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[April 26, 2015]


A few weeks ago when I ordered my new tailwheel control arm, I also ordered the DJM Lightweight tailwheel. The tailwheel was backordered and just came in a few days ago. It is truly a work of art! There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with my old stock Van's tailwheel, but it slinged grease all over the rudder. The DJM tailwheel uses sealed bearings which are maintenance free.


The new tailwheel is slightly skinnier than the Van's tailwheel and it needed some extra washers to shim the difference in width.


Three washers total were required.


Next on the list was to fix my heavy left wing. The first thing Van's recommended to do was to make sure the ailerons were perfectly aligned. To do this I needed to yank the wingtips to access the tooling holes on the wing ribs to check alignment.


My right aileron was slightly low. I adjusted the rod end bearings on the aileron pushrods in order to fix this. I also needed to lower the right flap to get better alignment.


After all of the alignment was complete, I went for a test flight and the left wing was still heavy. Van's recommendation for fixing this was to reduce the diameter of the trailing edge of the light aileron. I used the seaming pliers with some metal rulers taped to it to slightly squeeze the trailing edge.


After three tries, I was able to get the airplane to fly straight without any trim!


Next on the list was to upgrade my EFIS software. GRT recently came out with version 8i, which is there first release since August of 2012 for the Sport HS EFIS. It included a bunch of fixes and new features:

Changes in Sport 8i (2015-02-25) o Increase upper limit of Fuel Flow MAX FUEL setting o Fix line width on ADS-B no-data radar boxes o Fix full screen MAP airspeed and altimeter tapes being reconstructed on every update o Fix software fault with incomplete AIRMET transfer o Fix desired track in "Autopilot (Aviation)" output o Don't show no-data boxes from ADS-B if also showing a valid XM WX radar o Fix bad identifier lookups when adding new identifiers with the User Database function o Include new identifiers from User Database function in identifier searches o Fix processing of validity flags in Aviation GPS format o Fix airspace highlighting on NORTH-UP map view o Improve handling of changes in menu options when settings are changed o Fix visibility of Life Guardian settings without a Life Guardian model o Add baroset output option for ARINC o Save the background PFD setting on the FLIGHT PLAN page o Fix delay in updating map cursor selections after changing range o Fix a software fault on the flight plan page when deleting some waypoints and then adding several more o (HS) Fix clipped graphics in SLEW mode when map tapes are enabled o Fix highlight of destination waypoint of internal flight plan when it's not in the database o Fix accelerated increment with Logbook edit knob o Show uncorrected probe value on Fuel Data Scale page o Add 230400 to list of serial rates to work with serial ADS-B receivers (high speed ports only) o Capture glideslope immediately if user selects VNAV o Improve glideslope capture criteria o Add "hr" label to hourmeter o Sequence the internal flight plan when crossing the bisector between courses o Autopilot Control Profile updates:  Rename Standard to Other Autopilot for non-GRT autopilots  Rename Enhanced to GRT Servo Standard for use with GRT servos  Add new GRT Servo Enhanced option for additional improvements with GRT servos o Show LOC-HDG when the localizer is invalid and the last heading is being held o Show VOR-CRS when the VOR data is invalid and a straight course is being tracked o Optionally require EXECUTE button push to start approach capture after arming an approach mode (SAP or ARM) o Change normal Restricted airspace color to bright red o Change other airspace colors a little to match sectionals o Always use boldest lines for yellow airspace alert o Add a timeout to the RNG function on the left knob on MAP pages o Add bar graph for Fuel Remaining from Fuel Flow o Make bar graphs in the bottom engine strip configurable o Enable SHOW METARS mode on all map pages o Hide most extra databases in SHOW METARS mode o Show alternate METAR/TAF range/bearing from selected airport and add configurable search limit o Show full user Aux name when showing alarm abbreviation o Add minimum voltage setting for analog dimmer input o Only show WIND functions for supported inputs (XM WX) o Allow the Jeppesen database to load into the whole EFIS as a system o Fix selected altitude starting in 10's mode in A/P engage menu o Fix regular menu appearing after selecting SAP runway o Change old GOTO menu labels to direct-to symbols o Fix Serial Port 3 defaults o Fix help text for AHRS serial input alarm o Wait 20 seconds before detecting transition out of in-flight mode based on speed o Add button to limit alarms to only Oil Pressure and Fuel Pressure o Don't reset alarm inhibits on transition to in-flight o Send VP-X Pro/Sport configuration over the display-unit link o Show compass ring on the NORTH UP map o Show tapes on NORTH UP map if enabled o Add more serial noise filtering for servos o Add individual TIT bar graphs and option to not show TIT bars with EGT bars o Fix user waypoint editor deleting edited waypoint o Fix user waypoint editor not allowing ID of relative waypoint to be changed o Fix rounding errors when loading user waypoint coordinates into editor o Show all User Waypoints on map within range limit setting o Show a black symbol in SHOW METARS mode when the airport doesn't have a METAR o Fix minor METAR symbol size and color issues o Fix automatic ILS inbound course when using SL30 OBS control and "When Selected" OBS output o Fix inconsistent selected course displays and controls with respect to "Show GPS on Loc/GS" setting o Improve movement of the heading tape for small changes in heading o Fix the widths of the airspeed and altimeter tapes on the MAP pages o Prevent A/P LEVEL mode from changing the selected altitude if another screen's mode isn't LEVEL o Fix flight plan timeouts with GPS units that don't send the RTE sentence frequently o Fix the positioning of some graphics immediately above knob menus o Fix weather/terrain status text covered by tapes on NORTH UP page o Add support for new GPS/GNSS module o Fix MSG button showing on pages that don't display alarms o Fix heading average and rounding during TAS calibration o Ignore extremely high fuel quantity from EIS o Add setting to always ignore fuel quantity from EIS • Changes in Sport 8h (2013-03-22) o Fix integrity checks on SL30 input o Fix lost changes after only changing the name of an Aux input o Send more digits in NMEA0183 GPS coordinates to match modern GPS units o Fix possible problem displaying ADV traffic alert indicator from ADS-B traffic o Fix FLIGHT PLAN page only showing GPS1 plan when both GPS plan sources are External o Fix no-data (X) boxes appearing on top of valid ADS-B radar blocks o Fix handling of invalid time stamp from ADS-B receivers




The software update also included a new AHRS upgrade. I think it's great that GRT still gives updates for their older EFIS's. I know now that I definitely picked the right EFIS back in 2008!


The first thing I noticed were the bar indicators for fuel and oil on the PFD page seemed to be "fatter".


Lastly I did a speed run at 3,500' to see if getting the trim fixed made any appreciable differences. 174kts TAS = 200 MPH. I think this might be a little faster. I will have to go up to 8,000' next time to see how it performs up there. It sure does feel faster!

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Last Modified: October 5, 2024