I had a somewhat surprising experience about an hour ago. I flew the Spezio for the first time in many years w/o the wheel pants. I took them off to glass behind a couple attach holes that were getting rough. I had flown it a week ago in the same configuration except for the pants. Initially I thought something was wrong because the trim was off. The airplane has a J3 jack screw but does not have an endless cable so it only has about 1/2 the travel, not enough. I installed a fixed trim tab on the elevator and have enough experience to bend it slightly depending on fuel load in order to be in the right range with the jack screw. (I really need to install an endless cable but it will be a huge job requiring cutting fabric not to mention a custom made cable)-----oh well.
Anyway I found I didn't have enough nose down trim which frankly puzzled me. Not until I leveled off for cruise did I figure out what was going on. I was simply going FASTER. Faster by at least 10 mph. Cruising 115 IAS up from more like 105 at 2400 rpm. (The 105 IAS was up from more like 95 after installing the two place canopy) Indeed when I throttled back about 150-200 rpm to 100- 105 IAS the trim was about where it was on my previous flight
The wheel pants are not small. They came with the project, I think Airknocker style. I'm certainly not unhappy but I like pants and will probably try a better design, BTW, 6.00 X 6.
Anyway I found I didn't have enough nose down trim which frankly puzzled me. Not until I leveled off for cruise did I figure out what was going on. I was simply going FASTER. Faster by at least 10 mph. Cruising 115 IAS up from more like 105 at 2400 rpm. (The 105 IAS was up from more like 95 after installing the two place canopy) Indeed when I throttled back about 150-200 rpm to 100- 105 IAS the trim was about where it was on my previous flight
The wheel pants are not small. They came with the project, I think Airknocker style. I'm certainly not unhappy but I like pants and will probably try a better design, BTW, 6.00 X 6.
