, something many people have problems with (including flight students...). This was his first flight in a small aircraft, I would not be surprised to have him on board again. After arriving in Biel one of is sons pointed out that he had also never flown in my plane, so we did a short flight around the airfiled.

After returning to Lommis I also did a short flight with Markus, a pilot who might be the second pilot on the SportCruiser, as Rolf, my co-builder, probably won't learn flying any time soon. Markus really liked the plane, so we will sit together and see whether that would be something for him. I will have to change the hull loss insurance, as Markus does not yet have 150 hours, so I asked them for quote (they have different rates for 0 hours, 50 hours, 150 hours and 500 hours pilots). I was quite surprised how little difference that makes, even if I would lower the limit to 0 hours for flight training.

After landing someone pointed out that there was a rattling noise and a closer inspection revealed that the outer bracket that holds the wheel pant on the right wheel was broken. Here a picture of the bracket on the wheel, with the right arm missing,...

...and here the bit that broke off.

30.05.2011: I called Silvan today to check on the SportCruiser of the club whether the brackets that hold the wheel pants are ok and he found cracks in them too, so I ordered new ones from CzechSportAircraft. They told me they would ship them immediately, so we would have them in one or two days, as always excellent service.

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