Wednesday, 23 December 2015

167 May 2015

 RansMail #167  May 2015
 
Early Purple Orchids & Bluebells - 2nd May, Jackrells Farm Airstrip.
 
Flying to Alderney ?
Avgas is available again & a landing fee promotion in May, June and July, their fly-in is in June.
 
Ulrich Klausing (Rans S4, Yukon) had a look at Dave Sykes flex wing to the N.Pole endeavours (April R.M.). I was amused to see when I looked at his tracking page to find him being right now (at least update April 11th ) in Grube, Schleswig Holstein Germany. The LSC Condor in Grube is the Flying Club where I enjoyed spending my weekends and holidays over the last 10 years before I moved to Canada. I will be there in October. Maybe I'll meet Dave on his way back ?
I bought an old John Deer Backhoe in Grand Prairie, AB. Hope its in good working order so I can start clearing a place for a workshop (Hangar). If I get the O.K. from Al Falle who owns a piece of land across the road I can level it out a bit to for a landing strip . They had cleared it for dairy farming, but it grows nothing to feed any kind of animals. Even horses don't find enough grass there. So the chances are good for my project, then I only need to cut a clear way across to bring the Rans onto my property.
 
New Readers Welcomed
Colin Purvis  Rans S6-ES (G-BZGF)
Dick Durbrow,   dickdurbrow@hotmail.com [Sorry about my mis-spelling your name last month, mike].
Glyn Williams. I have recently acquired a Rans S6 with a Jabiru 2200 engine, G MYES.
Jimmie Blackwell I own and fly a Rans S6 Coyote II with a Rotax 100hp. N607DW based at T-74, Taylor, Texas which is near the state capital Austin. Previously owned Cessna 150, Kitfox and a Sonex.  Rans is by far my favourite.  I'm retired from the U.S. Air Force and enjoy aeroplanes, Ham Radio and 7 grandchildren. I need to put a rudder trim tab on my Rans S es6. Does anyone have a picture of an installation they could share with me please.


Jim Matthews. jazzyjim25@hotmail.com  I have recently bought my first aircraft a Rans S6 G-CCDC which I am rebuilding with my dad at Sandown, Isle of Wight. I bought the aircraft as a project as it needed skins and we are just putting it all together and checking over with an LAA Inspector. However today I found both lower longerons had splits in them ! I phoned Skycraft but they don't have any in stock but did say they have a whole tail section off a scrap aircraft. I was wondering if you have or knew of anywhere else that may have some ?
I did my licence from here with Aiden from Isle of Flight microlights in a Thruster but always had my heart set on a Rans S6 even though I had never been up in one ! Two other guys at the airfield (Bob and Paul) have an S6 with a 912 and eventually I went up and had a go - apart from needing a cushion to see over the panel in front of me it was great. After about 6 months I found the aircraft I wanted in Kent, 2003 with only 113 hours on it Rotax 582. & in pieces as the skins needed replacing not flown since 2006. Skins have arrived and have started to prep for fitting.
 
Chris had Rotax 503 high idle speed issues. A picture of the leak from one spark plug (similar witness at the intake gasket).
[The small plug weep and witness on the manifold connection don't look bad. Naturally the plug must be in properly. Rans 912 book specifies Silicon paste rather than Copper Slip on its threads & I copied that for my two-stroke plugs in the 447. Means better heat conductivity across threads to the head and the paste hardly deteriorates in service. M.]
 
Andy.  ajonets@btinternet.com I have just changed from the standard winged S6 to the 116, I find its totally different when landing, although I'm getting use to it now
What oil temp do you get, I am getting 110 C. in level flight and a bit more in the climb, the oil cooler is under the engine at the back out of the air flow,so may cut a flap in the bottom to force air to it, is this the normal place for the cooler on an S6 ?
I notice that your Rans S6-116 cooler (below) has 11 elements, mine has 7: I think a larger cooler is required.
[On my 80 hp Rotax 912 if anything water remains too  cool so most of the year there's a sheet of cardboard 1/3 across the top.The oil is usually coolish too round about 180 F = 82 C, except in full power climbs when the gauge shows 200 ish F. Again in winter (southern UK) I slide a sheet of plastic trapped under three spaced tie wraps to blank the matrix. The  regular Rans S6 location for the oil cooler is on the port side nose just above the oil filter, to get air first from the nose cowling aperture. Your 110C S & L sounds high. mike]
 
H.V.Morton Visits London Airport (1926) 'THE SPELL OF LONDON' - Two in a Tower 
(H V Morton's book describing his visit to London's Airport - first published Feb 11th 1926, Methuen.)
TWO men with earphones strapped to their heads sit in a tall white tower at Croydon Aerodrome. When they are not speaking on a wireless wave, receiving telegrams, writing figures in ledgers, or poring over maps, they can look out of the windows and watch the big Paris air liners swoop out of the sky. The green Surrey fields behind the landing ground rise to a ridge on which, far off, the Crystal Palace holds two giant candlesticks in the air. (The Crystal Palace was burnt down in November 1936, ten years after this was written.)
This is the Control Tower of London's Air Port. It is the ear, eye, and voice of the aerodrome. There is nothing else like it in the country. Pilots above the clouds in the Channel pour their troubles into the ears behind the headphones, and voices from this white tower go out into the sky, soothing the worries of airmen in bad weather, helping them, leading them home. On a cork table is painted a map of Europe. One of the men is always busy sticking little coloured 'flags on the map.
'Look!' he says. These are the aeroplanes now flying. This Goliath has just passed that Handley Page over Hythe. That flag in mid-Channel is a French machine coming over with a cargo of silk stockings. This blue flag is the Cologne 'plane. . . .'
'Passed Lympne!' whispers the man next to him; and the aeroplane-spotter picks up a little flag and takes it out of Kent into the sea.
*            *             *             *             *
I pick up a headphone and strap it on. Nothing happens. Everybody, it seems, is happy in the sky. There is no fog, there is no wind, there are no complaints. Then, suddenly:
'Hallo, Croydon?' cries a cheery voice. 'Hallo? A passenger in my machine is very troubled.'
'That's the Cologne pilot speaking from the Channel,' whispers one of the control men.
'He's very troubled,' says the pilot, 'because he's left his passport with you at the aerodrome. Now, can you send it on at once to the Dom Hotel at Cologne? You can? I'll tell him. Thank you.'
Before the man driving the Cologne air-liner cuts off I think I heard him sing a cheerful little song away up there in the sky above the Channel; but I cannot be sure !
*            *             *             *             *
One of the clerks writes out a note about the passport, and a messenger climbs down the perpendicular ladder with it and goes off among the old army huts below to deliver it.
I look round the control tower, admire the hundred gadgets it contains, admire the map with two pieces of string hanging to it, which is one way of finding a lost 'plane. (I wish I could
explain why.) Then one of the control men turns a switch and hundreds of red lights spring out, deep ruby in the sun-light, crowning the tops of huts. He turns another switch and
ground lights come to life. I realize how thrilling this tower must be on a stormy winter night with a cold pilot buffeting about in the sky and the rain lashing the windows, and a
plaintive voice coming out of the clouds, asking for light — and more light—and news of the wind down below. . . .
*             *             *              *            *
The telephone bell rings. The restless traffic controller of the Imperial Airways is on the other end of the wire. He is a man who counts his 'planes more carefully than a hen mothers her chickens. If one lags behind, he gets nervy and wants to know all about it.
'What's happened to the cargo machine that left Zurich this morning?'
'Signalled Lympne half an hour ago,' is the quick reply.
'Thanks, she'll be here in no time.'
A man with a pair of field glasses moves round on the out- side platform and says something that sounds nautical. I look out and see far over the Surrey hills a dot in the sky. He has spotted the Paris 'plane. The men write in their books.
She is up to time.
In a few minutes she comes roaring over our heads, making a wide circle, going off, it seems, to the Crystal Palace; then she turns, skims back over the aerodrome roofs, and comes to earth, her fat-tyred wheels churning up the dust from the grass. She is big and brown, and along her body runs a strip of plate glass, through which I can see a row of excited faces, a girl's pink hat, a man in a tweed cap. . . .
She taxies to her landing place. The mechanics run to her. The pilot heaves himself up in his seat, raises his goggles, and   steps out in a belted leather coat, groping for a cigarette.
Men run up with steps. A young man comes out of the aeroplane with a camera, the girl in the pink hat appears and stands smiling in the doorway as he takes a snapshot of her.
Then she steps delicately out upon the earth. She does not notice the tall white tower that brings liners home through the sky, and the tall white tower does not notice her, for it is busy chatting with a pilot half-way to Holland !
 
Jackrell's Farm - After a very long rest Bryan's Pegasus was rigged and ground run. A Cessna 172 visited Sat 18th April.
 
 
Laurie Hurman BMAA forum 
Now Skydrive are no longer shackled to the official Rotax policy they are sourcing silicon (oil) hoses for the 912 which will be a fraction of the cost of the Rotax parts.
 
Clive Innocent's conversion from (dead) Jabiru to Rotax 912, progress @16th May.
Re. G-PADE my own built Reality Escapade - I have been putting a lot of time into it. All cowlings had to come off obviously. The top and bottom needed altering for the different exhaust exit, fuel pump and coolant radiator. Then rubbed down,  primed and re-sprayed yellow. Same with the boot cowl ( bonnet ) which had to come off to access the wiring behind the panel. While I had it apart, I replaced the screen & roof to  it with smoked Lexan. Battery cables had to be extended to the rear fuselage with a new battery and tray.All floors came out and every bit of fuel hose was renewed. Brakes were serviced and bled: New tacho for the Rotax: Panel fuses changed to mini Circuit breakers: New throttle control to suit the twin carbs & via a splitter box, chokes. Custom built exhaust system, oil bottle and radiator. The engine is in, with water and oil plumbing connected, wiring finished. Today I have got half way through re-fitting roof and screen. Trial fit of cowlings to see if I need a spacer for my new prop, then that can go on. Purge the oil system, fill up with coolant, and see if it goes 'fizz bang' and bursts into flames, or starts up ! Then it's re-weigh, sort out C of G, submit my works in writing to the BMAA, and lastly obtain an amended CAA. registration certificate. 
 
Cylinder wear how to check tip ? (David A. Jabiru forum).
Something I did when measuring my bores that might be of use to others. Turned a steel disk to 3.840" diameter and polished the edge. Disk's diameter measured with 0.0001 reading micrometer. Mounted a 1" dowel about 8" long for a handle to its centre. Insert into bores and measure gap with feeler gauges. The disk's diameter is close enough to easily see any out of round, and very easy to check with feeler gauges by just wiggling the handle to get tightest fit which is when disk is exactly square with bore - getting those fancy tee micrometer gauges exactly square and centred is trickier.

Thomas.Blowers@aerosociety.com   Royal Aeronautical Society - Aircraft for Sale, 28 April, do not hesitate to contact me.
Rans S-6ES Coyote II, G-SBAP, part of Schools Build-a-Plane Challenge in partnership with sponsors Boeing and the LAA. All proceeds will be used by the Society to fund future STEM outreach projects.
Cockpit seating for the Nervous Pilot (Tony Fowler)
Tony flew with me on Wednesday in Rans S6-116 into a microlight strip at Willingale Essex - being at the remains of a USA light bomber WWII base. I'm pleased to say after nervously realising it was now only grass & 350 m long we landed within 1/2 the space available, Phew !!
 
 
WW I Airfield - Stow Maries, Essex - also used by the American flyers (Sunday 10th May)
 
A free monthly digest of UK General Aviation safety related information.
 
World-wide Accident listing - all a/c types      http://aviation-safety.net/index.php
 
Old RansMails are now on line courtesy Peter Greenrod. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4702449/Ransmails.pdf
 
 
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