Knighty

Hi gang Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding a software package to copy home DVD's apart from DVD Shrink as I am having difficulties with a recyclic redundancy error that keeps on getting displayed when I am ripping. Shrink will compress some DVD's then fall into a screeming heap and refuse to read others, its a great free program when it works however. Yes people I am aware of copyright legislation so please dont remind me! Please feel free to send me a PM with your info if you dont want to respond publically to my inquiry. Thanks Knighty

Dont laugh fellas, I use toothpaste on a clean buffing rag that is slightly damp as this finishes the lexan nicely, mr sheen afterwards and the jobs done! Knighty

Here's a spin for you fellas!!! 6 months ago I fueled up at Woolworths servo in Orange (shop a docket), I had 6 steel jerries and was roused on by the attendant for filling them in an open box trailer. I was told only specialised servos with proper earth straps are allowed to fill jerries and this has been the law for a couple of years, I must be a mushroom as this is the first I have heard of this. The attendant told me that even though my drums were approved they still needed to be grounded. It is good practice and we have been doing it for donkeys years in aviation and by the looks of things it has caught up with the public fuel bowsers now, I bet half of the fuel attendants dont even know about the amendments to legislation within the industry that employs them. With this now in practice how long is it going to be before our cars are earthed before refueling??? Get's you thinking, hey wot! Knighty

If you want the heavy duty 44's then go to a honey supplier, they are no longer allowed to use steel and have changed to stainless, if you want the tinny ones then the local oil wholesaler should be able to assist if you ask them nicely, same goes for 60lt drums. Knighty

Yes you could adjust the gap with the platinums, I also used the platinums for my turbo charged Honda road bike as the normal plugs would foul with lead deposits way too quickly and the more expensive plug lasted about 3 times as long before cleaning. At $1500 for a turbo the bike and I departed. Knighty

Hi Vorticity Some of my old hanger buddies used platinum plugs for their inverted Rotax's and sweared by them for not fouling and being super reliable. As for Iridium I am not really up to date with the difference between the 2. I never see platinum plugs on the market today so I am assuming that the iridium is the thing latest out. Years ago when I raced gocarts you could really feel the performance difference between standard plugs and platinum, so once again assuming this could be the same with a Rotax??? Also I never fouled a plug when using platinum but when using the standard stuff the cart was proned for bogging down in the corners and spluttering if you never had the beast tickled up into its power band. Hope I helped. Knighty

When shopping for powerplants I made numerous inquiries 'phone calls/emails' to a fellow in the states by the name of William Wynne as he and fellow followers claims him to be the guru of corvaire, ended up buying a Ram Subaru because of the inadequate/sporatic communication which ended up going very pearshape because of my frustration. Phil Goard from Cowra (makes an all metal low wing A/C called the Brumby) and was importing these 2.8ltr engines some time back and intending to place them on the ozzie market for the experimental catagories. He was also designing redrive units for the EA81 and Corvaire, I am unaware of the progress made however I remember him as a good fellow to talk with over the phone. Go to http://www.pgaviation.com.au/ and there you should find all the info. Cheers Knighty

Hi icam My first plane was a GT500 and the fuel lines were pretty much under the covers and run along the underside of the 2inch root tube and not exposed to direct sunlight. I would be very interested in finding out the fuel line used for your aircraft in the first place? Great post and informative. Knighty

Hi Guys Can someone give me the contact for Amax in Australia. Thanks Knighty

Hi Chris Sounds like you're hooked on the Quickie mate!!!, me too as I like Quickies (Mmmm, need to watch what I say, I cant believe I said that?) I've seen one perform at Natfly about 5 years back and it had the Onan powerplant, it sounded fantastic in the way of 'very unusual' with a mean throb out it just like a Harley chugs on idle. The performance on climbout was SCARY SCARY stuff as I think it only managed 300ft at the end of the 3 mile strip however the cruise once he buzzed the airfield at 500ft circuit height was fairly hot one would say, the darn thing went like a scalded cat. It would be a great little machine if the climbout performance could be improved. Cheers Knighty

Very right!!! Yep Ian, hear hear Appologies to all forum members, one should not respond when steaming at the collar just turn the computer off and have a cuppa and watch the idiot box for a while, mellow out and smell the roses. Personal conflict and personal agendas is one of the reasons why we lost another forum not so long ago as I remember it as it was a "real slinging match". Will not happen again on my part! 2 weeks in the cooler hey, so I'm not the only one who watched Hogan's Army. Darn good show that one. Cheers Knighty

Credibility in question??? Hi Bushman (James) I've very limited flytime/building experience compared to yourself and others (only pilot in command for a lousy 500 hours and with the AUF for over 10 years) 1 Full aircraft restoration including major engine overhaul (Rotax 582) 2 Owner of Aeropup SN: 2002 and installed a complete new powreplant not offered by the factory 3 What I fly, where I fly from and what I do for a living is at my own discreation whether to publically announce or not. 4 I think there was some major airframe changes from the Supapup to Aeropup like widening the cabin and lengthening the tail section by about 2 foot? Not sure, only what I have been told by the aircraft manufacturer! I'm not interested in a contest, just trying to help out when I can and with only the best intentions at heart!!! If a plane is stalling at 53 knots well that indicates to me there is something wrong, just pure common sense dont you think or maybe its an instrument malfunction, or the pilot is telling fibs? Thanks for your post. Knighty

Hi Curandero aka Paul Naughton & fellow pup followers I've been given some ambiguous advice/directions regarding the proper CofG calculations for the Aeropup but have sorted it all out since through hard work and effort taking advice from other kit builders and manufacturers. Aeropup directs that the CofG should be between 19-27% aft from the leading edge. My original advice was to calculate the empty weight of the A/C and get the percentage smack bang in the middle of the specifications I.E. 22-23% and when the plane is fully loaded she should be apples. After doing this and placing a heap of lead ballast in my tail (heavy powerplant) I decided to weigh my plane with minimum useable fuel, pilot of 75kgs (ME!) and a recalculation placed my CofG well past the aft limit. I dummy loaded my plane to max of 544kg and discovered that the CofG was beyond 35%. My calculations revealed that 11% over the seating location transferred to the tailwheel. I removed 2/3 of the lead ballast and the planes CofG is now 26.5% @ 544KG PERFECT however this has been loaded over the seats and not the baggage compartment! I still havent conducted the test flight however will be doing this very cautiously with a considerable amount of fast taxiing and 2 footers before getting fully airbourn. Now Paul, I'm just going to run some thing by you over the public forum and also PM you with my personal contacts if you like to contact me directly. You are claiming that you have a high stall speed, mmm not good! An increased aft CofG beyond the max of 27% would possibly cause that and also possibly give you an increased cruise as well. I have been informed that a load test had been unofficially conducted in a single seater supapup and loaded until its trim tab become inactive however no stall tests were conducted at the time, the CofG would have been greater than 35% I would imagine. I lay money on the odds that the clean stall speed was increased if tested at the time. I know that another forum member had a few dramas in the early stages of increased stall speed VERY VERY SIMILAR to your claims and I am tipping its because of the same problem. If you like send me your weights over the 3 wheels (minimum weight of pilot @90kgs as per RAAus regs & unuseable fuel etc) but dont give me any further information than that, I will recalculate your W&B and send you back my results to compare with your original findings. Please dont expect the results straight away as I am a busy boy at present. I hope with the assistance of the team on the forum we can broaden everyones knowledgebase and increase the standards of our flying fleet. Chers Knighty

Hi Paul Something very similar continued to happen with an A/C here in Orange (similar weather conditions of COLD!!!). I know you have already mentioned this however the power leads from the battery to the starter maybe just way too light. Simple test is to try and start the plane and immediately place your hand on the BOTH leads, if they are warm then the full juice from the battery is being lost. You can try to temporarily place a second set of jumper leads that will effectively double your cable capacity from point A to point B to see if this makes a difference. Dont forget if you replace the active cable from the battery to the starter with a heavier type then make sure you replace the -VE as it is under exactly the same amount of pressure (amp drain). Remember: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link! I hope you get it all sorted out. Knighty

Aeropup Forum

Hi Jokerman Not a bad idea as there are a few builders in progress as far as I know. What a perfect chance for them to communicate with each other, trouble is not all of them like using the net and computers. Ive had 3 fellows out home to date looking at my craft and 2 more via emails and me sending them digital images to get them through some of their problem areas. I would be more than happy to assist if I can. Knighty

Hi Guys I was on eBay a couple of months ago looking at the sealed batteries (deep cycle gel filled) and I was surprised the savings between these and the Oddysse comparison. Unsure if they were Ozzie made or not but with freight included you can save yourself heaps. Have a look, it wont hurt! Knighty

Subaru's & Aeropups Hi Mark I thought you mentioned in your first post to this thread that you have already ordered the VW? I.E. Does anyone have any experience of this 80hp VW conversion, supplied as a kit from the US? I have just ordered one which should arrive in October. In regards to your other queries I purchase my Aeropup already built less firewall forward as the 83HP Hirth seized less than 10 hours old (temp seizure I was told!). My plane was the factory demo, number 2 off the production line and had 61 hours on the clock after they temporarily fitted it with a 582. I did not have time to build one from scratch BUT ended up pouring 350-400 hours into it to date getting where it is now ready for final inspection (mounts, cooling, cowling, digital instruments etc). I have also a huge trailer 60% complete ready to store her in. I opted for the Subaru because of the bullet proof design & reliability factors. Mates owned gyros in the past and these engines loved to rev very similar to the 912 series. The engine I have chosen delivers roughly the same specs as the 912 as per weight versus HP, this was calculated after installation of the redrive unit! Another deciding factor for the max available HP is that I will be operating from short bush strips, 40 Celsius during summer, 544kgs full of fuel & 2 up and best of all I am already at 3000ft before climb-out. I could have chosen a cheaper/less HP engine BUT the weight factor remained the same, in fact this engine is lighter than std due to alloys being used, machining etc. In regards to my Subaru it is a USA remanufactured EA81 Aero engine MPEFI, redundant controller/ignition, blue printed (see google : RAM Performance). This particular engine was dyno tuned before delivery and retorqued. Normal specs for the Ram EA81 is that they really punch out the HP (158HP @ 5400rpm) however sold as 140HP units over the counter. I had to purchase redrives and props to suit this type of performance, ended up after heaps of research utilising the Autoflight gearbox from Sub4 people in NZ (160hp unit) and a 70†Magnum Ivoprop. The prop is pitched to the maximum setting and the engine on full run-up is still revving static at 4200rpm and stretching the crap out of my 3 nylon ropes tied to the 4WD. If the bird doesn’t climb out at 2000fpm I will be surprised considering the static thrust that the powerplant is producing right now. I may even have to consider detuning the engine, we shall see! I have organised a commercial pilot to do the testing for me and I realise I will have to learn how to fly all over again even after 500 hours, the torque will be my main concern. The plane will initially be flown from our local airport in Orange until I have learnt how to fly and its done at least 50 hours without major mods or anythin fallenoff,cracked,broken,FUBARed etc Ha Ha. If you would like to contact me directly just click the mouse on my user name and it will highlight ‘do you want to send a private message’ and we can go from there. Cheers Knight

Yep, when they want to go bang the engines do it on their own time without warning, nasty little blighters aren't they? Knighty

Unfortunately with the cyclone bearing tester it will only let you know when the bearings have excessive wear and by this time the engine is about to go bang anyway. Once the case hardening on the bearings start to fall away it only takes an hour of hard work for the rapid deterioration to take effect. I have seen a Rotax motor tested fine without any sign of abnormal wear and manage to throw a bigend in another 5 or so hours and seize. This was not due to lack of maintenance or faulty fuel/oil quality or ratio! Please keep in mind, bearings and case hardening are funny things that normally work one minute and fall apart the next without warning and especially if they are under extreme load as per a 2 stroke on takeoff & cruise. My 2 bobs worth. Knighty

Engine mounts Hi Mark Have you run this idea past JC, he may be able to assist you with the engine mount as he is always looking into engine options for his Aeropup and can keep the blue print for perspective buyers in the future. If JC is happy to assist then get your engine delivered to his factory as I did and make yourself available for a few weeks to assist with the manufacturing of the dynofocal mount. It was my plane that the Subaru EA81 mount was designed for and I had a lot to do with it as I spent 3 weeks in the factory assisting the welders do their stuff. If you need any assistance or photos of the firewall forward package once you get going please dont hesitate to ask, I appreciated all the advice and assistance offered to me by fellow pilot/builders. Cheers Knighty

Hi Chris Wade Marlo (Wadeair) at Springhill 63655111 can supply units over the phone via credit card transaction. Probes are fitted 100mm (4 inches) from the piston skirt, simply drill the right size hole for the probe and use the clamp supplied to secure. Really simple mate, no dramas! Knighty

Bugger!!! Okay lads, you have convinced me to have a sqiz at this darn 103 thing. I have just worked a 25 hour shift however I will send the kids to bed and have a strong coffee, what the hell I have been tied up in the office all day anyhow, another few more hours on the computer aint going to hurt now will it? Knighty PS. Still worries me a bit how no one could give me a straight answer, curiosity has kicked in now.

Thanks Shaun but this still doesnt answer my question unfortunately. I have never been one just to sign a form without knowing what the content is because I was suggested to do it. Until I know exactly what I am signing for, I am going to remain sitting on my hands for now! What is the guts of this 103, am I still allowed to perform repairs on my A/C, do I fly at no more than 500ft above built up areas??? you can get my drift, I am not trying to be a smart you know what. Knighty

Hi Guys I havent the time nor the bloody patience for reading lengthy documents, I fly to enjoy, not to get involved on the political arena (I will only get involved when I need to and have a tenacious nature when I get warmed up and started!). Can someone give me the abreviated deal on what I am supposed to vote against/for. Please remember ABREVIATED fellas. Probably too darn late now anyway??? Been busy on the home front family work n all. You all know how it is. Thanks Knighty