Today, I went up early to continue cleaning up some minor squaks. I put the battery minder on and plugged in the Reiff heater. My friend Gale came up at 10 and we checked everything, then pre-oiled the engine per the Lycoming instructions. Basically pull plugs and crank for 10 seconds several times. Oil pressure came up quickly and when we had 40 plus psi it was ready to go. We hooked up the John Deere and pulled it out on the ramp and tied the tail wheel down with a cargo strap. It started on the first try, and ran very smooth at low rpm. Unfortunately, my rpm wasn't displayed on the VM1000C so we kept it low per the engine run protocol. I have Chrome cylinders so my break in is pretty strict in terms of run time and termperatures. We ran it twice at low rpm for 3 minutes each. More later.
Then, my DAR, Frank Baldwin showed up and spent some time going over the airplane. He'll come up next week to do the final inspection and issue the airworthiness certificate.
Gale was a big help. He also went over the airplane and found a couple of things to add to my punch list. We also worked on the fuel leak and determined the exact rivet where the fuel was coming out. By adding some fuel lube to the rivet, we stopped the leak. After the engine runs, I'll drain the tank and drill the rivet out and replace with lots of proseal.
