Hadyn Bell

Hi HankWell I am no expert on these matters with my MASSIVE experience in flying aircraft But if you look at what I see on my instruments bearing in mind I have the Brauniger Alpha MFD and now the MGL Xtreme EFIS which means I have 2 instruments doing airspeed and altitude and 2 varios . I have to say both instruments react extremely quickly to any change in attitude and speed also pressure measurements like QNH etc. I literally can watch my altitude change on both while sitting in the aircraft on the ground depending on how fast the pressure is changing outside. I can open and close the doors and there is no change in the readings with or without the engine running. I was flying out to Kilcoy yesterday and while cruising along I was actually looking at the vario readings on both and noting how good they were and the rate of change depending on my joystick small movements both instruments responded to the smallest change....I was actually pretty impressed with it all so it was a timely question from you.

 

I do have to say as well I am so impressed with the MGL I originally got it because I wanted a AH and with all the other features it has it was at a fantastic price. I just cant get over how good you can see it in direct bright sunlight on it and how fast it responds to any change. The AHRS and compass module are so good and the ball indication it gives it every bit as good as the Winter analogue ball I have. The compass is far better and more accurate than the magnetic vertical compass I have. I have around 15 hrs now on the Sav and am getting more used to her. I got the prop balanced last week wow what a difference that has made to engine vibration. I got Reg Brost to take her for a fly after he did it and he had this little light weight back support thing he used he forgot to take it when he left as I didn't fly her after that as he had to bolt and so did I so 2 days later when I opened up the plane I found it and rang him he said keep it so I tried it late last week and this weekend. The difference to my back and comfort is incredible for longer times in the seat. I would never thought that such a simple device could improve what was really not any issue but now I am going to get Reg to supply me a couple of them as they can be used in cars planes etc. I am going to the hangar today I will take a picture of it and post it.

I'm keen to see the pic of the back support as well, im sure you understand my interest as you have seen my height and size!!

Also would appreciate info and pics of your instruments as we need to start looking at this now for down the track and your set up sounds good.

Glad to here that you got to commit some aviation on the weekend. I hope my early morning phone call gave you the inspiration to get out of bed and go fly (sorry about that).

Hi All,

An overdue couple of pics of the fuselage build. All going well. The small problems we are seeing along the way seem to be across the board with most other builds, so thanks to all the builders for the reassurance and sharing the love!!. The spare black goop turns up today (thanks Mark) so we are back into it full stem ahead. The couple of weeks off has given me time to re organize the shed and have a little tidy up but mostly spend some time having another read through the manual and look at photo's.

I only do metal work so there is still going to be fun and games in the engine and avionics installations.The most important trick is preparation, about 1/3 of the time spent, debur, clean parts and black primer on mating surfaces. Sticks the kit together so the rivets only have to hold it in place until the primer cures, stops working on the rivets and corrosion.

 

Another one is rivnut a lot more places that you are going to want to inspect or service so you can get back in with out drilling out rivets and repainting.

 

The rest are Aerokits trade secrets so if I told you I would have to kill you, or you could just read Mark's little black book, I think he probrably conned most of them out of the guru.

I have put in 5 days on an XL lately, one more day will have the tail feathers and rear fuselage fully riveted I expect, some one elses bum will be in it's seat is the only catch. Very enjoyable experience gained though, I am picking up a lot of clues to smooth the build, this is about the sixth one I have worked on , I think I am well and truely ready to build my own now, the minister for war and finance is definitely warming to the idea.

Hi Bob,

Nice to see the progress. We are still a bit behind you but catching up....

How did you go with the undercarriage / strut plate that bolts onto / into the sides of the cabin and undercarriage tunnel?

Cheers

Hadyn

A common problem in a high salt air environment and not just aircraft. A small spray with ACF50 or corrosion block keeps the barrel lubed and working well. This will be going on my maintenance check list.

Haydn,I ran out also, but got more from Reg quite promptly.

Bob

Tom pointed out that before we start the cabin build forward, while we have working room, it is a good idea to cut and fit up the baggage compartment trim and as we have the rear fuselage section all skinned off this is what we might do...

Hi All,Sorry about my typo in that earlier post. Try 12 July instead of 21 July. One has to be so careful on this forum doesn't one?

Haydn, thanks for your efforts in checking. The S rudder must be quite different to the XL if you skin over the top(bottom)of the horn.

 

ra, yep,thats what I am after.

 

Bob

Hope the info supplied by others helps get your problems sorted.

Cheers

Hadyn

Hi Mark,

Could you please advise what the "black goop" is as we are running out and require more of it or a suitable replacement.

Cheers

Hadyn

Haydn,Fuselage looks to be coming along well. You seem to be making good progress.

Back to my rudder hinge story. Tried to take some pics through the hinge holes but lack of depth of focus prevented me from coming up with anything meaningful. Suffice to say the hole in the bottom hinge is almost a full hole diameter too close to the rudder. As Mark says, I dont know how this could be possible, unless the horn itself is faulty. To help me check this, could you measure the distance marked "x" in one of the pics attached. It's hole centres to hole centre.

 

Hope I am not being too much trouble.

 

Bob

 

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I had a look at our rudder last night, unfortunately I cant help with the info as we have skinned off the bottom of the rudder covering the rivets in mention.

Hadyn

Mark,Mine is an XL. Realize Haydn's is an S, but didn't think the rudders were different. Don't go to too much trouble to get a measurement Mark, it may be a bit awkward in the assembled position. thats the reason I was hoping to catch Haydn before he assembled his.I will also check lower hinge part nos. to be sure we are comparing apples with apples.

Bob

Sorry I haven't got back to you yet, completely forgot. I am off to the build shed again tonight so will pull the rudder out so its in my face and get the info off to you tomorrow.

Cheers

Hadyn

Thanks for the photo's Mark. Impressive build bench for the wings.

Our extra cleco's have turned up and now in use (not quite as many as you!). All panels and holes are lining up perfectly.

Hi All,

We had a enjoyable productive couple of afternoons over the weekend with the fuselage. We thought the lack of clecos would hold us up as the extras we ordered were ment to turn up on the weekly Air NZ flight on Sunday. We couldn't wait so you are not seeing cable ties holding it all together!! All parts lined up extremely well and we ended up finishing the day with the top and bottom skins in place. Haven't really read anywhere about the lack of clecos in the kit?? Paint is all ordered and will turn up on the next ship to Norfolk as we would like to get the flying surfaces painted off while we spend the time on the fuselage build.

H

G'Day Haydn,Noticed you have finished your rudder (amongst other parts). Could you check the alignment of the hinges and post the result please? I have a problem with mine, and I'm pretty sure its the bottom hinge at fault. If yours is OK, I would like to compare some measurements to confirm this. Hope I am not imposing on you too much.

Bob

Sorry for the delay as I had the opportunity of co-piloting the the locally based PC12 down to NZ, Keri Keri, Ardmore, Keri Keri, Norfolk from Sunday to Wednesday and couldn't turn that down!! Maybe im getting practice in for our oceanic flight to Keri Keri in the Sav..... 2 hours down there in the PC12, 5.5 - 6.0 in the S ???

Anyway, I think I understand what your concern is re the rudder as we had to do a little removing of some rivets on the lower hinge brackets as it was a little confusing and was only picked up when we went to fit the hinge plate. We were one row of rivets down further than we should have been, but easily rectified. Might be a little hard to show in photo's now as we have the leading edge skins on. I will have a thorough look tonight when we have our build session. As Mark pointed out you have the XL model? so im not aware of the differences between that and the S. More than happy working with you on this.

Cheers

Hadyn

And the photo....

Hi Mark,

Best I load this onto your forum, not mine!!

Could you please run your nose over the Sav wiring diagram attached for your opinion on the extra fuses that I think are required. We will stick to the original harness and just the extra fuses as much as I liked your harness and fuse box. If you cant read it I can email it to you.

Cheers

Hadyn

Hi Mark,

Could you please run your nose over the Sav wiring diagram attached for your opinion on the extra fuses that I think are required. We will stick to the original harness and just the extra fuses as much as I liked your harness and fuse box. If you cant read it I can email it to you.

Cheers

Hadyn

Hi Hadyn,Have you looked into instaling a ERPS (Electronic Rust Prevention System), they work, do some research. Mark has one in his Sav. They are used on Oil Rig Platforms and Grandstands. Professional Beach Fisherman swear by them, I think a must in your environment

Thanks for the info, I will look into this a little more as I have not been convinced of these products in the past. One of my syndicate partners in the build of our Sav fitted an ERPS to his new 4WD ute in 2000 when he shipped it to Norfolk Island, this vehicle has just had extensive chassis and rust repairs. I have seen this vehicle deteriorate over the years when I have serviced it. Normally and my preferred method is to dismantle the vehicles and spray with inner cavity wax and coat the chassis with underseal, understanding that this is not suitable weight wise for aircraft, anyway that is vehicles and im all about aircraft at the moment. I believe with regular cleaning, hangerage and spraying with ACF-50 / Corrosion Block at least every 6-12 months we should be right...

Cheers

Hadyn

Hi Mark,

We discussed the possibility of you having a copy of the prop pitch tool made up that you showed me. Please advise if you were still going to get a couple made as we are keen to purchase one.

Also myself being a bigger bloke im keen to do the flap lever mod that you showed me as it worked well. Did you keep any plans on the design??

Cheers

Hadyn

G'day Yenn I've just installed a Vernier Throtle in my Sav and I love it. I went away from the standard Savanah Throtle to a Mcfersion style friction and didn't like it as the carb springs are to strong. It keep creeping to more Throtle. I spoke to McPherson while at Oshkosh last year they do have softer springs available. I like the idea of small adjustments. The vernier Throtle doesn't take much time to get used to. As I'm going to reduce power for landing I use my thumb. As most people are aware my Sav only has one Throtle as it only needs one Pilot. And I used a splitter which I brought from Spruce which it works great to both Carbs. Gundy.

Are you able to supply any info and suppliers on the Vernier Throttle and splitter you fitted.

Cheers

Hadyn

Another productive weekend on the Sav. Rudder and fin completed, finalizing the building of all the flying surfaces. Will spend the next couple sessions drilling and fitting the tips to the modified mounting strips (Thanks once again Mark). Then a bit of a clean up and we are into the fuselage.

When I caught up with Mark a few weeks back he only had 2.5 hours on his new Sav and he was going on about his interest in building another one, and I thought whats wrong with this guy!..... Mark we understand now and even share a little of that passion. What and enjoyable and interesting build this is for a first build, but understanding that we have the fuselage to get our teeth into....

Hi Mark,

Attached is a photo (i hope) of the trim tap with the 3 holes in it. Do you recall if these holes are there for the manual trim adjustment and just need to have rivets fitted since we have the electric trim option?? Hope the head cold is sorted and you get some flying in this weekend. Beautiful day here on Norfolk, just thinking if we had the Sav finished, which way I would do my 15 minute cross around the island, to the left or to the right, round and round we go....

Hi HaydenIt wasn't zinc chromate it was something else I will ring Bill and find out.....I didn't fill my rivets either...deemed it way too much work for just a cosmetic effect...you can't see the rivet holes standing 2 mtrs away anyway

Hi HaydenIt wasn't zinc chromate it was something else I will ring Bill and find out.....I didn't fill my rivets either...deemed it way too much work for just a cosmetic effect...you can't see the rivet holes standing 2 mtrs away anyway

Would appreciate the info when you get it, thanks.

Looks as though you have had some nice wx of late so I hope you have had a few more flights and starting to get the hours up, and no more teething problems.

We spoke about the 72" prop and by the time I got in touch Tom the 68" prop was under way and we now have it here. Anyway we have plenty of strip here and we will be using the std tires supplied with the kit initially. We are only allowed to use the seal over here even though there is plenty of grass.

And a little more complex in the fuslage frame, takes maybe a one to two days longer to build the rear fuse. If you want the Smooth I still think filling the rivet heads before painting is more important than the shape. I have always liked the shape of the S ever since the first photo arrived.

That's an interesting idea. What substance should be used to fill the rivet heads?