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Hi, I know this is an old thread, but I figured why create a brand new thread to ask very related questions: Question 1: What sort of power would be suitable to fly a 293 comfortably? I have a 50hp Valley Engineering Big Twin (reworked Generac) weighing at 116lbs (53kg) which includes redrive, starter, alternator, exhausts and oil. Would this be sufficient? Duncan

Hi guys, As usual, your replies have been very helpful. Thank you. I plan to use them as hinges for my rudder. David Melby posted details of his setup, and I'm wanting to copy his arrangement. This is the part fixed to the tailstock. The rod-end bearing attaches to the rudder (fastened with a nut plate) and fits between the two angles. I plan to use two of these. Here's what he says about it: "My new rudder hinge. The half of the hinge attached to the tail post is made from 1/8" alum angle, and the other half that is attached to the rudder spar is a rod end bearing. I am using one with a 5/16" dia. shaft, and a 1/4" dia hole. The rod end has a swivelling bearing, which makes a great hinge. The rudder moves without any friction at all. Since the nuts holding the hinges will be hidden, I used self-aligning nut plates. the top hinge has 2 3/16" bolts and the bottom hinge has four. I used #2 stainless screws to hold the nut plates in place." The sizes he mentions aren't set in stone, I think. So, as long as the rod end and nut plate threads match, and the thread is long enough to go through the 15mm thick spar of the rudder and screw completely into the thread of the nut plate, I'll be fine. My initial request for 8mm rod ends was based more on the length of the threaded section than anything else. Sorry for not providing the full details to begin with. Regards, Duncan

I love it... A nut plate is a small plate to which a threaded "nut" is attached. This is fixed (via two screws or small bolts) to the rear (or internal) side of a surface that allows a bolt to be inserted through the front face and screwed into the nut plate bolt.

Hi, I've just about exhausted my ability to track down local suppliers of either rod end bearings (metric or imperial doesn't matter) and matching size/thread nut plates. I only need two of them, but can't seem to find a local supplier. I'm aiming for 8mm rod ends. Anyone know where I can get these? Regards, Duncan

Gentlemen, Your comments have been very helpful. Thank you. It's a pleasure posting questions on this forum. Duncan

Hi, So far, this forum has proved invaluable in sourcing tools, wood and services. Thank you. However, I am now looking for a local supplier of .4mm plywood. I have found supplies of 0.4mm Birch Exterior AB/B 3 ply 1220mmx1220mm plywood from Boatcraft Pacific, but I'm not wild about the price ($124 AUD/sheet) nor about the (AB/B) quality, although my experience of this plywood is (as of now) non-existant - so it might well be fine. At 1200x1200 I would need 36 sheets. That's a lot of money. I'd prefer 2400 x 1200 sheets, and I'd also prefer both better quality and a more competitive price. My hope is to build composite wing skins using Ply/3mm Airex/Ply in a female mold. Other possibilities are: (1) Ply/Airex/Glass (2) Glass/Airex/Glass (in this order of preference) Any advice? Any possible sources? Regards, Duncan

Hi, Thanks for the offer. I joined the local Men's Shed, who have a really impressive wood shop - including thicknesser, various saws, routers, and so on. Plus on-hand technical help to make sure I know how to use the tools. Cheers, Duncan

Excellent tip. Thank you. I'll see what I can find there. Cheers, Duncan

Hi, Position, Position, Position. Gotta love it. Thanks for the heads-up. I've contacted Performance Metals, so I'll see what they can supply. But if I draw a blank there, I'll go measure how much I need and get back to you. Basically, I only need enough for the wing attach fittings and engine mounts on my Flying Flea. Thank you. Regards, Duncan

HI, I've resorted to the collective wisdom on this site twice recently - both with great results. Thank you. I'm now looking for a shop which can cut 2mm 4130 plate based on my DXF files. So far, I've not been able to find any shop which has 2mm 4130. Plenty can cut it, but they can't source the plate itself. Any ideas? Duncan

Thanks mate. That's a great idea. I'll check them out tomorrow. Duncan

Hi, That's an excellent tip. Thank you. Duncan

Hi guys, I'm in Brisbane. I need to thickness some Hoop Pine, and am looking for a local company which can do this for me. The amount of wood is fairly small: 7 pieces of 1200 x 42 x 19 to be planed down to 1200 x 30 x 15 1 piece of 1200 x 42 x 19 to be planed down to 1200 x 32 x 15 2 pieces of 1200 x 42 x 8 to be planed down to 1200 x 30 x 6 Does anyone know where I can get this done locally? Regards, Duncan

Hi guys, I need to get some 2mm 4130 parts cut - waterjet/laser - not particularly fussy. Anyone know of a good (and inexpensive) shop in Brisbane which could do this? Regards, Duncan

Hi, I know this is an old thread, but I'm all for recycling, so here goes. On another forum, one of the guys has just posted this little beauty. It's a bit cartoonish, but the general idea is there. Here's what he said about it: I think he may be on to something... Large rudder and all-flying elevators. Beefy balloon tires. It would handle pretty much like a gyrocopter, only safer since the disk wing is both more compact and less likely to break if it hits a tree branch or something. Two-axis controls. Weight, inertia, and aerodynamic forces will keep the free-moving wing disk aligned properly. All you have to worry about is up and down. It's spin-proof and stall-proof. Can probably do STOL. A twelve foot disk gives us about 120 sq feet of wing area which is plenty for a plane this size. Now here's my favorite bit. Make the wing disk a tube and fabric structure that can fold up like an umbrella. Bundle it into a canvas tube, strap it to the roof of your car and stick a trailer hitch the tail of the fuselage for towing. The way this thing would handle, combined with the way it's built, means you could pull off stuff that would be too dangerous in a conventional plane. Now this thing would never be all that fast, but it would be easy to fly and friendly to newbies.

Hi, I have long had an on-again-off-again love affair with the gyro. Paul Bruty was going to teach me to fly one in exchange for my building and maintaining his website. Then he had his crash, and the deal was off. But the flame still flickers. And the most attractive of ALL they gyros has (for me) always been the Pitbull. It is so elegant - far more so than The LittleWing. Does anyone know if plans for the Pitbull are available? With regards the wings: I spent over a year working on a winged gyro design of my own. The designs are somewhere on my computer, but I have no idea where. I love your proposal. Go for it. Duncan

Site can't be reached? Not sure why...

Hi, In Dan Johnson's interview with the developer at Sun 'n Fun he mentions 120lbs, 100hp. A 126hp motor (close to the same weight) is also under development. They are rally car engine manufacturers. A long and successful history of engine manufacture. This looks like a very competitive package. Duncan

Hi guys, Jokes - is this all? Nothing else? I have to say, the responses to this engine are a bit disappointing to say the least. Duncan

Hi, I received this in the post today - and thought it worth while passing on. ------------------------------------------ 1 Imagine you're flying, on your own, and suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. 3 You're probably having a heart attack, and you have about 10 seconds before you lose consciousness. 4 However, all is not lost. You can help yourself by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously followed by a deep breath. The cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. Repeat this every two seconds without let-up until you can land the plane, or until you feel your heart beating normally again. 5 Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, you can stay conscious long enough to get help. Regards, and safe flying, Duncan

Ha ha. And yet you write with a fine precision of expression. Nuff said... Although an argument can probably be made that our understanding of maths and physics is, in fact, limited. Some very basic premises have been successfully challenged in both of these disciplines in recent years. And if you ask me for a citation, I will have to decline the offer, because I can remember the generalities, but not the specifics. The fact is that grammar (while attempting to describe the moving target of an evolving language) is pretty damn clear for the most part. We're not talking about the bleeding edge of grammatical evolution here... We're talking about the here vs hear, the to vs too, and the they're/there/their's of the world. These are basic building blocks of our language. Things we would expect most English speaking people to know. Duncan

Hi, I have LONG given up even getting irritated by bad spelling/grammar. It is a fact of life that an alarming proportion of folks either don't know how to spell or how to punctuate correctly, or don't care either way. I suspect they just don't know the difference. Homophones seem beyond the scope of most people. And some remarkably intelligent people, too. I used to think this deficit was the sole province of Americans. But not so. Yes, they DO feature prominently in online posts guilty as charged, but Australians do little better. Neither do Britons or New Zealanders, all of whom would cite English as their native tongue. South Africans can (almost) be excused, because English isn't the 1st language of many. But bad spelling/grammar is the ongoing tribulation of those who know better, As an aside, the best English I have ever read online was from the keyboard of Orion (Bill Husa) - a Pole, living in America, till his untimely passing recently. Another master of the written word (and this time with a flair for the dramatic and the colourful) is John McGinnis who combines engineering expertise with a fine and innovative command of the written word. His writing reads like a well crafted novel. Duncan

Thanks. I've emailed him to see if he can help. Cheers, Duncan

Question: What limits the revs an engine runs at? I know the standard Generac comes fitted with a govenor - but how can one tell if it is safe to run the engine at (say) 4000 rpm, or higher? Heat dispersion? Internal engine stresses and strains? I also know the racing types run B&S motors a lot faster than 3600 rpm. I'm an almost complete engine ignoramus, so my apologies in advance for the questions. Duncan