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Before I left on a week's vacation to Europe, I sent in my Digiflight II autopilot to be upgraded to a TruTrak Vizion 385. I took advantage of a discounted upgrade offer TruTrak had at Oshkosh which saved me over $500. It was a rainy day today - perfect weather for installing the AP.  The install was pretty straight forward, as the upgraded controller is the same size as the old one. The only change that was needed was the 12V power input needed to be moved from pin 6 to pin 19 on the DB25 connector.  The pitch server was easy to reinstall and get safety wired back up.  This is what I like to see - on the initial power on, it came alive instantly. I performed the on-ground tests and everything seemed good except for the pitch seemed reversed. A simple setting in the AP setup menu easily fixed it. All that is left is to fly, but that ain't happening today.  Anytime there is an open hangar at the airport on a rainy day, it's only a matter of time before there are a few people who walk in to shoot the breeze. A couple of friends walked in and I was talking about my heavy wing issues. Well, somehow in the past 4 years I completely missed my wingtip trailing edge not being aligned straight with the trailing edge of the aileron and flaps.  The left tip was offset by about 9/16"  And the left by about 3/8". One would think these would act as ailerons, with the left wingtip causing more upward force than the right. However, my left wing is the heavy wing. I couldn't quite logic out how the difference is causing the heavy wing. However, this does need to be fixed. I am going to slice open the trailing edge, as well as some of the outboard edge and I will see what I can do to correct the flaw.  This weekend was the 200th Anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner", written in 1814 when the British attempted to attach Baltimore. Baltimore had gone all out for the celebration - tall ships, concerts, fireworks and the Blue Angels. I wasn't able to make it downtown to watch the show, but a friend snapped this great pic of 4 of the 5.  I was able to make it downtown for the fireworks show. It was super impressive - the largest fireworks show Baltimore had ever had, consisting of 6 barges simultaneously lighting off fireworks, all perfectly coordinated with the help of computers. I was lucky enough to be on my friend Eric's boat who got us as close as legally possible to the show. Unequivocally we had the best seats in the house besides police and fire boats. 
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Last Modified: October 5, 2024 |