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Well, first, it is obvious from the lead photo there have been problems with the critical Mass. There is nothing that would keep the airplane from being rated as a serious competition airplane but it is an ongoing challenge.
Because of the photos, I'll cover the problem with the pilot coming loose in the cockpit. Big boo-boo. On the first flight only, I had some noticeable vibration on the last couple of laps which probably loosened the pilot figure. I always glue and screw my pilot figures down since I had one come loose during an official at my first NATs. In this case, I decided that after preparing the blind mounting of the pilot that it looked too short in the cockpit. I decided that I would glue a spacer to the screwed plywood mount and glue that to the cockpit floor. I reasoned that since it was new unpainted structure, that I would get solid bonding. It should have been enough but the spacer pulled wood from the cockpit floor. the bond had been adequate, but the materials not strong enough. The pilot figure is now rebuilt with the torso extended, and the whole assembly screwed and glued to the newly reinforced cockpit floor with a longer 2-56 screw installed from beneath.
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While I was at it, I gave the pilot figure some enroute and approach charts to help him find Reno.
I planned to take the Critical Mass to Houston next week. The repairs are coming along, though I may have to settle for a temporary paint repair and fix it properly later.
The airplane has a relative high wing loading as a result of the modifications made in construction to use a bigger engine. the power loading is exceptional. The wing loading permits good squares and triangles if the lap time is held down to 5.2 sec. Presently, the prop is giving me 5.4 sec laps. The airplane still does good squares but must be flown through the corners. Jerking the handle will cause a buffet, but not much loss of height. I've flown 5.1 sec laps with the carbon prop and the corners are fine but the line tension is extremely heavy at that speed. I need to zero in on the lap time by modifying the prop and reducing the tip weight some more to lose a bit more line tension. A rudder adjustment improved the vertical eight and hourglass. The engine runs continue to be exceptional.
This isn't unusual trimming progress. Each flying session results in changes to be tried. My 16-5" wood is now a very wide blade 15 1/2-4.5" and is still a bit slow. Today, I added Phillips entry to the blades to increase the effective pitch to speed the airplane up a bit. I'm in the ball park, now the prop can be painted. I just bought two more Zinger 16-5"s.
My starter and spinner cone are not compatible. The spinner cone is too large for the 1 1/2" starter inserts to accurately engage. As a result, the starter is eating up the paint finish on the spinner cone, I've found a source for 2 1/4" starter cups and inserts which should fix that problem and allow normal starts without marring the finish on the spinner cone.
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Meanwhile, repairs are coming along but slowly. I seem to have trouble finding things on my work table.
Al
