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March 1, 2006 Day 293, 1984 hours To avoid any future service problems, the communications jacks were placed on a removable panel with a connector. Here is a close-up of that panel, removed for final inspection. This panel is shown installed in the keel on the previous page. I think I am going to have to do this differently. It is too easy to kick the plugs when getting in and out of the back of the aircraft. Oh well. You keep on learning! |
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March 3, 2006 Day 294, 1990 hours This is the auxiliary power panel that is installed in the back of the aircraft, also shown installed on the previous page. This one, at least, seems to work out fine. |
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March 6, 2006 Day 295, 1996 hours In order to test the landing gear, it was necessary to place the aircraft on jacks. We discovered that suitable jacks cost from $300 to $1500. This $25.00 solution with a wooden stand and a bottle jack worked just fine! The landing gear worked fine the first time, despite not being moved for a year.. |
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March 8, 2006 Day 297, 2008.5 hours Here is another mistake that will have to be corrected. The angle of the sub-panel makes it necessary to lean forward from the seating position to read the clock. The three buttons on the console are pilot PTT, copilot PTT and transponder IDENT. These backup buttons are a good idea. The co-pilot needs them, and the pilot side button will serve as a backup in case the button on the control stick fails.. |
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March 9, 2006 Day 298, 2013.5 hours Philip has just finished the final inspection of the aircraft prior to the first test flight on the year. We found a few minor problems, and corrected them during this inspection, but nothing serious. |
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March 9, 2006 Day 298, 2013.5 hours The Velocity leaves the hanger for a 30 minute flight in the vicinity of the airport. The new control system performed as expected. No problems were encountered except for some bad segments in the display of the JPI EDM-700 engine monitor. This was returned to JPI. They repaired it promptly at no charge. |