Monday, 4 January 2016

 RansMail #145 July 2013   
The English Summer arrived and has stayed.
Henstridge's 70th Birthday at the end of June (above) was on the same w/end as the Pooley's Fly-In to Compton Abbas who gave goodies inc. their 2013 flight guide.
Sandown continues to charm with jolly smiling welcomes.
Panshanger's American Aircraft F.I. gave me a  trip all round the east of London plus a free landing and a Country & Western style band, plus loads of WWII hangars forbidden to be used for aeroplanes by the local Council, but do allow tent type buildings. (Silly but True !). Their next event is Panshanger Revival Day, Sun 11th August, free if you dress 1930/40's. 
Alon A-2 Aircoupe 1966

Cessna 140 1947 ex N2440V


G-AFSC 1939 Tipsy Trainer 1 Walter Micron ~60 h.p inverted in line engine.

A few of us braved over-strong winds three weeks ago to attend the annual fly in to Piltdown, Uckfield East Sussex.
Where John Randle and everyone else helped make another success. Luckily the threatening clouds didn't drop all that rain and the wind was straight down the runway !
It was lovely to chat to our Royal Air Force heroes, all gentlemen who had survived many P1 missions in Lancasters, Stirlings, Mosquitos etc. during the War & now into a grand old age, I thank them for their cheery conversation and especially what they did for us all, some 70 years ago. I hope that the fund raising was as good as their company.
Ian Everett stepped up on 'how to add one more fuel tank' info for David Sudworth. [S6 last month]. Ian's 'plane G-MYIS is a Rans S6, because it's 503 we can only be 430 kg not 450 kg, although we could carry 90 litres we can't stay legal with 2 up so fuel management is most carefully worked out.  Remember we went to Ireland about 4 years ago so our tanks were a godsend. The two wing tanks and back tanks are standard as supplied by Rans. The plumbing is as follows: the wing tanks are joined together using a T joiner and then go to a three way tap (near the pilots left knee) the three way is because nobody makes a 4 way (which means you can't just work from one tank and so the two wing tanks are counted as one) so its two on and one off position. The back tank goes direct to the tap. The tap out tube goes to the carb as per usual via the in line filter. This was all passed by the LAA after our inspector had seen it and photos sent to Francis Donaldson for his approval.
BTW. When doing our third tank we realised you could not see what was left in the two wings, which we drained down - to find about 5ltrs per tank is invisible because of their flat shape. We devised a pipe with a tap to drain this into the back tank where we could see, but we were told to take it out because it contravened section 'S'.

David wrote; Richard Warriner mentions a diagram in the US RANS manual for a 3rd tank and actually has one from an old 503 RANS available. He weighed it & with the supporting bracket at 14 Lb ~6.5kg.  I contacted the LAA to see if there were any 912 S6 with 3 tanks registered but the answer was no. I was advised to complete a mod form but the big issue for me is the empty weight and possibly CofG (although moving the location of the battery might be a solution for this). Max weight is probably not an issue because I generally fly alone on cross-countries.  
Geoff Emmons solution 
Primer bulb

This weather forecast is free. It can be personalised to show the exact info. you want to see wish e.g. Pressure & units , actuals on vis & cloud base too almost any location seems to work to what you prefer too. To change location just alter the name at the top.
Easier to use than competitors' offering is:  http://notaminfo.com/  
It is free, easier to set up & use than e.g. SkyDemon Light for both Nav plotting and warnings. I find the latter difficult, espec. their squeezing of Notams into a little list top right ! This Sussex GB chap from has refined it and gives all needed info. for route plotting/planning (though I always draw a line on the chart if going anywhere). I also opted for his auto daily Notams by e-mail which warns of Red arrows etc. a few days in advance - as well as appearing on the chart once a route has been selected. You can choose precisely for which days for the Notams too, very useful in removing dross.

Stuart Ord finally cured a persistent Rotax 912 vibration
Since mentioning vibration trouble with S6-116 vibration in October's RansMail and applied all the 'usual' remedies. Now following up a recommendation to replace the rubber mounts every 5 years. 
I’ve solved it, more or less. I flew with the exhaust pulled back to ensure it couldn’t rattle on the side of the hole in the cowl that it was closest to (and could move towards if pushed) but no change. I also flew well out of balance with the vibration occurring and it made no difference, so odd airflow effects seems to have been eliminated. With few options, I decided to change the prop pitch to see what effect that would have; one blade was about 2° more than the other. I had checked this previously and thought they were pretty much the same as each other, but several repeats yesterday suggested that there really was an error. So I took the lesser pitch blade up and after tightening it was then 1° more than the other, but I tried anyway, resulting in a rubbish take-off and climb really sluggish compared to normal, but it got there and when tested – no vibration at all could be caused no matter what rpm and airspeed I used.  A couple of more flights tweaking the setting ended up with both blades about 1-1.5° more than the least pitch angled one had been, which is about 0.5-1° less than the higher one, and got a good compromise – good take-off and climb, very slightly quicker than it had been (max power straight and level 115mph IAS @ 5500 rpm, cruise 104 mph IAS @ 5000 rpm, climb at 5400 rpm, static 5200rpm, climb ~1000 fpm) and only a tiny bit of vibration could be found at 3800 rpm ±200 rpm at 100 mph. Overall it was so much better, almost any power setting at any speed was OK, and performance seemed to be better. Happy pilot ! I still want to change the mount rubbers of course, it seems a sensible thing to do.  
Claude Lapoutage (France) & Rans forum.

On my S-6ES 912 UL 80 HP to obtain the best output of the engine, you must have about 5200 RPM full throttle on brakes on the ground, and about 5400 - 5600 RPM when taking off, the blade tip angle should be at about 13,5° degrees. Try first at 14° (Warp-Drive procedures) and then see how many RPM you have on brakes and during the T/Off. Remember the best range of running for the 912UL (Torque and max power) is about 5000 RPM. Do not try to gain few drops of gas in running under 4800 rpm.  You will never fly with the max performances of the engine especially on short grass strips.

[My similar -116 came with a 2 blade ground adjustable Warp Drive prop. I initially measured one blade 1/2 degree out, but no vibrations beforehand. Alternative settings at the tips, which is WD's measuring position to 15 degrees worked well enough, except WOT climb out rpm were only 5,100. Reducing pitch to 14 1/2 deg raised the rpm to 5225 WOT at 75 mph IAS. Though still a shade coarse to achieve the full 80 hp - S & L WOT is 5550 rpm- it's safely under the don't exceed 5,800 rpm, so I'm unlikely to readily over rev her. From many two way GPS readings it's impossible at WOT S&L to ever reach true 120 mph VNE.
There seems to be vibration ( tremors) and VIBRATION ( engine all over the place).The Rotax engines forum search facility can find out more. I had the latter - engine stopped & a forced landing - down on the deck nothing apparent. A year later & after lots of misleading answers (I eventually realised Rotax 912 in Rans never gets icing , so not that) I managed to cure it but never quite certain how. Was it just over rich over many years at part throttle or accumulated soot on the valve stems ? 
Now harder running, 4,800 min. cruise - better nearer 5,000 rpm according to the Rotax forum guru - means it runs well, with better compressions and I could now dare dawdling at 4,200 rpm for 1/2 hr for my Pershore slot arrival time - all without it stumbling. mike]
BTW Several kind folk (via Prrune ) said the jet photo from Pershore was a Typhoon, not a Tornado !
Russell Vicary was also at Pershore in SkyRanger C-DAY with David Nixon - although only 10 minutes away from home base, would have been great to meet up.
Potez 105 hp engine gaskets.(Gary G-CGMH Jodel forum.)
I have recently had some gaskets made for my Potez engine by E. Dobson (Gaskets) Ltd in the UK and they have assigned part numbers to the gaskets so other owners can order. They are:
Exhaust, Dobson part number POTEZ001. I had 10 made for £39 inc VAT and P&P. Fuel pump gaskets, Dobson part number POTEZ002.
Ron Atkinson  Really enjoyed the Lindbergh Movies, don't know Frank Ogden, but sounds he had a lucky escape and nearly got Jackrell's some unwanted publicity.
Perspex (plexiglass) canopy Moulding (Mike Connell, Tasmania, Jodel forum).
This is not as difficult as you might think, although making the moulds and getting them perfect is time consuming. Make the moulds strong, solid timber frames covered with plywood and perfectly smoothed with fibreglass and microballoons. Cover with a smooth material and no wrinkles, I used velvetene. The thing to remember is that any imperfection will show in the finished Perspex as will the weave of the material, velvetene does not show any weave.
Cut the Perspex at least 50mm larger all around and place on a clean piece of plywood. Now for the biggest problem, finding an oven large enough to get the Perspex in. In my case I talked the local pizza shop owner into letting me use his oven after he closed for the night. Heat the Perspex to at least 180deg C and working quickly slide Perspex off the ply onto the mould and pull down onto the male mould. Time and heat is critical so while the Perspex is heating you should also warm the mould (heat gun), so it does not cool too quickly, and have at least 6 pairs of hands wearing cotton gloves to force to shape, extra velvetene is useful here as well. 
I tried this for the first time when I made my canopy and achieved perfect results much to my relief and I must say some surprise.
And from 'Ballmell' Let me add to that and share what worked for me while building my Piel Emeraude. The most important thing for me was having a wooden "ring" in which to fit the plexiglass This ring is the opposite of the outside edges the mould with some to spare. This ring becomes the edge held onto while stretch forming over the mould. (my mould was covered with flannel). To hold the plex to the ring I predrilled quarter inch holes around the rings edges and used a soldering iron to melt holes through the plex and inserted a quarter inch dowels. A little dab of silicon was also added. My oven was given to me by a friend (also a Emeraude builder). Its a simple 5 and a half foot by 3 and a half foot box, open at bottom ,built from two layers of pressed fibreglass insulation that has a thin aluminium foil cover and held together with duct tape. This box fits over a wooden frame with a slight well containing 10 heat lamps. The kind we used to keep baby chicks warm with when I was a kid. The 10 heat lamps did not open a 20amp circuit beaker. 235 F is the temp that worked for me.
'CaptEddie'  (Rans S4 USA)  asked what pilots use as storage compartments on their planes?
[ Plenty of Rans blog articles on storage.  I tie a draw string bag up behind my neck so it hangs from the same spot as the harness & does not interfere with controls behind the P1 seat. I have also carried 5 litre 'square' plastic fuel when away to a small field. Then you'll need a small funnel with extension for the tricky under wing refuelling aperture, or balance unsteadily on the wheel and top up the overhead tank - still need a funnel. Other folk have trays under their legs in front. I sewed up side pockets for thin charts etc. and tied them to the lacing. My brother has pockets each side of the floor next to the lower glazing for maps and things. mike].
BTW. I did fly the Coyote for the first time late June. I use a 5000 ft hard surface runway along with a short grass strip. Take off was easy, reached about 100 ft and flew 3/4 of the runway.  Landed and then used the grass strip for a take off. The grass runway seems to have more control on take off and landing.
New readers.

Geoff Emmons Seen at Compton Abbas. Rans S6 with Rotax 912 conversion based at Whittles airfield north of Reading U.K. Also with legal removable fuselage mounted specially converted fuel tanks system. I always wanted to fly & got involved quite late in life. In 1991 one of my sons, Dave also had the bug so we joined the Hampshire microlight club and bought a second hand Pegasus XL flex-wing. After many (often frustrating) weekend trips to Colemore and Bracklesham Bay for training we had our licenses. The XL was followed by a Quasar, in 1997 we bought a G-MZOZ, a Rans S6 ESD kit with Rotax 503, which took about a year to build. With well over 1000 hrs on the Hobs & much modified she is still giving good service. Buying the Rans was a gamble, we had the use of a strip (Englefield), but no hangarage, but had kept the flex-wings, rigging for each flight. The Rans lent itself well to de-rigging and we designed/ built a trailer for 4 miles, home to the field. Rigging this way till 2007 by we two took 20 mins. We have done modifications :-
Upgraded the lift struts, flaps and ailerons to move the weight limit from 390 kgs to 450kgs. Replaced the inconvenient wing tank with two removable 25 litre plastic outboard motor tanks behind the seats. The 503 engine went for a 912 UL with our own small radiator cooling system. A Rans rear baggage hatch. My own electric elevator trim. She is a real pleasure to fly & proved a good choice.
In 2011 I became owner/operator of Whittles farm airstrip in an area of outstanding Natural Beauty, a long battle with the planners yielded permission for three T hangars.

Robert Hughes.
Colin Tulley  We are a syndicate with a Rans S6 Coyote II Rotax 582.
Dominic Connolly  Skyranger G-PAWZ Long Marston
Andrew Hughes  Rans S6 Berkshire UK, has offered help to Alasdair Ross, as he too had the 503 to 582 conversion done on his S6.
Ian Lewis Exeter, completing a new U.K. Rans S4 kit G-CGPZ
The aircraft is in very good shape.  It seems to have been passed from pillar to post a bit and never completed. I'm 58 years and became interested in flying about 8 years ago when I went to a local classic car meet at a grass strip.  I had a look around the aircraft there and after chatting with some of the pilots I realised that flying (which hitherto I thought was beyond my financial restraints) was do-able.  I started off in a Cessna 152 and completed quite a few hours and went solo, but was forced to put things on hold for financial reasons at that time.  I recommenced flying a few years later in Microlights.  I found not only was this more affordable, but also more fun.  Not least because I was able to afford my own aircraft in this category. I eventually achieved my NPPL and have enjoyed flying a variety of Microlights, including Challenger, Shadow, Thruster, C42, Chevvron. I currently own an XAir and have just bought G-CGPZ from Chris Saunders as an unfinished project.  I have no tailwheel experience, but am looking forward to finding and aircraft to learn on and hopefully be in a position to fly PZ when its finished.
Don Lord  I bought Rans S6 G-BWYR in May 2012 with a new permit and new skin covers, it's first flight was Jan 14th 1997, she's had a few owners and 1020 Hrs with the original Rotax 912. I took it to St Omer last year and to LAA Sywell.This year weather permitting I will go to the RSA in July and St. Omer in September. Due to the terrible winter I have only added the 20 Hrs, Swanborough strip was waterlogged from October through to April and three times a river ran down the strip into the hangar and out the back two to three inches deep and then left half inch of wet mud. Must be better this year.
Sprite Aviation's Summer newsletter including the GroppoTrail is available.
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/
Rotax practical owner help    http://www.rotax-owner.com/rotax-forum/index
Rans Aircraft USA site   http://www.rans.com/aircraft/home.html
New UK CAA CAP 413 Radiotelephony Manual
CAA Safety Data - General Aviation Reports June 2013.
Brian Quindt.  Who flew the AirExpo fixed gear Cessna solo across the Atlantic in one go - see June issue - has kindly offered to send notes of his flying experiences. I look forwards to that.
Tony Fowler passed on this:  STOL competition May at Valdez, Alaska.
Frank Knapp achieved a 58 foot take-off and a 54 foot landing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F9EnVah07k0
Rob Turk is selling his Rans S6-116 with six cylinder Jabiru   r.turk@rtist.nl

With pain in my heart I have decided to sell my 2007 Rans S-6S TD with 116 wings. I just do not have enough time to fly her properly. 180h TT.
This Rans is something special.  Just Google for PH-ANR pictures, or email.
* Jabiru 120HP 6-Cyl engine for spectacular climb/cruise
* Whirlwind ground adjustable prop
* Grove Aluminium landing gear
* 8.00-6 main wheels, Matco hydraulic brakes
* Funkwerk Mode-S transponder with ADS-B enabled
* Funkwerk 8.33kHz radio/intercom, ready for the future
* Ack E04 406MHz ELT
* Electric gyro Turn/Bank, Attitude and Compass
* Electric Trim and Flaps
* Electric carb heat
* Xenon taxi/landing light built in cowl
* Insight GEM 610 engine monitor
* Fuel flow, oil pressure, oil temperature, G-meter
* Embedded Win-7 touchscreen computer runs PocketFMS, SkyDemon, LK8000
* Mid-console with combined switches/circuit breakers
* Lowest noise category VIII, 64dB ICAO Chapter 10
* Buyer gets full set of documentation, spares, extra prop etc.
* Included are Lightspeed QFR-SS headsets
Based in The Netherlands (EHLE) Asking EUR48,000 or US$60,000, open to serious offers.
Richard Arkell (France) Jodel Report & Sherwood Ranger re-build
I have finally completed the work on the Jodel required by the inspector to renew the CNRA for another year. Although it has taken a while to get the bits (mainly from the UK) it is well within the 90 days
allowed to complete the snagging list for minor rectification. I have now sent off the photos of the completed work to the inspector which is all that is normally required. Both the oil cooler hoses and the fuel hoses turned out to be more than 20 years old so I could not quibble about having to replace them. Although the 421 series fittings are reusable, I decided to make up completely new sets so I had a back-up if I cocked it up. The fuel lines were Aeroquip 303 in AN6 size. LAS has the special tool required to avoid damaging the hose liner when screwing in the nipple, if you will excuse my French. The outer collars are  screwed anti clockwise on the ends of the hose previously cut square using a thin stainless blade on an angle grinder. The tapered nipple with it's captive nut is than screwed clockwise into the tube end using the special tool just enough to leave the captive nut free to rotate. This requires a considerable amount of effort and lubrication but worked out OK for the two fuel hoses. I could not get the tool to do the larger size AN8 oil pipes so sent the hose, cut to the right length with new fittings, off to my local highly-qualified aero mechanic. After the usual considerable delay they came back looking fine. Fine, that is, until just before I installed them, I held them up to the light and looked through them telescope-wise. There was damage to the liner showing on three of the four ends with bits of semi-detached liner intruding into the bore. It just goes to show that if you can possibly do something yourself it is usually better to do so. Quite why such a high spec but time-expiring hose is used with its difficult fittings is hard to understand when simple push-on fittings work perfectly well in most applications. If you need to use fancy fittings and hose, the modern AN fittings aimed at the competition car market do not need special tools and the Teflon-lined hose has a much longer life. An outfit called 'Torques' do a good range of such hose and fittings on E-Bay.


The Sherwood is coming on. I have briefly run the Jabiru 2200A just enough to verify it is mechanically intact. It had to be brief as nothing much in the instrument department is on line yet. Still the fact that it ran, eventually after fiddling, on 4 cylinders, was encouraging. As usual, I had spent a good deal of time investigating the cure for a problem it turned out I didn't actually have. There were some indications that the C of G of the Sherwood migrates too far forward when fitted with the Jabiru. TLAC, the kit manufacturers confirmed that they had applied for approval to extend the permissible range forward which gave some credence to the on line discussion group suggestion. This rather spooked me in view of my experience with the Jodel which still has a C of G right on the forward limit one up. My feeling of disquiet was aggravated by some strange wording I unearthed on the original official PFA docs describing the position of the C of G of the aircraft at basic weight as " - (minus sign) 2.66 inches aft of the datum". In the Sherwood's case all minus arms are in front of the datum so the above expression of the C of G position was, to my mind, contradictory. I put this to TLAC who confirmed that the aircraft would normally have a C of G in front of the datum at basic weight.  Only then did I have the common sense to wheel out G-HVAN, unfold her wings and get out the weighing kit. As she stands with some bits still to be installed, her C of G turned out to be just about on the datum, probably thanks to the rather solid non-standard Maule-type tailwheel assembly and the early-type Jabiru 2200A which is reputed to be rather lighter than later versions. By the time I have the new-style cowling and front fuel tank are fitted I am now hopeful that the balance of the aircraft and my mind will be restored.
The DGAC at Poitiers proved very helpful when Julia popped in to find out what they would need before they would consider French registration. It turned out that, as yet, there is no French registered Jabiru powered Sherwood example in France which makes things a bit more complicated. Fortunately there is a Sherwood agent in France and the lady at the DGAC without prompting rang him up to get the ball rolling. Such a pragmatic approach is highly unusual with French officials but it turned out that  she doubles as an air traffic controller at Poitiers. As there are only two commercial flights a day she does the admin the rest of the time. "
Ulrich Klausing's Midsummer Fly In (Canada).
I am flying the Super Cub - after a couple of circuits checkout with instructor for the Insurance I loaded Horst in the rear seat and we cruised around for some hours. Next Jeremiah, my partner with the plane. Last weekend I flew it up to Dawson City to Dan Reynolds Midsummer Fly In, where I had been with Horst and his Aeronca 2 years ago. Had in mind to do it in the Rans S4, but with the windy conditions we have here this season I felt safer in the Cub. Even so I got very nervous the closer the date approached. I didn't know if I could make it with the 36 gal fuel our Cub can carry. Dan said it shouldn't be a problem, he did it with his Cub always without extra Fuel, I just should take a 5 gal jerrycan with me, so I did. Got everything ready the night before - Nav Canada Weather showed Thunderstorms all over the place for the Dawson Area . I wasn't sure if I should go, but kept moving towards a go, packed sandwiches and made salad for the BBQ. At 4.30 pm I finally got strapped in the and after a reassuring 'phone call to Dan in Dawson I took off. I made it to Pelly on the right tank ,that was already 2/3 of the whole 264 st.miles. The weather was real nice and I had a good tailwind which turned my ASI 80 mph into a 95 ground-speed. 15 minutes into the flight it was getting clear that Nav Canada did a pretty good forecast, to the right of track it looked black as black can be all along the Horizon. At Mc Questen, the last landing strip before I almost gave up thinking it would be better to land and wait, but got no cellphone reception. So I re-evaluated & kept away from the already soaked highway and followed a direct course along a ridge, I would have been in trouble in case of an engine out, but the motor ran strong and smooth. The last minutes en route I got rain so I went back to the Highway to be able to land right away & was pretty sure I could see the sunshine on the other side. Just before I got to Dan's place I broke out of the rain and landed in a beautiful sunshine on a wet airstrip. Dawson City airport would have been only 12 miles away, I went there the next day to buy fuel for the flight home. On the return trip I had company with Bernd in his Avid Flyer. We both made it without adding any more fuel after Dawson & I had the engine running for 4,5 hrs and still had one tank showing half full, so I am happy with the ~6.5 gal/hr fuel burn of the Cub . Probably I'll  have a video from flying with Horst  to put it on U-Tube. The S4 is off skis & back on tires, but haven't it flown since Easter.
Ulrich sent many photo's, here's a few.

Midnight Sun

Dawson City Airport

Rugged Country

Mike.
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