As promised, here's the PIREP from today...
I suck at video editing so don't expect something epic when you watch it - but it tells the story for the day.
I used a nFlightcam and a GoPro3 as well as my Canon handheld that does video...the last piece of the video is from the GoPro...no idea why Premiere scaled it down and it looks so horrible but I'm too lazy and tired to figure it out right now. First time I've tried mixing 3 different video sources...
I flew with a couple partners in the plane up from KGTU to 52F. Pretty uneventful flight, my first into the DFW Bravo. Damn, 52F is a busy little airport. Non-towered, tucked under the Bravo and airports all around it - I felt like those WWII fighter pilots with bogies buzzing all around. I was warned in advance that folks kinda do whatever they want around there and that was pretty accurate. Just about everyone that tuned in 122.9 (52F's CTAF) would start with, "Radio Check..." or "Anyone in the pattern...". Pretty annoying.
Just a friendly reminder - folks might have seen this before but this little incident happened at 52F a while back. The airport is a little nuts.
Anyway, we survived the pattern and taxied all over the place (the taxiways double as roads, which is fun) trying to find Walt. After a couple cell calls, we found him and got started.
Total time for the process was about 1:30. I think he did 5 readings total and each time had to pull the spinner off and crank some weight onto bolts so it takes a little time. Luckily, there's a great diner adjacent to his shop so we ate a late lunch over there while he was putting the finishing touches on the job.
Overall, very happy with how things went. We were all talking about how smooth the plane is already and were curious what the initial readings would be. If you click on the link in the first post, you'll see the chart there (I put it in the video too but you can't read it at all...). I've also attached PDF's of our runs with more detailed numbers.
Basically, he ran it the first time and we pulled a .32 IPS. WOW. That's like out of tolerance bad. He pulled a bolt out of the spinner and put in a test weight and we re-ran it and the first shot got it down to .02 IPS!!! Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the weight there so he had to take the spinner off and attach it to the flywheel area. The next few runs are documented on paper and in the video.
We ended up at .05 IPS. Smooth as silk. You can definitely tell a difference on the ground and in the air.
Cost was $250, which I thought was kinda high...I thought he was charging $175 but I wasn't going to haggle with him.
Walt is a class act - very sharp guy...answered all our questions and walked us through everything he was doing. Really interesting process.
Anyway, highly recommend everyone do this if you can. Pretty cheap for the return compared to all the other $$'s we spend.
Here's my crappy video.
