Planechaser

JohnAvgas for 99% of the time. I have topped up with 40 litres of BP Ultimate on three occassions just to ensure a no diversion home run with reserve. 2900 rpm gives me 21 L/hr and nice cool EGTs.

 

Alan

Most of the dirt bike fellas that I talk to say steer clear of Shell 98( Vortex?) as it is the worst, and BP Ultimate is the best. All the rest are in between.

Motorbikes seem to be the best judge of fuel quality, I guess because of the power to weight ratio. If the fuel is bad, you really know about it!

Wig Wag lights seem to be a great help in making planes more visible. They were initially installed on planes to scare birds away but it is evident that the planes themselves are more visible to other pilots.Here's an example on youtube:

 

Thats great Phil, I hope you enjoy building your project. Remember a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I've been told by successful builders that the key to success is to try to do something on the project a couple of times a week , every week.What engine do you plan on using, tell me if i remember right , was this aircraft first built with a model 'T' ford engine..?

best of luck with your build

 

JimG

Interesting stuff:

Model A Model T

H.P. 40 20

Capacity 3.3Lt 2.9Lt

Couldn't find bare engine weight.

Looking for livestock from the air poses the same problems; If the engine noise doesn't get them moving, they can be all but invisible, and sometimes you will find that you have flown over quite large mobs two or three times(or hours!!) before their nerve breake and they move, or you get lucky and spot them from a different angle.

Doing passes at different hights helps, but is hardly applicable to object avoidence in general flying.

Head on a swivel however, is, because you are always moving in relation to the object, even if it isn't, so every time you look over the spot where the invisible sheep( or plane!) is hiding, the angle is different.

Interestingly, the scan-and-stop-and-scan-again thing is also the most efective way to serch for something through binoculars. Must be something in the way our eyes interface with our brains.

Engine #1039 - 35o hours to date. Good stable leak downs. Always cruised at 2900 rpm.Funny how Jabiru attracts the "I've been told" comments when the request was addressed to users.

Alan

The same event can get reported multiple times because everyone knows someone with a Jab, they just can't remember the blokes name!!

I got the feeling that they were much less complicated and easier to work on that the Rotax,( and cheaper?) but the trade off was shock cooling/heating issues with valve gear and head bolts/gaskets.

IF this is the case, in my mind, TBO becomes not so much about service regiems(sp?) as how you treat the engine in flight. Much like our cars and motorbikes used to be.

My flight instructor( "Old" Jack Funnel, for those who knew him) was picky to the point of fanaticism about throttle and mixture control in flight.

He did not mind "poping the rivits" to demonstrate something to you, but I never saw him treat the engine with anything short of full respect and reverance in the 50 hrs I did with him.

Ham fisted with the aircraft he would forgive; ham fisted with the motor was something else entirly!!

Appologies Anthony for taking the topic elswhere.

Well I disagree, but we are all entitled to have an opinion, I rememeber a few years back watching a movie called Deer Hunter in which there were scenes where they were playing Russian Roulette and those guys jumping of mountains in Batman suits are in my view no different to the fool who would play Russian Roulette.As to them knowing the risk I doubt it as you need a brain to be knowing.

As for training who's going to train them the one's who have gone before are all dead.

 

To my way of thinking taking action in doing something and really having no idea if you are going to survive or not is different to an activity which is only inherently dangerous because of human error and has no matter how small a margin for error.

 

What these flying fools have is not a skill it's no frontal lobe to even assess the danger.

 

I'm not talking about parachuting off a mountain I'm talking about diving off a mountain and attempting guide yourself like a missile almost to the ground.

 

Being an adrenalin feak and having a death wish are completely different, in my view.

 

In what they do, the Batmen, the control they have over their destiny is miniscule only unlike all those other activities you referred to in your post, those thrill seekers are people who generally just get good old fashion enjoyment from what they do and for the best part they have complete and absolute control over their activity.

 

It would be a boring old world if no one took risks but blatant disregard to their safety when the outcome is enevitable is certifiable.

 

That is, at least, my opinion in the matter.

The majority, I would think.

Don't know what to be more interested in this weekend, The Diamond Demo flight in a DA42 from Alice to Sydney running on JetA1 that got 18L/Hr per engine, or the students that are developing an electric plane based on a Cessna 162.

I know the Diamond pilot would have been nursing it, but 36L/Hr over that distance is impressive in anyones language for a plane that size.

However, a 450kg MTOW, 80 horsepower electric plane with a two hour range, and scope for four hours range with in the LSA MTOW rules is quite a development.

Now they just have to get it off the page and into the sky!!

But isn't the A22L's MTOW (legally) only 450kg, whereas the LS is up to 600kg?

The L apparently has an airframe rating of 510kgs, and the LS of 650kgs. Of course this would not make them legaly loaded as far as CASA/Ra-Aus is concerned, so insurance is out the window, and even if something wasn't you fault, it will be. (Like drunk driving)

I have a Foxbat A22 ,have done about 600 Hr on it .It is better than all you have herd .It can fly slow ,it can fly fast(for a LSA fast enough) the doors can cume off for photo shooting .Short take off and landing,lands on the beach.

Has ampel room for 2 big people

The only real reason you would go for the LS is the heavier undercarage.

If you had no need of that then the L would be fine, (and $10k cheaper new, and available second hand!!).

Well, the jury is back; flew to Jamestown and back today for some pump parts. Let the ponys run at 5200 RPM all the way there and back.

Used 24.4 Lt/h. Yikes!!

Flying at my usual 4800/4920 around the place, I use 19Lt/h. No wondere it's called economy cruise!!

5Lt/h doesn't sound like much, but when you are doing 35hrs a month it starts to add up. I don't know if it's worth the extra 6 kts........

Bones,

128NM @ 5100RPM

So going on that, I'm probably right where I need to be with my prop, torque-wise.

Quick buzz around the waters this morning with a pax, flat stick at 5160 RPM and 95 kts on the straight.

Probably means 97 kts solo; plenty for me.( Plane suffering from bug factor at the moment also!!) My fault for pussy footing around at 4800/4920 RPM!!

The RPM figures look a little strange because I have MGL digital instruments and the RPM goes in jumps of 120RPM, for reasone unknown to me.

This means that 5160 could be 5200 I am guessing, because it won't read 5280 untill it gets the high side of 5220.

That sentence looks confusing, but I'm sure it makes sence!!

BTW, MGL instruments are the Ducks nuts, IMHO.

http://www.rotaxservice.com/rotax_engines/rotax_912ULSs.htm

Planechaser,Are you saying you Foxbat in straight and level wont rev past 4900rpm?

 

I am asking this because if it is such the case you need to re adjust your pitch on the prop.

 

If you think it climbs good at 4900 rpm try 5500, the 912 can run all day at 5500 rpm. (5800 max for 3 mins)

 

If your only getting 4900 out of it your not working the engine hard enough, 912's thrive on revs not on loafing along.

 

Overall an excellent aircraft, my mate has an LS also an it is a hoot to fly

 

Cheers

 

Alf

It will rev out to 5240, which is better, but still not 5500. I would be happy with 5400 in straight and level.

I just need to get onto Silverwing and get the prop pitch range so I am not stumbling around in the dark, and then twist it around a bit.

I usually cruse around 4900- 5000 rpm, mainly because it uses around 20lph at that power setting and it makes the sums easy!

Another very good read is Halfway to Heaven by Fred Hoinville. My copy is well worn!

Boriak sets the nose on a vertical upline. I float in the cockpit as he slams the stick to the right and we begin twisting up through the sky. As the plane teeters on the edge of a stall, Boriak taps us over into a dive and we are screaming earthward again. Twenty-one thousand feet per minute. Straight down.

After reading this, I have decided that the world's most dangerous sport just isn't for me.

Perhaps I am missing a vital piece upstairs...........

One thing about building something from scratch, it's like your kids, you just have to love it, because it's yours!

I find the same thing with doing all the maintenance. The more I do, the more I get to know it inside out, the more I forgive the short commings and play to the strengths.

Human and rational in the same sentence is an oxymoron!! Well, men and rational, when it comes to machinery.

If you enjoy being an idiot, and someone( ahem, Redbull!) will pay you to do it, more power to you I guess; Just don't bust up anyone else in the process of meeting your maker!

Uses cheaper ,less flammable fuel.Last I checked Kero was $1.75 by the drum. I guess Jet A1 would be a bit cheaper because it isn't as clean, but would it be cheaper that PULP?

 

Just another downside by the looks..... oh well.

 

The batmobile is on the backburner again.

Does anyone know anything more about the 701 on youtube powered by a Garrett JFS 100-13A turobshaft engine.

That puts the E back in Experimental, or perhaps the mental!!

Don't know the benifits over a conventional engine but what a sound!

Is it bad that I have devoured my download watching those two clips??!! Can not get enough.

My 4 year old girl is calling herself "BatCat"(!), sticking her arms out, and flying around the room trying to 'Hit balloons"!! Looks like the bug has bitten her early.......

The second link is the Table Mountain hit. Hard to see but after the other footage you get the idea.

Apparently, he stuck his feet, spun out about 30 meters, got himself right(!!), depolyed his shute and was lifted out with multiple leg fractures. What else can you say??

Hi eighty

I did a lot of comparisons on and off line and quite a bit of agonising before I settled on the Foxbat.

It all started out when I discovered the Zenith 701 and thought how much better( and cheaper!) it would be compared with the 172's I had been using for mustering/spotting. The natural progression( for me anyway:smile:) was to a Savvy, and then I discovered the Foxbat. It was always between these two, and it came down to the factory build and visibility of the Foxbat. I also talked to people who do what I wanted to do with them who owned both.

If I was building myself, it would be the Sav.

I know you are going to say that the Sav's are factory built now too, and that is true, but I would have to give a factory built one a real going over because the finish on the Foxbat is absolutly top notch, IMHO.

If I was going second hand, even with out the visibility thing, I would probably lean towards the Foxy, but to be fair I would need to spend some time in a Sav before I wrote them off.

A good test is to see how quiet the Foxbat forum is; no problems to solve and nothing to whinge about!!

Now watch the Sav owners tear strips off me...

Spot on pylon500. Every time I take someone up in the Foxy, there first coment is always " wow, you can see everything up here!" usually followed by the propensity to lean to the center or grab the straps when I do the first turn, cause they think they are going to fall out the door!!

For arial spotting, mustering and photography, it is trully had to beat.

As a trainer, I am guessing it is the combination of being very responsive( a bloke training on Jab's reconed if he sneezed it would turn on the spot!) and at the same time rock solid and forgiving.

I just need to crank my Warp Drives around a bit now. I have wicked take off performance, well more than I need now, but she is maxed out at 87kts @ 4900 rpm, which is my ecomomy cruise. It will do 92 when it's washed, waxed, no mud, no dust, just serviced, but alas, that only happend once every 50hrs!!

I recon if you do it on your own time, in your own plane, go for it.

If you tangle unwilling people up in it, that is another thing all together....

That's right. I know it goes against the grain, but thems CASA's rules.

 

As I said, that is the requirement of ONE manufacturer. If you use one of its engines, then you either keep separate logs of engine and flight hours, OR you run your airframe out of hours quicker than is allowed. I would suggest that you specify in the airplane's service procedures which record is to take precedence for servicing.

 

OME

I run air time for the air frame, and engine hours for the donk. Sounds like a pain, but over the life of the engine it adds up. Do you run your air frame out a bit early, or run your oil a bit too long?

I prefer nether.

The Rotax 912 manuals specifically prohibit using any sort of airswitch hours as the basis for maintenance. Servicing has to be done based on engine run hours (start to stop)Cheers

 

John

That's just one engine manufacturer. Jabiru, Lycoming and Continental don't prohibit it.OME

I can't think of any engine maintenance I've had anything to do with, from small petrols to large diesels and all in between, that has been based on anything but actual engine hours. Hobbs meter, rattle clock, timer on the injector line, whatever. Even vehicle maintenance based on km's is only a rough guide. Motorbikes, the real workhorses, have hourmeters on them for best practice maintenance.

When it comes to oil, start to stop is all that matters in my book!

HI Planechaser,Do you have a link for that?

Regards Bill

http://www.conairsports.co.uk/downloads/912%20maintenance%20article%20-%20inc%20carb%20bal.pdf

I found this helpfull on a number of things. Oil trapped in the cooler and carb balancing explaned simply for a start. It's a PDF so you will need Acrobat.

Cheers,

Hamish