skippydiesel

Don't know about you - I find the use of the word "crime" as in "crime scene" to be inappropriate, even disquieting. This and others like it, are an accident/incident scene/location - at some time in the future, it may be determined that a crime of some sort has been committed, until then this word is completely inaccurate and inappropriate.

Never used VG's however do "stick" things on the outside of my aircraft eg trim tab on the rudder. I use good quality double sided tape. My favorit is by 3M. Its amazing stuff .

Yes but whose instructions? I would be sceptical of instructions on the container, these are from a vested interest in getting you hooked and consuming. It is true that as we age our ability to thermoregulate tends to deteriorate BUT then so does our ability to process and excrete excess salts (electrolytes). Pre exercise consumption of electrolytes, is something that needs careful management and is likely unwarranted in most situations. Post exercise consumption is also unwarented in normal every day exercise and should only be considered when genuine dehydration has occurred. People seem to forget that human physiology has changed little in hundreds of years - our forebears did not have access to "sports drinks" and the like and seemed to have got bye perfectly well.

Squashed the side of the offending header today. Could not perform operation in situ, so removed pipe. Used a piece of tight fitting water pipe, on the side I wanted to remain as is and Vice Grips to gradually squash in the point, at which it was contacting the engine frame. I did not need to use th socket as an anvil. Ran the engine up to oil 50C. Shut it down as per usual. No contact mark on the witness tab. Great! I will fly the Sonex in a week or so, for a definitive test but very hopeful of this being the solution (along with all the erlier incremental efforts/improvements)

New Flash! -Doctors are not gods - this fact will no doubt surprise many and possibly uspest a few. The medical profession (abely supported by entertainment media) works hard to project an image of superiority, bordering on infallibility. It's no wonder that a Dr's signature is so highly regarded and they have ridiculous lobbying powers well beyond us mortals. The truth is, with the best will/training/equipment, Dr's are still unable to predict the time & place of anyone's demize, that is assuming they themselves, are not about to kill the the client/patent/themself (I am sure it's happened)😈. Young & old people drop dead for no obvious or known pre- existing, condition. Most often, the postmortem will give a clear cause, not always. There is much the medical profession still don't know. Medical examinations, have their limits - at the moment they are the best we have to judge the health of a person, wishing to exercise the privileged of pilot in command of an aircraft.

Turbs - You are a master of the out of context commentary - Simply put: most naturally aspirated Rotax 9 exhaust configurations, are unique to that aircraft or in factory supply , model. The main driver for exhaust configuration is, to fit within the available space (cowling/engine frame). Tuning (exhaust length) is a secondary consideration, that usually loses out to the former. There are a few exceptions - these tend to feature much convoluted custom supply (ie not Rotax) exhaust headers/muffler (expensive, heavy, complex) may have the muffler in atypical locations (eg above engine). Of the latter designs, the improvements in engine performance are likely to be relativly small for the cost involved (analogues to fitting a small aircraft with a CS prop)

Nah! to all the KitFox style aircraft (all good but SLOOOOOW) Australian distances cry out for something like the ATEC Faeta. Intuitive handling Quiet in/out Comfortable for two adults Robust undercarriage for paddock strips Minimal maintenance, composite airframe Low stall - safety & ease of short filed operation Great payload - 300 kg empty weight : 600 kg MTO Great range - 100L fuel Distance shrinking cruise - as low as 10 L/ hr (912 iS) Choice of Rotax engines to suit mission/pocket Competitively priced - even better if made/assembled in Australia FYI - I am neither an agent or dealer - Note: I said like a Faeta - there are a very few others with the similar attributes.

No racing or engine "Hotting" experience to speak of. From my lifetime of engine maintenance and reading (others experince) I would guess that the typical (there is no actual standard) Rotax 912 exhaust installation, is quite some way from being "optimised", even with all Rotax supplied component (as mine is). Different length headers, log style 90 degree muffler, does not look to me, to be a tuned exhaust extraction installation. It does however, get the job done. With the above in mind, my objective is to aim for reliability, which in this context includes having no part of the engine inadvertently contacting structural (engine frame) or non structural (cowling) part of the aircraft. To this end I have installed "stiffer" engine mounts, which have themselves then been further stiffened, using Cupped Snubbing Washers and additional spacing washers (supplied by Sonex). These changes have almost but not quite, eliminated engine to frame contact, that likely occurs at engine shut down. Rotax 9's are infamous for having violent lateral movement, at shut down. This is usually attributed to the integral gear box. In my installation this may be exacerbated by having a relativly heavy 3 bladed, constant speed, propeller acting as a pendulum. I feel that I only have two further cost effective solutions to try: Fabricate a new left side rear exhaust header (the offending component) with a wider obstruction (frame) avoiding curve - The most effective solution but quite costly in time & dollars. Create a shallow (10mm) dent in the existing header pipe, adjacent to the contact point. This with the aforementioned engine mount changes, should result in no further engine: frame contact. This is a simple (KISS), minimal down time/nil cost solution, that may have some minor impact on performance. I will try the last solution first. To assess any changes in performance, I will compare future EGT readings with those already recorded.

Lizzard's posts ??????

My limited experince is with the Airmaster electric system and way back when I was in GA, hydraulic . So far (about 60 hrs) I can say the Airmaster is not at all slow to move between changes, seems to have no problem adjusting pitch, whatever the situation and neither hunts or allows overspeed. The Airmaster can be used like a traditional CS, with the pilot controlling all pitch changes or in semi automatic ie preset Takeoff , Climb, Cruise.

Hi Kyle, Three questions: Is there a CS (Glorious) E-prop in Australia? Why have E-Prop opted for hydraulic pitch change, rather than one of the electric systems? Is there an In-Flight-Adjustable variant of the Glorious (or plans to offer one)?

I preferer the status quo . This does not mean that I am blind to the potential for self assessing, one's own medical fitness, to be deliberatly or inadvertently (self delusion) falsified with potentially tragic outcomes. It true that medicos make mistakes, people have dropped dead shortly after an all clear from their GP/Specialist but at least the opinion of a trained third party has been sought. With no medical training/pathology tests/etc, you are asking that a pilot assess their own fitness to hold a license/certificate -- dodgy! Also true that, on a flight by flight basis, we all assess our fitness but should this be extended to a 12 month health check ????

Good thinking Thruster88 & T510. I will come up with a method that hopefully results in only one side being depressed jst enough to clear the contact with a bit to spare for future changes to engine mounts. Thank you all, for your constructive and very helpful suggestions - I now have a cost effective way forward,

Really???? I suspect luck and or statistically small/insignificant (at the moment) incidents, that have been "brushed under the carpet". Times have changed - the club atmosphere has all but evaporated - it's now a business. In a club, there is some chance of a straying individual being guided back onto the proper path - almost none in today's RAA - that is until after the fact/transgression has come to light (death?) In the RAA beginnings, the aircraft were minute underpowered kites, that barely left the ground. The enthusiasts knew or at least knew of, each other - we are now contemplating 720 kg relative monsters by comparison, that will regularly climb to 9500 ft and cruise at 140 knots, coupled with sufficiently large & dispersed membership, where all sorts of shenanigans may be contemplated & got away with - until tragedy. Ask yourself - what aging person readily admits to the ravages of time on their physical/mental capacity? You are ignoring the weight of historical evidence, on the failures of self administration, resulting from all too fallible humans running the system.

"The attitude is that the public of Australia are not going to pay for your sports mistakes." Ultimately everyone pays - either for a good system or much more, for a bad. The public have had a "snow job" done on them - irresponsible leadership had lead us down the garden path, to this sort of wrought. My limited understanding of the market economy is that somehow all costs can be isolated and the user pays - history clearly shows this is BS! We live in a society where many, if not, all costs are related/impacted by others. User pays does not work! I"f you don't like the system, you can always just pay the bill when the Judge makes his her decision." How does this change/improve/help anything? "You're talking about communist or socialist systems there; we don't have one." No! I am talking common sense, humanity and the understanding that no man/woman is an island - we all depend on society and its well constructed relationships for our economic well being. Market economics seeks to silo expenditure (user pays) - it can't be done & retain efficiency. For years I worked for a bureaucracy where funds/costs were siloed. There was no recognition of physical and or economic interdependent systems or synergy - result the whole system cost way more than it should. Despite the taxpayer coming to the rescue every year, there was a general winding down, as assets deteriorated systems/teams were lost - the Australian public has & will continue to lose valuable services due to this shorterm fake economic system that infects pretty much every facet of our lives. Communism is a wholly discredited system, that has been comprehensively shown not to work. Socialism, on the other hand, works very well in a number of counties and has done, for a long time. I am not advocating for a Socialist state, only that we remove our heads from the sand, check out what can/does work and be open to a more efficient/effective/ kinder way of governing ourselves. The adversarial/court based system, for dealing with public liability, is a crock!

History would suggest that self certification/adherence/administration is going to be abused/fail. It's human nature to drift from the rules (look at Boing) This is an oft repeated mistake by bureaucrats & politicians seeking a cheap way out. Ultimately there will be a high cost to pay - much recrimination - costly investigation (of what everyone already knows) - no one to be held responsible - followed by a return to an independent certifier/authority.

Hmm! Reassuring . I would point out that the percentage "dinged in" (flattened) to the ID of the pipes, was quite small but then of course they did lots of dings, where I will only have the one - any comments from the Brains Trust????

Yes

"You are better to only flatten one side if you're going down that path." I took that as a given Nev - heating to plasticity (probably cherry red) would make deformation of one side, without impacting the other, easier but I am concerned that the heat may significantly damage the integrity of the metal - what say you & others?

Not a medic so would suggest you consult your doctor - prophylactic loading of your system, with electrolytes, you don't need, is placing unnecessary stress on your body. Long term this will almost certainly do damage. Short term, there is the potential to negatively affect your mood, balance and can increase your need to urinate (get rid of excess salts). You should consider whether this may be a habit/mental crutch that has little or nothing to do with dehydration.

"In an exhaust pipe it's the sonic pulses which determine engine power rather than gas flow, hence length being critical, cross-section less so. By squeezing the pipe oval where it fouls the frame, you don't change your length and you dont reduce your cross section." Good point - The Rotax exhaust is 25mm. I need to improve clearance by somewhere between 10-15 mm to be sure that engine movement has been accommodated - particularly over time, should there be any "softening" of the engine mounts . Questions: If I introduce a 10mm deep "depression" in the exhaust pipe how will this impact on a 25 mm pipe? What shape should the depression take - cone? - elongated flat bottomed flattening of one side? - elongated shallow/ deep /shallow? How to create the above dent ? - I have oxyacetylene, with which I can heat one side of the (removed) pipe and push/tap it to forme a 10 mm depression? Will heat to plastic stage have a negative impact on the SS pipe? Cold working (ball peen hammering)- always thought this negatively impacted on SS integrity?

Rolled hollow section ? In my world RHS stands for Rectangular Hollow Section SHS - Square CHS - Circular

"As for the rest; that's what we have to work to whether we like it or not; a good reason to have adequate Public Liability Insurance that covers what we do, and then be able to leave all that philosophy to the people who work in that system." Unfortunatly it is just this attitude, which facilities the continuance and even the setting up of systems , while legal, are wholly unethical. In this system, the public (FYI: that's you and I) who can afford to pay to minimise their paranoia, brought on by marketing and urban myth, end up paying out over time, huge amounts to "protect" themselves from the faint possibility of a future claim against their assets. Once again this has the stink of market economics/user pay's, where the Gov has abdicated responsibility for what should be a centralised system. In a civilised system, we would still pay (taxation) but, individually, less. All would be covered equally (no dollar rules). The injured would be supported for as long as, to the level necessary, for the best quality of life that could be expected (no one-off payouts).

You have the correct offending exhaust pipe. "RHS" - do you mean CHS? (Circular Hollow Section). I have the correct Rotax exhaust pipe "...ovalise the pipe." Sorry not too happy with this idea, although I can see your point.

I stand to be corrected - Rotax supply straight pipe and "'donuts" that must be cut to length to achieve the correct exhaust length & curvature (no mandrel bending - not sure the supplied pipe would put up with bending). Only the turbo & I think fuel injected engines variants, are supplied with factory exhaust systems. 912UL & ULS are fitted into so many diffrent aircraft, that it would not be cost efficient to try and deliver a custom exhaust system for all the builder must make their own from the supplied parts (or source a system from elsewhere).