Time to Commit Aviation

You don’t want to ruin your starter so you only engage it for 10 seconds at a time allowing it to rest 20 seconds between engagements.  Nothing on the first two runs, but on the third one, just as I was disengaging the starter the pressure started to rise. It continued to rise a bit while I rested the starter. On the fourth run the pressure immediately continued to rise to almost 30 pounds. You need to hit 20 psi within six tries.

Next you leave the plugs out and run the fuel pump for 30 seconds with the mixture full rich and the throttle wide open.  Plenty of fuel comes out but so does all the preservative. The stain on the apron is from the preservative. The fuel evaporates very quickly. The stain fades over a couple of days.

Then engine start. I do have video of the startup and will get around to publishing both of them. Yes there are two. The engine started right up the first time and ran for about 10 seconds then stopped. Someone had forgotten to follow the checklist precisely and neglected to turn the fuel valve on!

The first two pictures are from Wednesday, June 21, 2017, the last one is on the morning of Tuesday, June 27. 2017.  Between them, I weighed the aircraft (seen in picture three), calibrated the fuel system, added any additional placards that were needed and went over the airplane with a fine tooth comb.

On Friday, June 23, 2017 I received my airworthiness certificate from the Dupage FSDO - picture four. It was quite a relief to have passed that hurdle. So waiting for good weather I rolled out the airplane for first flight as seen in the picture at the bottom. It was time to commit aviation.