Marty_d

Tosser. "I was only 170lb and that was the minimum pilot weight for this aircraft"... really? They make planes that can't be flown by anyone under 77kg?

I notice you said "first" and not "only". Still, I think you're a better man than me!

I kind of like it, but if they wanted it to look like a Spit, they should have deepened the rear fuse and had a smaller canopy.

Unfortunately it was a bit damp and cool today so no fibreglassing (and the forecast for the rest of the week isn't much better.) However I did fit it back on the plane and happy to report that the ring is still in the right position.

I took a deep breath and cut the ring today to separate the top and bottom cowls. All went well apart from a couple of little nicks where the Dremel blade went through to the outside, nothing that a bit of bog won't fix. Below is a photo of the cut, the cross section shows how much the green polystyrene deformed when polyester resin went on it. I've now sanded back and applied a coat of epoxy to both sides of the cut, will rough it up and then put a couple of layers of carbon fibre all over the new section. Last day of holiday tomorrow so hopefully will get that done. Actually, before I put on the carbon I might put it back on the plane to make sure there's been no change in clearance with the prop drive plate.

Is that a blue golf ball serving as a knob in the third picture?

Finally some fibreglassing weather - the week from Christmas to New Year was excellent down here (today it started raining again!) I made a mockup of the firewall, screwed the cowl to it in the spots it's going to be connected, and moved the whole thing up to the carport. Resin stinks! Unfortunately the other thing polyester resin does is cause foam to deform. I had started slathering the outside of the ring with a mix of poly and microballoons, but it shrunk the outer surface of the foam (see first pic). So I did what I should have done in the first place, and coated the foam ring with epoxy. After that went off I spent about 4 days doing coats of microballoon, sanding, repeat. Fairly happy with the end result - I've run out of micro balloons so will have to get some more to fill a couple of very small divots, then I can cut the top cowl away again, cover the ring with carbon fibre and do some final filling. I've been sharing my carport with another family - a couple of swallows and their 4 chicks. The nest is getting a little crowded now. Poor mum & dad spend all day on the wing, ferrying back food for the kids - at first they would buzz me if I was in the carport but now they just ignore me.

I'm finding problems at this stage too. Had the throttles all set up and then when the top cowl was on, found I couldn't move the throttle. Obviously it's so close to the Bing carbs (or one of them, anyway) that it binds with the cowl. So now I have to put bulges over the carbs to get it to fit. Luckily I have a spare top cowl to experiment on as far as position and hole cutout etc.

A couple I forgot to attach on Sunday - header tank to filter, and then the electric fuel pump onwards.

Time for a quick update - I've been doing more work on the fuel system, received my EFI-type hose clamps and also Peter (@nomadpete) very kindly gave me a couple of fuel taps that had previously graced his Lightwing. So I've got those mounted on a piece of aluminium that will be riveted to the fuselage side, with hard line going down through the baggage floor then bending to the top of the header tank. From the bottom of the header tank is firstly a filter, then hard line goes under the flaperon torque tube to the Facet electric fuel pump (which was also donated from a forum member - thanks Rob!!) - and then a long run of hard line under the pilot's seat, through the cabin and through the firewall. I've also been considering a prop and very tempted by the E-Props that Mark Kyle is the Australian rep for. They come with a spinner, smallest is 210mm diameter. I'm modifying the cowl to put a 210mm ring on the front which ends 5mm behind the front face of the drive plate. I bought some high-density foam from Bunnings today, made up a 210mm circle of MDF which bolts onto the drive plate and has a ring of 5mm ply behind it. I've put in a ring of the foam, some more tidying up to do later. The foam is very light, so I think I'll leave it in place, sand to a nice finish and fibreglass (carbon fibre) straight over it. Once I have the foam glued into place I'll take the wooden holder off before fibreglassing.

I was always taught "BUMFHH" as the pre-landing check - Brakes, Undercarriage, Mixture, Fuel, Hatches & Harnesses. As I was in a C172 the "U" part of it involved looking out the window to ensure the wheel was still there.

N504LD is a Hummelbird. For your conversion it depends on whether they're US or Imperial gallons. If it's getting 3.856 litres per hour at 100mph, then its fuel economy in US gallons is a poofteenth over 98.1mpg. If it's Imperial gallons, then the fuel economy is a bee's dick under 117.9mpg. If my maths is correct.

10 hours endurance off 70 litres with a 912ULS? Who are they kidding?

That looks like a PZL Iskra?

...and logic, medical professionals and science in general, according to your posts. Kind of seeing a pattern here.

This one's just gone over another 2 or 3 times, so they're definitely doing ovals in the sky and not going from one spot to another. Nev we almost never get jets over, which is what made me go take a look. The last one was a RAAF C17 that went over at about 500ft or less, that was impressive.

Make that 4 times. Must be a training flight. I thought they used simulators for that now, cheaper than tooling round in an empty heavy.

I've just had a twin engine RPT jet go over my house 3 times. This is strange because the next airstrip to the south of me that can handle an A320 / B737 is Antarctica, and generally speaking planes landing at or orbiting HBA don't come this far south. However it doesn't show on FlightRadar24. Why would this be? Cheers, Marty

On the positive side he's got the guts to share his mistake so the rest of us can learn from it. He could have chosen to keep this to himself to avoid the embarrassment.

Bloody lucky he wasn't tempted to take it up after a few successful ground runs. Imagine if those zip ties gave way at any height.

That pterodactyl looks a bit sleepy for my liking.

Hi Mark, I'm going to have to do something very similar, I have the same muffler in what looks like same position as yours. Coming into warmer weather now so won't be long before I'm able to fibreglass again. The corflute to get rough shape is a great idea - thanks for sharing! Cheers, Marty

Didn't know it was lost.

Thank you for pointing out exactly why the Australian generation grid needs to be changed. I see a few Tesla's, Leaf's, electric Hyundai's and BMW's on the roads down here. As our state grid is hydro powered it's renewable, except for when the silly buggers running it decided to sell lots of electricity to Victoria when prices were high and ran the water supply too low.

Not sure if you're missing a V there, but Matt Canavan has never talked sense in his life. Sad for a 40 year old man to be stuck in the 1950's. Of course, you're counting all the emissions that come from the coal we pull out of the ground and sell to the rest of the world, aren't you? I really hope the "common man" has more common sense than the reactionary, self interested retards in the National party.