Wednesday 23 December 2015

166 April 2015

 RansMail #166 April 2015
Theodore Roosevelt Aircraft carrier off Cowes Isle of Wight Mon. 23rd March. (Justin B & Peter J).
 
e-Go aeroplanes of Conington, Cambridge, will be at AeroExpo 2015, Sywell, Northants.
This will be the third time that e-Go aeroplanes have attended and are soon delivering the first production aeroplane, a remarkably light single seat aircraft, designed within the CAA SSDR category. G-EFUN will be displayed by Chief Test Pilot Keith Dennison to demonstrate a real feel for the handling and performance of this fun flying machine.
 
Question from RansFlyers forum (annm@epix.net)
Well I just got a Rans S4. With over 1000 Hours in G.A. planes, LightSports, Ultralights, and Hang Gliders. I have zero time in a Tail-dragger. Plus there is NO-one with in 50 miles that gives Lessons in one. This is going to be a Challenge.  I have watched hours of Videos and plane on going very slow.  Wish me luck !
 
Jose Toro bought a Rans S-4 in 1993 and had to learn to fly tail-draggers by himself.I had less than 100 hours of flight time back then, flown in ultralights and C-150. Before the first flight, I bought and read twice the book "The Compleat Taildragger Pilot" by Harvey S. Plourde.  I strongly recommend this book.  The first thing I did was to place concrete blocks in front of the main gear, adding power to get used to the elevator control and the aircraft attitude when rolling on the main gear. Then I performed a few speed taxi runs before the first flight. It might be a good idea to try a grass field before moving to pavement. Select no wind days for your first flights. Due to the airframe shape, I was never able to do three point landings on this plane, I always used wheel landings (the tail-wheel is very high when the plane is straight and level). I need to confess that I had more than one ground loop when learning to handle cross wind landings. Once you get experience on the plane, you will see that it can handle pretty strong cross wind if you can handle it (this takes time and practice, be very careful).  Don't use flaps on your first flights, they create a lot of drag.  The aeroplane is VERY draggy, so it is a good idea to use power until touchdown. Once you get used, you won't need to use power on landings (it will not be available in an engine failure anyway). The stalling speed is about thirty mph, so it can do pretty short takeoffs and landings. I had a lot of fun in that plane. After 500 hours of tail-dragger time, I can say that it was an excellent Tail Dragger trainer.  My second plane was a Kitfox II, and my third and current plane is a Rans S6 with Jab 2200 tail-dragger and I love it.
 
Sticking Dacron Patches on ?
 
New Readers this month, (many US based, via  RansFlyers@Yahoogroups.com ).
Larry Meadows. Florida (Rans S4 First Flight pic. Circa 2008).
Glenn Mathis.
Greg Zimmeman.
Dave Froble. (Vanderbilt PA. DFE Ultralights, Inc.)Dennis Wieck.
Todd Fredricks.
Dick Burbrow.
Paul McGinn.
Steve Larson.
Daniel Arkin.
Miguel Frutos.
Tom (RV4).
Philip Gill
John Rasmus.
Loren Koehn. (building a Rans S19.)
Steve Spence.  (2009 Rans S7.)
James Shepherd. (Delta BC).
Tony Dhont.
Malcolm Brubaker. (rebuilding a Rans S4 now, and fly an S 6 )
 
Flavelle Barrett, Rans Coyote 6ES - 2002, Rotax 912 from near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
My plane has 600 hrs. on it, and has always been stored inside. I fly it normally 12 months a yr.  & am watching the integrity of the fabric. It looks OK but wondering if there is a way of adding an exterior UV coating to help protect the top surfaces from UV degradation or perhaps using a solution called `303`for this purpose. 
Photos taken at our annual Cdn. Ùltralight Pilots Association`annual mtg. one August, which featured an exact replica of the first plane that flew in Canada, called the Silver Dart, beside my Rans.  Second photo of my Rans plane in front of our home on the lake in the middle of winter.  Ice / snow conditions were perfect for a safe landing on the ice and a taxi to my boat slip, with home up on the hill through the trees.  Note how the slow moving ice can hit a concrete dock and keep moving climbing up 3-4 ft. vertically.
 
[The '303' product is US made "303 Aerospace Protectant". In England I now use a similar appearance fluid intended for campers to reduce UV attack on tents etc. called '"NikWax Tent & Solar Proof" - they make a whole range of products and quite a few UK folk buy it for treating their a/c fabric annually. I usually buy 5 litres which lasts some years and always to hand when I am in the mood to get on with it. Both are a milky fluid used neat from a hand spray ( I use an empty kitchen cleaning fluid sprayer) to wet the wings/fabric and gently rub over with a damp soft cloth. I've been using these products for about 6 years since buying my ~1999 Rans S6-116 seven years ago
 
In the USA some folk write about a clear lacquer which goes hard and probably disallowed under UK Permit observance. When they need to pull it off say to deal with a wing tank pipes' renewal I think it is too rigid and possibly gets torn. mike]
Flavelle commented :The 303 Data Sheet recommends the product mostly for vinyl, plastic and rubber products BUT specifically says not for textiles (i.e. wing Dacron etc.). However my cloth surfaces have undercoat/sealer + primer + UV inhibitor + 2 top coats and a finishing clear coat..... all of which are 13 yrs. old (590 hrs. of flying) so the product is not directly on the textile surface.....and the plane has always been in a hanger.  Never the less, I gather you are using 303 and had no textile issues.
 
Rotax revises "Float Inspection" SB to allow continued 25 hr inspections.
Until such time as replacement floats become more universally available in the Field, ROTAX revises Float Inspection SB-912-065(R2) to allow for continued 25 hr inspections
 
Kevin Stewart. A Rotax issue. (sent for the benefit of 400+ RM. readers).
Rotax 912UL (80hp), 750hrs when gearbox refurbished, 800hrs when engine rebuilt.
After years of trouble-free Eurostar ownership I found myself with an unwanted vibration every time I throttled back. After trying the usual: carb balancing, ignition leads, leak down and prop condition I decided to send the gearbox away to Kevin Dilks at SAS. He diagnosed a worn propshaft and drive dog. After a hefty bill (the parts were expensive, the labour was not) the gearbox was returned with the worn parts. I could not believe how bad the wear was on the propshaft. Here is a video of the worn parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVFtBzhX9N0
The vibration on throttle back was gone after refitting the refurbished gearbox. However there was a small amount of roughness that remained which appeared at different RPM, at different times and seemed linked to the engine temperature. To start with the problem wasn’t bad enough to warrant doing anything but over the following 10 hours it got worse. I then started to try to diagnose the problem. This included carb balance, ignition timing, leak down and gearbox re-inspection. I got to the point where I had exhausted everything that I could do so I asked for some expert help from Kevin Dilks. He and I spent a day checking everything including crankshaft distortion and although the symptoms were clear enough, the cause was not. Interestingly he said that the rest of the engine was still within the manufacturing tolerances - never mind permitted wear dimensions. Everything was tried - including running the engine (carefully) without the prop. or exhaust - it wasn’t that noisy - and with a different pair of carbs. (Running without the prop was OK, you just have to make sure that you don’t over-rev it. We only did this for 10 or 20 seconds, this was long enough to feel that the vibration was still present. I was surprised at how quietly the engine ran with the exhaust muffler removed).
None of this made any difference so I sent the engine in a suitable polystyrene lined crate to his workshop for inspection. Initially not much was found when the crank case was separated, only when the heads were stripped was the culprit was discovered. The inlet valve on #2 cylinder was deformed around the valve seat to the extent that the stem protruded about 1mm further than it should. The photo shows the deformation at the seat end. Instead of there being a single bevel angle there are two. This results in the valve sitting low in the head with the stem protruding further than it should. Quite how the valve became deformed like this is unknown as there was nothing wrong with the valve seat or the head.

I guess that without the engine running there was no oil pressure in the hydraulic lifter and the valve shut sufficiently to give a good leak down result but when running the oil pressure opened up the lifter preventing the valve from closing fully. The engine was rebuilt with a replacement valve, new crank bearings, new oil control rings and new seals and gaskets. The first flight after reinstalling the engine showed that the vibration had gone, so that was confirmation that the inlet valve was the cause. The valve itself was relatively cheap but the cost of the other parts fitted and the considerable labour made for a hefty bill.
What I would advise other owners suffering undiagnosed vibration is to remove the rocker covers and measure the height of the stem above the cylinder head with the valve closed. If you discover that one measures more than the others then you may have the same problem and you only need to remove the head to fix the problem.
 
2 different engines may take the place of original Jabiru engines: the Jab 2210 and the available now Camit 2200
Jabiru have been developing the "2210" 4 cylinder 'boxer' engine as a replacement for the current 80 hp '2200'. & hope to initially release it as an experimental engine. Eventually there will also be a six cylinder too. It's accumulated just over 800 hours in test time and has non corrosive cast aluminium cylinders with nickel and silicon carbide bores. These have three times the thermal conductivity of steel & low friction high wear resistance bores compared to the current steel cylinders.
Meanwhile erstwhile sub-supplier in Australia, CAMIT has already got their own improved design & interchangeable 2200 equivalent in production and being sold.
 
Mark Jackson, GT450 Flex-wing: Garmin VIRB camera Sandown to Jackrell's Farm Sunday 22nd March.
 
Sandown Isle of Wight Airport clebrates its 80th birthday this w/end 18th/19th April.
 
Peter Jackson kindly rolled Jackrell's strip the following Wednesday, towing it with the old Ferguson TE20 tractor. "Being a sad geek I had a GPS tracker running on my phone when … for future reference..... it takes just 56 minutes to do 10 swathes in 2nd gear"
 
A Fokker Eindekker a/c arrived & was assembled by Steve Duckworth & David 3rd April (pic. Phil Laycock)
 
 
The link to Steve's flickr photo blog of its construction - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk_ace/sets/72157625967127064/
Searching flickr for G-CHAW brings up a number of pictures of his landing at Popham last year.
 
The first grass cut followed 9 days later with Phil & Lorraine doing the work.
 
Dave Sykes. From the UK to the North Pole and back SOLO by Flex wing.
He was setting off Sunday 22nd March 2015 from Rufforth, Yorkshire.This adventure is a follow on from his solo to Oz.   www.polarflight.co.uk
"I have a tracker on board to record my route. feel free to follow me and there will be a daily blog also or Face book".
 
Solo 2350 C engines: Engine - Operation Restriction EASA EAD 2015-0052-E:
DG-Flugzeugbau Model DG-1000T powered sailplanes, SOLO Kleinmotoren GmbH. http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/20150327EASAAD20150052E.pdf
 
Spinning a Cessna 172.
 
Filmed at Stow Maries (WW I airfield) Essex, showing on UK TV @18.30, Wed.15th April on BBC 2.
Antiques Roadshow Detectives. A moving story of a family’s voyage of discovery ending at Stow Maries.
 
UK CAA.  publication of Amendment 5 to Edition 21 of CAP 413 Radiotelephony Manual.
 
A free monthly digest of UK General Aviation safety related information.
 
WorldWide Accident listing - all a/c types
 
Old RansMails are now on line courtesy Peter Greenrod. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4702449/Ransmails.pdf
 
 
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