Monday 4 January 2016

RansMail #142  April 2013 
North American P-51 Mustang - UK CAA MPD: 13-01. (Curious to find this MPD popping up now for a veteran of WWII)
Issued 26 March 2013 Mandatory Permit Directive (MPD) for applicable aircraft registered in the United Kingdom operating on a UK CAA Permit to Fly. North American P-51 Mustang Inspection of Flight Control System P-51B, P-51C, P-51D, P-51K, F-51D, F-51K. Carry out the requirements of Cal Pacific Airmotive Inc.SB P51-001.
A North American Aviation (NAA) P-51 aircraft experienced failure of the elevator trim tab and loss of control of the aircraft. Contributing factors were worn fiber lock spline nuts at the elevator trim tab hinge attachment fittings and the installation of non-structural screws and hardware. Failure to comply could cause trim tab failure and consequent loss of control of the aircraft. A copy of the Service Bulletin and the associated Supplement may be obtained from Cal Pacific Airmotive Inc.  http://www.calpacificairmotive.com/
Clive Innocent flew his Escapade on 6th April
After such awful weather for months, it was great to fly today. I went down to Henstridge to meet some chums for lunch.
Peter Sheehy from Belle Vue in his Hawk, Paul Coppin in his C42 with Colin Langley, Derek Hall in his Jabiru UL and Brian Girling in his Foxbat, all from Lee-on-Solent. A fairly blustery day which provided a few interesting unintentional bank angles from time to time, one of which North of Winchester exceeded 45 degrees. Not a problem being tossed about a bit. I've never heard of anyone ever crashing into air !
We had a good lunch. I went for the large fry up, which is no good for me but delicious all the same. Peter and I went over the other side of the field to look inside the hangars and chat about Vans RV's and other kit aeroplanes with some owners.
Landing on tarmac at Henstridge in a bit of a gusty crosswind was satisfactory and trouble free, and the landing back at Hadfold Farm was a delightfully gentle arrival. A good day's flying and great to meet up with a good group of mates after so long. Summer is just around the corner !
The whole e-Go team will be at AeroExpo is at Sywell from 31 May to 2 June to show you round and discuss it. You’ll find us in the outdoor (static) park, near the pedestrian entrance.
Peter  Noonan's newly acquired Escapade with Rotax 912 power, now Permitted was flown from Henstridge into Shoreham last week on a bit of a grey day without much of a horizon, quite a few showers and a blustery wind. Clive & Brian of Souther Flyers drove down later to help lack of cold starting. It was sorted by throttle cables re-adjustment so the two carb's closed fully & enricher discs pulled on together.  Proud Owner at Shoreham

Jabiru Engines - Roller cam followers (part copy of news release, mid March on their forum)
"The 2013 engines use roller cam followers. Used in automotive applications for many years roller followers reduce friction in the engine – and with reduced friction comes lower heat generation, less wear and lower fuel consumption. In the case of the Jabiru engine the roller followers also forced a re-design of the cam profile which in turn reduced peak valve acceleration to improve valve train longevity. To accommodate the new parts there have been changes to the crankcase, new pushrods and pushrod cover tubes. The hollow pushrod (incorporating oil feed to the rockers) configuration has been retained, as have the forged steel valve rocker arms."
Richard Arkell Jodel 1053 (France).
I installed a neat used 4 channel engine temp monitor on the Jodel's Lycoming, 2 x CHT, 2 x EGT. It works well but the senders cost too much for what they are. I have not had much of a chance to come to any conclusions as the brakes packed up after the first flight with it which made getting off the runway interesting given the nose-wheel ex Rallye castering steering. They have now recovered given new pads and a good bleeding.
Rotax four strokes prefer Unleaded petrol (gasoline). If you have to refuel & only find Avgas, adding 'Decalin' is said to help minimise its building up inside the engine. Aircraft Spruce USA sold me some which will be a useful touring accessory.
New Readers are Welcomed.
Mark Wakem.

Colibri MB-2 and KR200 (Messerchmitt Kabinenroller ca. 1960's also a tail wheeler - VNE ~65 mph). Just moved my Colibri from Sleap to Welshpool (where Peter Greenrod, multiple a/c owner - inc. a Rans S4 is based). Below another 'Schmitt enthusiast !

Lee Riglar  I am a Englishman living in southern Ireland. Recently passed my UK nppl and am starting my hunt for my first aircraft. I like the look of the s6 and the s5 because of my small budget but when you mention the word 2 stroke at fellow flyers they screw up there faces so just looking around and trying to collect as much if as I can to aid me when looking around.
[Some 4 or 5 years back, an English pair flew an S6 with the 503 across the sea to Ireland & back complete with camping gear. Another owner wrote up his joy at owning one. 
Main thing is fabric condition, won't do to stand out, so apart from cheapest first cost, hangarage is essential,. That costs the same whatever a 30 ish ft span a/c you might buy. The 503 powered model if you find one isn't bad, has lower TBO but relatively speaking isn't dear c/w the 912 series. Uses a bit more fuel but again annually isn't so bad. Some people have changed the engine which is an option if you have time, patience and knowledge - and more money ]
Eddie in the USA. (26th March) I have a Rans S4 Coyote 1, with 24 hrs on a Rotax 503, purchased last week. Haven't flown the bird at this time. Perhaps next week when the wind may die down. March is our windy month. April starts our outdoor things, mowing the yard and some flying.

The Rotax 503 Mikuni single carb. has no numbers or model number stamped on the carb. It does say built in Japan. It has four mixture controls. I need to know what each adjustment does. Know where I can get that info? There's has to be someone around that using this Mikuni.
[Found today here: rotax@yahoogroups.com  I have duel Mikuni carbed 503 out of a snow machine. 1988 I'm installing it in a ultralight. I'm now going to use K/N airfilters, no intake silencer. It has 150/160 main jets. I'm at 1200ft. AL. What main jet size would you start with??   I'm in Lincoln NE.  -- That's the correct size , 160 goes in the PTO cylinder.  mike]

It came with a four blade prop, but every photo I've seen has a two blade prop. It only has airspeed, cylhead temp, EGT & tach. I'm going to add more. I've searched the web for Rans cockpit instrument photo's however can't find any.
[I found a few examples in my archive, from USA, South Africa, France & GB - plus Ulrich's, Canada further down. mike).

Alasdair Ross. I fly a '93 Rans S6 Coyote, in the Scottish Highlands, I am going to do a Rotax 503 to 582 engine change this Spring, any info would be greatly appreciated, also do you know of anybody who has fitted Vortex Generators ?
[I personally believe Vortex  generators are an expensive anomaly and for an a/c as yours with very low stall speed they can't add much by way of  reduction. To some extent I do wonder if delaying the stall makes the eventual break rather sharper and less easy to recover from if done inadvertently, whereas a regular stall has a progression which the pilot can feel and recover from without alarm if at the incipient stage. mike].
BTW, he wrote: An affordable low hr. 912 has just come up, I am aware of weight issues & am a low hr per year flyer, is it worth the cost, and hassle ? I have flown the 582. Rans in France and liked it, I have also owned a 582 French AX3, so I have no issues with the reliability of the 582, any views greatly appreciated.
Ulrich Klausing, Canada about flying over the wild lands in his single seat Rans S4.
I usually fly IFR   ...( I Follow the Road ) though there are not that many roads up here. I am happy that we got a floatplane now because we have no shortage of rivers and lakes up here. Jeremia's father is a Trapper, he lives way out in the bush, you can only visit him with a 2 day travel by boat or a floatplane, so that will be the first destination we will head for once we have the floats back on. For now we will keep it on wheels. Jeremia has still to get his licence.

If you ever fly to France, try to make a stop at Blois Vendome, it has a very nice club. I was in France quite often with my Swedish trucking outfit in the late 'nineties and into the 2000's. I often had to wait  weekends for reload  & got paid for it same as if I would drive. It was quite a good job, when that happened I always looked for a nearby airport or flying club. Stranded in Blois that way I ended up on the airport of Blois Vendome. The funny thing was that their airport served at the same time as a " Routier" (best eatery) for truckers.  After introducing myself as a glider pilot from Germany working as a truck driver they invited me to a flight in a double seater glider one Saturday. The young glider instructor was impressed with my will to keep that ASK 21 aloft.  Man, I Uli, squeezed half an hour out of nil/nothing lift ( Nullschieber) he mentioned to his club members after we landed. The next day Sunday I got up early and helped the club president pulling a Cirrus 4 seater out of the hangar and got invited to join them for a Breakfast flight to Orleans. On the way back we met my instructor glider pilot from the day before in mid-air flying his piper J4 I think it was also to the Breakfast. There are also lots of homebuilders on that big airport, they have the hangars along the south side & had the chance to talk to one of them. I was already planning to move to Canada, at least for holiday. One of the glider pilots , a little bit older, had a story to tell from Canada whilst accompanying the France Olympic Glider team. He had the chance to go for a flight in the Montreal Area & their Tower asked him "Which language do you prefer ?"  So he answered, "Well I am French so that should be the right choice". Once they started to speak in Canadian French to him, he said  he had to ask them politely to switch back to English as he couldn't understand much they were talking about. If you ever make it to Blois ask them if they still remember that German Trucker with a Swedish truck and send them my greetings.

We were lucky with the weather at the end of  March and I was on days off too. I called Len and he came out to Horst' Place with his Chinook. He had the Idea to fly out to Rose Lake and make a tour through the Glaciers towards Skagway. Murray planned to join him with his Champ. After first agreeing to go with them  I later got second thoughts. I wasn't afraid to have to land somewhere on route in case of some trouble, but that I'd never get my plane back out of there other than with a Helicopter (financially out of the question for me). So I opted for Kusawa Lake.There you can land anytime on the Takhini River or on the Lake and you could tow it to the next street with a skidoo. Horst wanted to go for a brief flight only to begin with. When Horst' and Murray's planes didn't start due to dead batteries Len left for home. I kept on refuelling my Rans S4 and after we had Horst's Aeronca for an hour on the charger, it fired up very well.


He and I then went for a brief fotoshooting over Lake Laberge, where having gyro problems, he went home. I kept on flying to Kusawa Lake, wanting to fly as long as possible. I can only get fuel out of one Tank at a time so I planned to fly one almost empty and than switch to the other one and turn around for home. Worked out pretty good so far & when I switched tanks made sure I have a good place to land in case it developed fuel flow problems, but after initially getting a bit worried when the cabin fuel filter looked empty I relaxed when it filled up again.The Rotax engine was running very smooth and the EGT & CHT temperatures showed a normal balanced reading. [If you remember last summer I wasn't 100% satisfied with the engine].  Earlier this winter I had set the C-clip for the carb. needle one notch deeper allowing for richer mix.

After 2 hours flight (note Alt 5,200 ft.) & back on the ground the engine was idling strongly at 2000 rpm's without any noticeable shaking. I couldn't have made it any longer but that was not a fuel problem, I think my gas tanks are bigger than my bladder. Next time I will wear my winter coverall suit. The day before I had worked the skis all over again and after I had checked the whole plane, through sorrowfully I only was able to do a 20 min check-flight before the sun started to settle down: the light for photo's would have been much better. A beautiful blue sky with puffy white cumulus clouds and no wind. The next day you could see a front moving in slowly and over night it started snowing again and it snowed through for most part of Easter Monday. I went back to work.

[Ulrich really shows that some Rans microlighters have balls ! mike]
The LAA - Were looking for aviators to extract pertinent information from published AAIB reports.  Their Mike Barnard has a short list of Pilots now. It's a volunteer role, but a noble cause to draw conclusions & report on Human Factors behind incidents.
CHIRP Safety Feedback Close Encounters - Again !  (ref. Issue #55 1/2013)
It was all about Sywell and the LAA Rally again ! - I've written to Chief Executive, Peter Tait complaining about the risks of the specified 'honey pot' rules for pre-gathering zone for that rally that the CAA habitually issue and never work. I learnt from his reply I'm not alone & it will get discussed by the CHIRP General Aviation Advisory Board, which is scheduled to meet next month.

The (Pershore, Worcestershire) Throckmorton event is on June 8th this year.
Some slots may still be available - it's a once a year chance to fly in there.

The Zoyboyz will be holding their annual microlight only fly in on Saturday 27 July (ref. Nikki Bewley).
As usual no landing or camping fees. We will have BBQ and refreshments throughout the day. In the evening, live band, bar, pig roast and chilli (veg alternative available). Registration and further details www.westonzoylandmicrolightclub.co.uk
The UK Radiotelephony Manual (CAP 413) provides clear, concise, standard phraseology and associated guidance for radiotelephony communication in United Kingdom airspace.

Alan Colman wrote: I have an early S6-116 circa 1992, it's new to me though having owned it for a few months, it’s had many inspections over the years and I have been collating some of that data and discovered inconsistent records of its stall speed.
There seems to be a variance of up to 10 mph clean for similar weight loading ??? There are of course many potential reasons, poor test procedures extremes of temperature inaccurate ASI and so on. I have been trying to get information on the expected range for this variant but there is absolutely nothing and the original build manuals are no help whatsoever. I understand that each aircraft is unique and will have its own stall speed. A google trawl gives plenty of information on standard S6 ES but it’s not relevant to the 116 wing with a 912 up front. Are there any S6 -116 owners out there who can tell me what their A/C stalls at if you know the weight even better ..I am trying to get a feel for the correct bracketing. The most recent tests record 60mph clean stall at 1084lbs AUW , this raises another anomaly everywhere I read says MAX airspeed for flap deployment is 65mph , on that basis I have to be near stall before deployment however my AIRCRAFT is placarded with MAX airspeed for Flap 80mph?? can this be correct ?
[I sent gen. & Richard Warriner's Static source positioning report reducing the enormous ASI errors, as well as the Rans S6-116 POH , which state up to 80 mph. on its smaller flaps. Stalls off my own Rotax 912, Rans S6-116: 0 flap 48 mph, reduces to 46 ias at 3,000 rpm: 1 stage flap 45 & 44 respectively - So a little power helps the safety margin another ~2 mph above wing stall. Stage 3 flap, not a lot of difference - mostly drag. I do finals at 59 - 60 mph ias till very late on and when nearly over the trees/hedge I pull the power off as they land nicely, but do get ready to add a handful of power in case you hit dead air and need to cushion the last bit. Too many rpms and she'll float so I set 1600 rpm tick-over. mike] 
The LAA offer Language proficiency and EASA Licence Form validation at Popham Fair and also Sywell's  Expo.
LAA Pilot Coaching Scheme will be in attendance at the Popham microlight fair on 04th and 05th May, and Aero Expo on 01st and 02nd June. PCS chairman Jon Cooke and LAA coach John Brady will be available to sign your Level 6 English Language Proficiency, as well as discuss any licensing and training enquiries. At other events where the LAA trade stand is present, LAA coaches will be available to assist with enquiries. With us already in the transition to EASA, please do come along and have a chat. There will be a number of other LAA coaches at Popham too; Chris Thompson, LAA coach, will be there as Air/Ground operator for the event, as well as other coaches to assist with enquiries. Let's hope the weather improves for what is usually a busy and interesting weekend.
Old RansMails are now on line courtesy Peter Greenrod. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4702449/Ransmails.pdf
Collected Rans S4 & S5 Tips      http://ranss4s5tips.blogspot.co.uk/
Online General Aviation Report (GAR) facility started April 8th.
A free on-line GAR system for all pilots, accessed via the AOPA website, submit or cancel a GAR without having to worry about directing it to the right office -- or copying it to the police.
Sport Cruiser Nose leg spindle news, by Graham Smith. http://youtu.be/1-DOG9ZtO7k
Yesterday 15 April, I completed the flight testing of our spindle mod. The LAA required 25 landings on different surfaces and also asked if I could video the nosewheel during taxi and landings. The new arrangement is working well with no hint of shimmy even when provoked by holding the nosewheel down on tarmac well above flying speed. I have put the link to the video below. There is an extended taxi at the beginning which is a bit dull but it gets better. I hope to get the flight report written up in the next few days. The load testing is the last hurdle but I do not anticipate any problems. I checked with LAS and they have enough material in stock to make over 50 spindle units so once we have the testing done I will get the material ordered.
Rotax practical owner help    http://www.rotax-owner.com/rotax-forum/index
Rans Aircraft USA site   http://www.rans.com/aircraft/home.html
Paint & Fabric Systems ? (Emeraude forum comments)
Stewart Aircraft Finishing Systems have a water based product the panels they displayed at Sun & Fun looked much sharper then Poly Fiber products & a real wet look with very little fabric show through. No special treatment needed prior to attaching fabric to wood wing or primed metal pieces. They estimate an Emeraude will run $2,800.00 total for all products required to include all fabric, tapes, glues and paints.
Richard Seman. As far as aircraft fabrics go, I am told that they are all the same material. Supposedly there is one loom in the US that ramps up once a year to make one large run of fabric. The order consists of the number of yards that the major finishing systems contract for and of course some extra so that the minimum amount is assured. Any overage is sold as "non-certified". It's the adhesives, sealers and topcoats that differ from system to system.


CAA (UK) March 2013 GA Occurrence/Safety Reports.
Flexwing for Sale by Laurie Wood (Hampshire, UK)
Would anyone like to by a nice GT450, one careful owner and hardly used.
From Nick Poll in France. I thought you lot might like to see what still gets weighed in for scrap by people here in south west France. It's a 1903 De Dion Bouton 8 hp car engine, complete with all pipe work, carb, magneto and part of a frame. It was dumped at the local scrap metal yard by someone last week. Luckily a friend of mine heard about it. It's now with me & is in unbelievably good condition and turns over smoothly.


Mike.
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