Mike Gearon

Well, it’s over a year since I brought the subject up. I couldn’t be more sure after this time of what should be going on. 1. Agreed on minimal calls. Dangerous to plug up the CTAF with 3 calls. 2. I’m very sure now (was somewhat unsure at times before….) There should be a mandated downwind call. There should be advisory of making final call if an aircraft is at the departure end or nearby taxiing. Mandating a call gives certainty to instructors, students and general aviation pilots that no matter where they visit they will always expect the same call to be made. Base is the useless call. It doesn’t help aircraft joining cross, downwind or base. Base doesn’t help aircraft that are at departure waiting to take off. Final does. When I’m in USA and suitably bored I’ll write a letter to casa for somebody to file away and ignore.

Just the CofA now and VH-8W8 can take to the skies. I was trying to get sorted before leaving for Taiwan and USA next week. Safer option is to go slow on the final checks ad fly when home early August. Main take home is just how slow all the final stuff goes. Building the frame is very satisfying. Avionics, engine install, cowling etc are really time consuming.

I think this is now sorted. It’s much more fun with others. I enjoyed hanging out at Oshkosh with a couple of the rec flier group a few years back.

Hi guys. I have a spare spot for Oshkosh 2025. 4 bedroom house by the lake. Message me if you’re interested. It’s Monday 21st July through to Sunday. We will have a car so car rental and parking taken care of. Cost of the whole house was 10,600 AUD. I’m subsidising because my wife insisted on a more expensive option so 2k Aussie for a great location just north of the show and no travel expenses. 3 other pilots and we are all aircraft builders so have a real passion for flying and building. I’ve done the show a number of times and we plan on a schedule of seminars etc and casual wondering along with the night show. So PM if interested. Note, my wife and I will already be in USA. We will drive up from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Aircraft 2. We have motor and avionics sorted. Tomorrow is taxiiing and going through the avionics on the G3X such as checking radios, magnetometer etc. Big deal to close the boot cowl and limited access to the wiring. So, getting it as right as possible now is essential. whirlwind prop is a drama. I’ll post about that once sorted. We’ve had some failures in S21’s related to the 3/8th bolts. It’s a bit like the Jabiru saga with 3/8th and upgrade to 7/16th. I’ll start with the 3/8ths and expect or hope for an upgrade kit with 7/16th prop lugs and bolts. After boot cowl closed we are onto windscreen, sunroof and engine cowl. That’s it. So… maybe 4-6 weeks to flying subject to paperwork. 5kw wind turbine to follow. Aircraft takes priority over the turbine patent. Pic yesterday front and back and picking up Deb for a trip in the RV6. The cows hardly move for take offs and landings. Have to sort of land between them. Cow poop on the new aircraft will be annoying. But.. when going away such as trips back to USA I realise how damn good it is to have your own runway and just wheel it out and be in the air in a few minutes. Warm up is the slowest part of proceedings.

I prob should have added detail pics and the Sika product. 295UV. I’ve worked with polycarbonate as a mass production manufacturer so very aware of its tempremental nature and the 295 won’t cause crazing/ cracking. Also, there is an aluminum cover plate over the 2 door polycarbonate panels that meet. I’m adding the sika 295UV underneath to both bond and waterproof. . It’s suitable for polycarbonate without crazing. It’s UV resistant. But… in this case it’s also covered by the aluminum strip.

Aircraft 1 First oil change at 15 hours. We can now do the extensive test card work. Would have been today if the wild weather wasn’t a problem. We debate speed at 2650rpm 9500ft. I’m thinking 150 knots. Will report back with actual data/ video. Aircraft 2 Doors mostly done. They are just as painful as everyone says. Really should be a polycarbonate moulded piece. I guess the fact that Rans would have to make left and right tools is why it isn’t done. Getting the center where the 2 pieces meet over the door bow isn’t fun. We know of one lower panel blowing out in flight so I’ve added UHB tape under the polycarbonate where it’s specified to go on top. I’m also going Sika on top before putting on the aluminum strip. It’s not going anywhere! I’ve planned from the start to add the upper flap lever. It’s the only spot on the aircraft I’ve gone off script. The mechanism is exactly copied from Rans so nothing new going on in the ratchet mechanism. It’s proven so why mess with it? The change is just upper mount and reduced range of travel from 90 degree to 45 degree. Ready to go to laser cutter and the 3d printed console with room for iPads, maps etc, iPhone and drink bottles needs a little refining before going out. Advantages. real estate at center of seats is now fully usable. headphone jacks come from the upper cross piece. headphones have a hangar for each. 4 point harness mount points now provided. ‘’It all mounts off the seatbelt rear connect point so not an issue for seat belt security. If anything it’s just a little more forgiving in that the cross piece would bend a little in use. We do hope to never test this.

Nic and I fly the S21 with UL520t in the morning then build. Some beautiful flying weather lately. Build 1 UL520t is giving us some problems. Engine temps aren’t as well behaved as we first thought after getting the prop sorted and higher flying speeds. Starting to run out of options and will buy the louvers as next step. We also have black smoke and engine cutting out on take off. I’ll video next time. Observed 3 separate puffs of black smoke watching Nic on take off going home yesterday. We know we have that hesitation. Something to do with the FADEC deciding to cut ignition and we are around 2400 2450 at this stage of climb out. Will discuss with local distributor then look to support from Herman in Florida and perhaps UL engineers in Europe. My take on this is that the FADEC programmers have some parameter that is being exceeded and they cut the ignition. I do know that Nic feeds the throttle in slowly on take off roll to reduce the chances of this problem. We plan on running laptop in aircraft to assess what the turbo is doing and other things we can’t get through the G3X Build 2 Prop on last night. Nic is nearly through the avionics. We should be at engine cowl, doors, skylight, windscreen and near finish at some stage. Maybe next few months. It goes frustratingly slowly then seems to leap forward.

I didn’t put the pic up. Big day… here.

We worked extra hard to cool the slow aircraft and now we suddenly have it almost cooling too well. Could need cowl flaps! I never thought about stressing the prop with sharp turns. That’s a really good point. I whiz the RV6 around and will now make sure that’s just inertia and not much prop. I’m very familiar with blade stress on moment arms and have a patent lodged last July 2024 with exactly that problem solved for small scale wind turbines. Those little turbines can still throw blades a half a km or more! I’m building the first prototype and I’ll share when it’s on the tower. 5kw with a 5 meter spread of blades. It’s not that small!

Hey, that’s good research! I know in the RV6 I can’t use 2100 to 2300RMP and respect that completely. It’s for good reason they restrict RPM’s. So, any info such as that max .8kgm is helpful. Yes, I think the 3 blade Sensenich carbon fibre is a good option as far as balance and light weight go. Hoping we get a good run and long term reliability.

Aircraft 2 has the engine mounted and avionics are near finished. Nic is a work maniac as I think I’ve mentioned. I have to get down to hangar by 7am or he’s beaten me to it. I take a break at lunchtime and a little siesta then comeback and often Nic is still there and worked through. I don’t think he’ll be back for the more mechanical stuff and he’s a bit over the avionics and just wanting it finished. Still, I appreciate the help and very grateful he’s giving me time. Deb is top left. She’s lost 50lb last 4 months (American so she loses lb’s). Only started flying with me recently and happy to come into Tyabb but not so keen on the island runway landings between trees, birds, cows and the uneven ground. She’s surprised herself by looking forward to the Rans being finished and going on adventures. It’s heaps more comfortable than the RV. The seats are like armchairs in comparison and the big tyres make my runway feel smooth. Those things along with the slower landing speeds will really help her confidence in flying with me. Job today is antennae’s so Nic doesn’t run out of things to do. Then onto wiring the light speed ignition in. After that the big jobs are wings on (we learned from first aircraft… don’t put the wings on early. They are just in the way) then skylight, windscreen, prop and engine cowl. After that it’s flying and trying to keep up with Nic.

There was an airmaster 4 blade on an S21 that broke a crank. It looked like a monster blade assembly. We didn’t want to go the same way just in case. There were a number of circumstances around that crank break such as a very hard landing and some other unusual things went on. I’ve personally been against a CSU based on the RV6 I fly. I could leave it at 2400RPM and it’ll still take off and climb at some 1500fpm then cruise up high at 170kn. Only reason for the CSU in that aircraft I can see is aerobatic or perhaps short runway/ obstacle performance. However, this morning was an eye opener. We were maxed out at 2350rpm on take off and climb then finally levelled out it started to get longer legs and the rpm and speed climbed. So, yeah… maybe a CSU is possible with reference to concerns over the aircraft that had the crank break. That aircraft now runs a 520 non turbo. another “however”… Steve, the Sensenich guy said he’s considering running a smaller dia prop of say 74” against the 79.5” we have and working his magic with taper, twist etc. Sensenich are one of the manufacturers who are willing to work hard at getting it right. He said the Rans S21 is a real challenge with its speed envelope between stall and high speed.

Finally I can report on the S21 with UL520t We have 140kn TAS cruise at 2700rpm 1500ft. We also have stable oil and CHT temps. Game changer was talking to Steve at Sensenich this morning. We moved 2 degrees past the maximum gauge setting of 7. Each gauge is .7 degrees. So, we are at a ten. Static is 2150rpm and as you’ll see in video it’s almost spot on 2700max in the air. About 2300climb out max rpm. So, we’ve gone from a frustrating overrevving overheating 115k aircraft to the aircraft we thought it should be. Up high TAS? Maybe 150kn. Pity the American and Australian UL distributors aren’t more personable. The Australian guy suggested we f&$k off when we first visited. That should have been the red flag we ignored. The American guy is nicer with communication problems. UL Europe and UL Dutch guy in Florida USA are really good so it’s not all difficult people

Build update.