RansMail #024  June 1st 2004

 

A)    Ed has sent two photographs: the cracked Ali bracket he has mentioned earlier, plus the dent discovered in the spar.
I'm sure cracked plate brackets has happened to other Rans S4's too. They are located at the top & bottom ends of the u/c arms have attached a photo of the ,
I must add that to my 'must inspect' list. 

 

B)    Microlight Conquers Everest"So, what would you do if the turbo-intercooled Rotax 914 engine powering your Pegasus Quantum trike, flying under a Pegasus XL wing, was so hard to start that it flattened two batteries before finally catching? Perhaps they were mildly hypoxic, but Angelo D'Arrigo and Richard Meredith-Hardy chose to fly that engine (typically capable of 115 hp) over the world's highest mountain -- towing a hang glider (a rigid-wing ATOS 2 from ICARO 2000) for good measure. In Tibet on Sunday, microlight pilot Meredith-Hardy hauled hang glider pilot D'Arrigo to the rarified air of Mount Everest and put on what must have appeared to be the world's highest air show for a group of climbers tackling the peak through the more conventional method -- on foot. But it's a show that almost didn't get off the ground, according to Meredith-Hardy's account of the adventure.
...Extreme Low Temperatures And High Drama
Once the Rotax was running, it pulled the two aircraft up at a rate of about 450 fpm from the 12,000-foot-high base camp. There was a lot of circling involved in getting up to the height of Everest and enjoy the minus 40-degrees Centigrade temperatures. At times, Meredith-Hardy noticed that D'Arrigo was being "bounced around" by turbulence. As they approached the peak, the tow line broke and D'Arrigo was on his own. Without the hang glider in tow, Meredith Hardy said the aircraft "shot up" and he did three fly-bys of the peak, before an audience of about six climbers standing on the peak and four or five others inching up the final few feet."

 

C)  Brian kindly came back to my request on belt adjustment, with:-

 

"A word of caution if I may!
A special tool is required to slacken the nut holding
the spacers to adjust belt tension. Without the tool
it is very easy to damage the non metal fan. If the
fan fails or the belt lets go the engine will overheat
and seize. This happened to a local weight shift flyer
a few years ago; very costly exercise indeed?
Personally I would drop the engine out and then The
unit is easy to get at. When the cover is removed all
is revealed and easily worked at. A new belt is best
answer and inspires confidence for future use."

 

I took him at his word as it makes sense and straight away called up Ridgeway Air who are only about 15 miles away, and I've been and bought the tool as well as the belt at what I thought were reasonable prices.

Tomorrow I'll see about the next step.

 

Ed's Cracked Bracket 

 

Ed's Dented Tube

Mike