On July 1st I made a flight to Wendover and back. I took Tim, my grandson along as a
passenger. We had a pleasant
flight. The airplane performed well. After departing the Salt Lake Valley we
started our climb over the lake. We
climbed to 8500 and all went well. I was
climbing at 200 VS to keep the head temperatures down. It was a hot day, but we did just fine. After spending about 30 minutes on the ground
in Wendover we made the return flight.
It was nice to be able to fly out and back in about the same amount of
time it takes to drive one way.
I continue to have background noise on the
headset. The noise occurs when I am at
full throttle climbing out. It diminishes
when I am at cruise but really never goes away.
The noise begins with some popping sounds and then progresses until
there is a lot of static and it is hard to hear radio communications. It is most pronounced on the pilot
headset. I did some research and have
found some information that indicates a solution maybe to adjust the mic levels
on the SL-40. Yesterday I made the suggested
changes and plugged in my small shop vac.
I put the shop vac on the passenger seat, closed the canopy and turned
it on. This is one the tests another
pilot used to check the background noise being picked up by the mic. I called Unicom for a radio check and all
went well. I hope to get back into the
air to do a flight test.
Yesterday I installed the wheel pants and fairings. I also want to get back into the air to see
if there is a change in performance.
Everyone I have talked to about this suggests the performance will be much
improved.
