Mike Gearon

My avionics guy just showe me these. He picks up unknown aircraft regularly and has quite an emergency package with water etc and this very small extinguisher. PRODUCT INFORMATION The Ultra-Compact Fire Extinguisher doesn't consume oxygen but chemically bonds potassium radicals to the oxygen molecules which interrupts the chain of combustion and prohibits the oxygen from being a combustible fuel. So the extinguisher can be used in enclosed spaces such as the inside of a car without the fear of suffocating occupants. Since the unit discharges with zero thrust it will not spread oil and liquid fires under the hood, in the kitchen, shop, or anywhere else. It measures 10 1/2 inches in length, extinguishes for 50 seconds, and can be aimed and held with one hand, distancing the user from danger. The gas cloud is heavier than air so it settles on the flames, deterring propagation. The Ultra-Compact Fire Extinguisher is easy to mount or store under your seat... Get one for every car you own, your garage, and your home.

I had my first prop stop a week or so ago. Caused by a combination of factors. Took off from a towered airport with Phoenix airspace nearby. First problem. After take off I couldn’t hear controller. Something had happened to volume. Wasn’t my Bose A20>…. As I was cleared for an easterly departure I turned east. No nav screens in aircraft so I was relying on iPad. No aircraft displayed on the iPad. Had no idea what airspace I was in. Finally figured that ForeFlight open in both iPad and iPhone gives priority to one only. Avplan in Australia I’d not experienced this. Turned off the iphone. Found my aircraft in what a glance said was Phoenix airspace. I took a screen shot as you see so I’d have evidence of exactly what happened. I worried all the way to Moriarty about the “phone call” until later realising I wasn’t in their space…screenshots… good! These two things, missing tower call and navigation problem rattled me. Recovered and full tanks of fuel for a 3 hour flight with tail wind to New Mexico and ground speed of some 125kn. . Left tank only with rotax line return to left tank and my side of aircraft so get the weight sorted. Turned tanks at 30 minute intervals as recommended. Next problem… late departure due to getting wings on aircraft (inexperience) meant a really rough ride and speed drops down as low as 70kn and dust devils to avoid and light rain following behind and I missed tank change. Ended up pumping fuel out of the left tank. Prop stopped over some pretty nasty ground west of Albuquerque. I must have spent a full 5 seconds pushing the throttle backward and forward looking for rpm change. Too long in my opinion now… anyway, turned off right tank and on left tank. About 20 seconds later I had power. To leave right on would just suck air. Pipistrel,forum mentioned this and I knew it. Then, to make sure the problem wasn’t elsewhere and I’d need an emergency landing I repeated. Prop,stopped and 20 seconds later I’m confirmed with problem and a full left tank to proceed. I’d had a buyer reject the aircraft and was ferrying to Robert Mudd in New Mexico as one of the recognised experts to give the aircraft a thorough going over. 7 year old rotax 912 with some 200 hours and due for rubber was on my mind! Should I have turned the fuel tank off and repeat? Well, the fuel levels through fibreglass windows are notoriously difficult to read. I’d been flying rolled to one side then the other to try to see fuel move. I was fairly certain left was full and right empty but wanted it confirmed or I’d divert and land. I was relaxed enough to get a nice picture of camelback on the way out. 🙂

That’s a bit confronting… I’m in Nebraska now. 45 sec and 15 sec before crash warning to lower nose! I’m checking with my CFI if he knows more.

I’m in South Dakota boating when I want to be flying. Missing it! Realise how bloody lucky I am to be able to,wheel,an aircraft out most days and only slow downs are engine warm up and deciding the cape barren geese take off direction or lack of interest in taking off. They’ve become very complacent about the very big noisy bird and mostly ignore it. Made me go back over rec flier yesterday and “tell us about your last flight” …. Then for some reason I thought of your comment amd bass strait winds. It’s not just a BRS deploy is it! . It’s what the hell happens to that chute when the aircraft is on the water with a high wind! I suspect it’d get laid in the water pretty quick. Hopefully none of us ever have to find out.

Last build day before I fly to USA today. Nic and I have an ambitious plan to build the horizontal stabiliser. I prepped on my own last night and it was a lonely old business for 3 hours getting all the bits sorted and appropriate areas (metal to metal) primed. Very used to working with Nic and we make a good team. The bastard won’t come to OSH KOSH though. 😀 He’s flown remote worldwide locations for 20 years and I do get it. Retirement can’t involve international travel. This year! 2023 might be a new story. Handy tips so far. 1. Have an experienced builder visit. I picked Rob up in the Nynja and we flew with some pretty awful crosswinds. Some 10kn beyind Nynja max and speed sorted it nicely. Couldn’t plan a calm day visit because of the USA coming trip. Pic below. Rob and Nic inspecting the vertical stabiliser. Rob was great value and I think it was mutual and he returned with renewed enthusiasm. That’s definitely a lot of what this is all about. We have an Australian, New Zealand and worldwide community of fellow builders. We can build, fly and visit as time goes on. Remote bush locations including our French Island runways easily sorted in the S21. 2. A3 folders. Rans has text, parts and figures. Parts and figures way better in A3. Rhythm is read the text, open parts and tick off each item, follow text, parts and figures along with a good dose of YouTube. Clear direct is our favourite and combined with a few other builders for occasional detail. 3. Have all the tools. Edge former, fluting tool, reamer etc. There are a lot! Impossible to move forward without them. 4. Buckets for the rivets. Clearly mark the rivet containers and rivet discipline. A rivet can’t be left on the table. It’s in or in the correct bucket. 5. Inspection. We thoroughly inspect completed work. Found one proud rivet on vert stab and redid. 6. You have to assemble and drill a number of times then disassemble and deburr. Nobody likes rework. It’s just how it goes. Payoff on completion and it looks exactly right.

I fly most days and the last 3 weeks I’ve had 1 aircraft a week near my altitude opposite direction. Flying a few days back and I didn’t bother setting up ADSB in because “nobody else would be flying in this stuff” I was departing airfield and heard an Inbound radio call called ten miles out inbound. Nothing else! I requested more information again nothing and decided there are 360 degrees to come in from! What are the chances? Later…..very surprised to see the inbound aircraft off my 3 o’clock same altitude and not that far away. Lesson………. Always plug in the ADSB in regardless of weather conditions. Also, there are plenty of aircraft without transponders or they aren’t turned on. Constant lookout. Off to USA in a few days and flying the next 2 months. GA, Uktralights, Gliders and float planes. IFR training and OSH Kosh. Flying GA in USA and all are seen on ADSB in and 10,000ft is just another altitude and not a limit. It’s very nice to see cloud ahead and get up on top of the turbulence without that annoying limit. Airports almost always have ATIS, runway lighting, and an airport car. Just go out and pull the visor down and keys in hand. It might be a rusted out pile of crap and that doesn’t matter. Return with a full tank.

We have nearly all the tools now. Shipped from Aircraft Spruce and Henchman. Nic and I hope to have the rudder, vertical and horizontal stabiliser finished this week. Nic will work on the wings and fueselage while I’m in USA. Really enjoying the process and I understand serial builders now. I guess having a well sorted kit helps. We are’nt battling crappy instructions, missing bits and/ or holes in the wrong spots. Time off build tomorrow flying to Tyabb for the final tools from USA. Example today was the fluting tool. I never even knew what a fluting tool was until lunchtime today. Nic in the Where’s Wally beanie was the best fluter. Nice touch on just the right amount of crimping to have straight/ flat parts. Daughter 1 yesterday at Coldstream where I picked her up. First flight in the Pipistrel and unimpressed with cockpit space. She’s 6ft and I think the S21 will be more her style.

In USA it isn’t buffet. It’s full on stall and the nose can’t be kept up for both power on and power off stalls. Usually you’ll try to balance with rudders but likely a left wing dip as the nose drops.

Hey Onetrack. I’ve shared your runway build insights with Nic. All that knowledge is very valuable. Note….I can’t make the clip play upside down. Tried chrome and safari.

Are’nt stalls taught in Australia? Big part of training in USA and checkride includes stall recovery from both power on and power off stall with minimum height loss.

This at least looks fast….😀😀😀 Monday/ tomorrow morning we finish the rudder. Nic had to go home for weekend. Happy wife, happy life. Hoping rudder is straight and nice as first finished part. IMG_0579.MOV

I guess I’ll put a bit of current stuff with the progress to now. Yesterday we were removing a tree where the hangar is going for Kit build. We will build in my shed until the hangar is complete then move. Chain sawing trees down is definitely more risky than flying! Biggest risk is the widow maker branch above your head. Later we put the bucket above chain saw operator to both protect the saw operator from a stray branch and no chance of the tree coming that way. Almost boringly safe! On the topic of exciting moments flying to Maryborough to meet the UL520t Australian dealer Les. You can see VFR corridor. I’ve blanked the other aircrafts altitude because it may or may not have been way closer to me than he should and obviously on wrong side of corridor. Move to right of corridor for oncoming aircraft. It says so on the map! 1500ft southbound, 2500ft northbound as I was. I moved left because of that aircraft being off to wrong side and in the wrong place. ATSB in and avplan always on. monitoring Center and they didn’t call eithe of us so it must have been okay…. We have ordered the 520t. 40% deposit 41,500 euro. Les is great to deal with. Either order or fly into Maryborough as I did and he can take you through the history of UL engines. Les has represented them for 14 years. One of their oldest dealers. As Les mentioned you can go through the history of the engines via the service bulletins. With a history as inventor I definitely don’t want to be an early adopter. Great to see history. https://ulpower.com/en/engines/service-bulletins The turbo is a recent development. It is also a very conservative addition. Horsepower kept down to 220hp at 2700rpm. The engines normally run out to 3300rpm. It is more normaliser than turbo. It has certainty in being a well established turbo. We run standard 2700rpm prop in place of a prop especially made for 3300rpm garrett link here. https://www.garrettmotion.com/racing-and-performance/performance-turbos/ DBAE4325-4D25-4FEB-802E-738D0B56AC22.MOV

Pickup of the frame kit from Tooradin. Very lucky to get the back on the barge to French Island with a blown engine and the barge limped in on last run until repaired. Visiting another S21 builder. Big assist on how to unpack and plenty of build tips. Fabricating a flat table. We’d like to have thick MDF but no barge so cement sheet has to do. It’s within .5 degree and we use 100x50 aluminium and shims for final critical levelling of parts. Rudder underway and we were waiting on clecos then waiting on 3.3mm drill bits. Flew today in some pretty blustery conditions to Tyabb. Yesterday battled the fog. Ended up having to go to Port Phillip bay then come back around the coast under the cloud into western port bay to Tooradin. Quite a detour. IFR would have been a quick trip in. Rudder finish tomorrow morning and hopefully it’s perfect and we don’t start with a reorder and repeat! Not keen on going to USA with the kit build going on but family and other commitments in USA.

OSH Kosh 2021. Flying in with an army Blackhawk instructor pilot was awesome. “Rock your wings” from controller then we were one of the every 8-10 seconds landing at the busiest airport in the world. I plan to fly in Osh Kosh 2022. Maybe! Wouldn’t think about it without having experienced it. “Land on the orange circle” 30 page notam to learn! Rudder build with the super helpful nice guy Eddie from Rans. Flying home to Nebraska with my CFI in a Cherokee. IFR the last few hours was awesome experience.

CASA have a pretty straight forward pamphlet. https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-05/radio-procedures-in-non-controlled-airspace.pdf I’ve just reviewed 166. Definitely worth a refresh. As usual hangar talk has conflicting information on CTAF calls. This is interesting…."Could” is very different from a direct request in regard to other aircraft. I have this over western port pay on a fairly regular basis where I could reduce altitude to increase separation or hope the higher aircraft will increase altitude. I’ll use the magic word “could” where “please” is as below open to liability! Who knew! 11.8 Under no circumstances should a pilot attempt to direct other traffic. Direction of air traffic (as opposed to alerting, requesting or advising) is an ATC function and should not be performed by pilots in flight or on the ground. Pilots who seek to direct other pilots as a pseudo-air traffic controller, either innocently or to obtain expedited traffic movement, are acting beyond common courtesy and are potentially operating outside the law. Such actions may expose pilots to liability if their direction results in an accident. Example of appropriate request or advice: ”Alfa Bravo Charlie, could you maintain five thousand? We will maintain six thousand until we have passed you.”

I don’t know if anyone saw the Grand Designs episode 12 Season 7. Barge house. Google play or iTunes. Link here to google play. Also regularly cycles on Foxtel and sometimes on ABC/ BBC. Europe as well. I get interested contacts from Europe time to time. The heading of this build blog provides a bit of Grand Designs expected finish date and budget to potentially blow through. I’m a great admirer of Mark Kyle’s build blogs. Tells it how it is. I’ll do this joint blog while respecting Nic my fellow builder and fellow French island land/ runway owners right to not look stupid in public. That train left the station a long time ago for me. I balance it with occasional bright moments. Nic is exceptional. Incredible momentum that built his international business over the last few decades. I see that momentum can be directed at the build while we still try and enjoy the process at a steady safe pace. I’m in USA June and July and we haven’t decided if Nic wants to build while I’m away. I don’t mind if so. Nic and I met some 6 months ago. I’d just returned from the usual USA yearly trip and he’d just moved to French island. We are both recently retired and not very good at being retired. The build is a great plan to keep us both just busy enough to enjoy life. At least that’s the current plan. I’ll bring us up to date with pics from the last 12 months that get us to today. I’ll then update today based on Nic flying to Tyabb for tools that arrived at his factory. I fly to Tooradin to get the clecos I left in the car. This afternoon we hope to complete the rudder. The rudder gets you going for the rest of the build or you reorder because you stuffed it up. I saw a reorder while at OSH Kosh in 2021 so we’ll aware. I also saw 3 rudders being built at OSH Kosh. We will see how it goes today when the fog clears and we can fly. Pic now of the fog. Pic and videos from the meet up at Rans factory Kansas mid 2021. Only a few hours drive south of the Nebraska home we just sold so easy trip. pic. Shelly and I in her office. She is Wonder Woman! Very patient and juggles an awful lot. Pic; Randy in the factory. Interviewing potential welders. I did a trial weld and didn’t pass muster. No job for me. Video; . Randy in the aircraft. I’d like to fly 25% as well. Randy makes it effortless. Landing at Rans runway 30 degrees to the “crooked runway” as he termed it and we just straightened up and tail wheel perfect landing. As a newly endorsed tailwheel pilot I saw the skill! Fog today…..I suggested I meet oldest daughter to fly today when fog clears. She won’t. Friday 13th! . I certainly won’t push it because we lost mum recently. I’ll fly and told my girls I’ll wear my luck pants so it’ll be okay. Response…that’ll be included in the eulogy 😀 CBBE2ACF-BFD1-4A7C-8DA9-63EE43DFA0AC.MOV

Still leaves me curious what Rotax rebuilders are finding on engine pull downs that makes some favor 100ll over mogas. My reading says without decalin additive 100ll is going to cause valve seat problems, sludge in oil and possibly detonation. Detonation obviously being a major problem. Decalin converts the lead, why one wonders do some LAME recommend 100LL in a rotax 912 and why isn’t decalin recommended as an additive if so. What experiences are they having that informs this recommendation? Roger Lee again responding to a question on decalin and Rotax response. I think I’ll just make Roger my Rotax guru and leave it at that seeing as he always has his hands on these engines insides. It isn't approved in writing. I classes and verbally they say okay. It's the Austrian's that would have to take it to task and run hundreds if not a thousand hours of test before they would put it in writing. It isn't a priority for them. In the US and other parts of the world real life experience has shown and proved Decalin isn't an issue and works to help scavenge lead deposits. Decalin like TCP is absolutely not a cure all for lead deposits. It only reduces the lead build up. Without these scavengers lead would build up worse than with their use. Anyone that has torn into a Rotax engine using leaded fuel can see the deposits instantly. If it cured all the lead problems then many GA aircraft using these products wouldn't have lead issues and owners like us wouldn't have to have 25 hr. oil changes because the scavengers would have completely removed the lead, but we all know that isn't the case. Decalin and TCP only reduce lead build up and by changing the lead additive TEL from an oxide to a phosphate. Cut and paste: "What is TCP Fuel Treatment and what does it do? TCP stands for tricresyl phosphate which is an effective tetraethyl lead (TEL) scavenger. During the combustion process, TCP chemically converts the TEL to lead phosphate, which is less conductive, thereby reducing spark plug fouling. TCP use does not impact the power provided by leaded fuel."

Okay 5200rpm seems to be the sweet spot for cruise based on what I’ve been reading and below and maybe mentioned by one or two pilots here. Bold at bottom via Roger Lee the most definitive. 5200 combining fuel economy with engine at favourable RPM for longevity. Rotax bulletin. https://legacy.rotaxowner.com/si_tb_info/serviceletter/sl-912-016.pdf Rotax bulletin 3.1.2 No WOT continuous below 5200 RPM and that’s what your ear/ feel is telling you when it labours down at 5000rpm WOT I was trying some 5000 RPM low MAP with consideration to fuel economy yesterday. Had my own personal runway rain cloud for landing so didn’t get a lot of time to play around. Pics yesterday below. Flying to commute so have to cop cross winds and rain within reason. Seems to be fairly dramatic drop in fuel consumption. 130kn 5400 rpm 27 map is some 22lph. Dropping map back to 20 and 110kn around 12 lph… I’ll test this more. Seems too big a drop in lph. 390nm trip and get there in 3 hours/ 66l or 390nm trip in approx 3 1/2 hours for 36l and save some 60-70 dollars or stretch a trip to avoid a refuel and get there at the same time with less dollars spent. Maybe… This provides a reason to run 5000RPM range lower MAP. However, is it easier on the engine based on Rotax 2000 hour tests? Don’t know. This lifted from Robert Lee in CTflier 2012. The Rotax 912 series engine was not designed to run under 5000 rpm. It was specially designed to run in the mid 5000's. Running in the 4000's will cause excessive vibration (no you can't feel it) to the engine and more heat. The jetting in the carbs is set up to run in the 5000's. Running in the 4000's with 100LL will absolutely cause more leading and faster. If you run a steady diet of 100LL run the engine around 5300-5400 in cruise to help keep the lead blown out. We are not talking about 4000 rpm to land or slow to look at something. That is intermittent. We are talking the most used or sustained throttle position that is important to the engine. Set your WOT to be around 5500-5700 for a ground adjustable prop (closer to 5600 is better). Use a cruise rpm of 5100-5400 rpm. Your Rotax 912 can really run at 5500 rpm all day 24/7 if you wanted. That said I see no reason to run at 5500 24/7 just because it burns more fuel, you don't go that much faster than 5200 or so and there is a little more wear at the higher rpms if it is a 24/7 run. My 2006 CTSW cruises around 135 mph at 5100-5200 depending on the days conditions. The 6 CT's at my field I have set up are about the same and yes they can go faster with more throttle in cruise. (i.e.5500 rpm) Can a CT fly faster at 5700 rpm WOT compared to 5500 rpm, yes. IF you set the prop to get 5700 rpm at your average altitude then it will run better at the higher altitudes because it will be able to get more rpm up high verses too much pitch causing it to bog down some at the higher altitudes due to loss of HP and torque to turn the prop at that particular pitch setting. The rule of thumb is a 3% loss of HP for every 1K ft. This from another forum. I guess I will share a few more tidbits about the Rotax that you won't find in print. In the manual it says to only run 5500-5800 rpm for up to 5 minutes. In truth it could run 5800 all day. It could actually hit 6200 rpm and not cause any damage. The engine probably won't float a valve until around 7000 rpm. Rotax set the 5500-5800 rpm and time limit as a liability safety margin. So now you can see that it was designed for higher rpms and running way down in the 4000's isn't great. That's almost like running a 3 speed manual shift car in 3rd. gear at 15 mph. Not quite that bad, but it makes my point.http://ctflier.com/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif From Roger Lee some 6 years back…. Hi Claus, I see you have a 1680mm (66 inch prop) ground adjustable prop. WOT means Wide Open Throttle. Since you do have a ground adjustable prop you usually want a prop pitch set to get a good overall balance performance. If anyone is over pitched there are ZERO redeeming qualities with over pitching. You lose out on everything. Typically a good rpm be to be setup for for a balanced performance envelope is 5600-5650 rpm at WOT (wide open throttle) at your average altitude in level flight. A prop getting 5200 on take seems a little under pitched and would get upwards of 5800 at WOT in level flight. Nothing really wrong with that. That gives you a good climb prop, but you would lose some speed and fuel economy. In other words you'll have to give it more throttle and rpm to do a decent cruise speed which in turn would eat up more fuel. Most guys are around 4950-5000 rpm at takeoff and that usually puts them in the 5600 range, Adding a little pitch back into the prop will also increase temps a small amount. Probably not much in your case. Your engine really isn't designed to run its life in cruise at 4500-4800 rpm. It is better to be over 5000 for cruise. Most of the guys I know here have there 912iS prop set up to get that 5600-5650 rpm and cruise around 5100-5400 with the average being 5200. Low cruise rpms is also causing you low engine temps.

Started writing the question with map and I changed to WOT. The strong opinions must be coming from somewhere and you’d think it would be the rebuilders who are aware of pilot habits. Mine at 2000 hours is going to be the 5400rpm WOT guy. The other obviously a 5000rpm with a known throttle habit/ setting that’s prob also less than WOT

Can I ask if we have anyone willing to discuss their experience of dozens of Rotax 912 rebuilds that have known operational conditions of… 4900/ 5000 rpm cruise WOT versus 5300-5450 rpm WOT Cross country pilots as one point fo comparison and school aircraft as another to compare equally. Same goes for Avgas versus Mogas. Proof must be in the eyes and measurements of the guys actually doing this. I lean on Robert Lee in USA as the guy doing this for decades. It’s 5400rpm approx cruise and Mogas. Anything else as detrimental. However, seeing as there is conjecture I’d really like to have more data based input.

Enjoying learning how your E Prop testing goes. 3kn is significant. 105 to 108 means efficiency gains for fuel economy even if you don’t need to get somewhere faster or of course when dealing with rough air. Rotax RPM also to be an endless debate at the 5000 range and the 5400RPM. My local Tooradin and Tyabb mob are for the better part firmly in the 5000 26 map camp. I was advised by Michael Coates the ex Pipistrel dealer to run the higher rpm because the rotax is labouring at 5k 26 map. It certainly sounds that way as you adjust the CSU back if all the way from 5800 take off to 5000k after climb out. Also. This guy has huge experience.…. https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/912-914-technical-questions/5405-cruise-rpm-in-912-motor

Thanks. I have thought of this. I see on the forum Mark will start his S21 when current project complete. I wish he was ahead. He’s quite comprehensive and we reviewed his S21 unpack method when doing our own. Helpful! There are I believe 20 plus S21 kits in Australia and at least a few flying. I suspect most of the post activity is taking place on Facebook Rans forums Australia and USA. I’ll look into doing both here and the book. 😀

I was considered a “young one” 12 years ago and sought after for the fire brigade on French Island. Now I’m dads army old and look keenly on the 50 y.o. + newer island residents for the CFA. You’re right though. We bring experience to a project. Move more carefully and thoughtfully with past experience in mind and get it done just as quick and maybe better. Here is an example. Front end loader drops logs onto the frame then as cut they fall into place. Wood frame placed at the garage and then picked up and lifted into the fireplace. Actually feels like I cheated myself out of a job.

I was flying in Alaska with an old bush pilot mid 2022. We headed up a narrow pass and remembering YouTube’s of pilots crashing in the Rockies as they lost ability to climb in mountain passes. I said “we don’t have a choice here do we, can’t turn around” We then did. A steep descending 180 degree turn around in a float plane!

Hey, that’s a great idea! I’ve been flying to the other pilot/ runway on French island every few days. It’s 15 min drive or 2 minutes flying. Of course we fly it! I take off and pretty much same. 50ft up I’m turning toward the east and not even over the bay. Had not occurred to me that this is also setting up EFATO back to a paddock instead of a bay! It will “occur” to me from now on! Nic and I flying today on S21 build errands. I think we will do some slow flying up high as you’ve indicated. See and seen! I always have the little Uavionics on now and iPad or phone open on avplan. Can end up throwing out 3 signals. The aircrafts transponder and iPhone and iPad if I’ve accidentally left avplan open on iPad. I expect to fly to Dubbo next week delivering Nynja to a buyer. Not far from you. Nic will follow and we return in the Blackshape. Well, Nic will take off way later. I’ll prob cruise up at 100kn and Nic is 145-150kn in the tandem Blackshape with retractable gear.