Friarpuk

I ended up putting a VDO gauge back in.  Went for a 1.5 hr fly this afternoon, and yes very satisfying.

 

 

All you folk will be happy to know that I have put the old girl back together and all is running well with no oil spewing out of the engine.  Had a "fun" time yesterday washing all the oil off the under side of my plane after plenty of test running. 

 

 

Ashdown Ingram....

 

https://view.publitas.com/ashdown-ingram/automotive-electrical-accessories-catalogue-2015/page/288-289

 

The 360.004 in this list is only 75psi where as the one I ordered from Aircraft Spruce was rated at 150psi.

 

 They have obviously changed in later products.  Floods quoted me on a 360.081 which I believe is 150psi.

 

Regards

 

Heath

 

 

Hi folks

 

I have discovered on further investigation that the new pressure sensor is not leaking after all.

 

I have not realised that the thread is tapered and have put the new gauge in too far and split the housing.  Der to me 

 

So to get a new one costs about 900 from Floods. But I can get a secondhand one with the NPT thread for about half that from Floods.

 

I do feel like a twit.

 

Floods tell me I'm not the first to do this, but that doesn't make me feel any better.

 

An expensive lesson learnt.

 

Heath

 

 

Hi folks

 

Got a vdo 360.004 sensor from Aircraft Spruce and installed it.

 

Unfortunately it failed on engine start up. Oil spewed out of the sensor where the outer shell is pressed over the inners which holds the stud.

 

I am waiting to hear back from them to see what they can do.

 

My next door neighbour who is a mechanic and also flies says I should source one through a auto electrician.

 

Might do that next week.

 

Floods in Melbourne quoted me $223 for a vdo 360.081 and I thought that was a bit too expensive. 

 

Attached are a few pics after the engine was started and run for no more than 30 seconds.

 

I'm just glad it didn't fail when I was flying.

 

Heath

 

 

Replace 

 

In the words of my kids "der" 

 

Replacing is obvious but are they known to spring a leak?

 

 

Don't know which sender you need but if interested I have an unused, still in package, purchased in error, VDO 360.003 - make me an offer!

 

Is this the original sender that Rotax used for their 912 uls engines?

 

 

I'm guessing it's the VDO type? 

 

There are 3 types. The vdo, honeywell and latest, Keller.

 

It is the VDO type.

 

 

Hi folks 

 

Have been trolling around in the threads and seen plenty about 912 oil pressure senders not sending the right info to the gauge.  

 

However my question is, has anyone had a sensor that has begun to leak.  I think mine is leaking a bit of oil, although it is had to discern exactly where it is coming from as it get blown around a bit.

 

Thoughts....?

 

 

You may want to look at doing the water pump seal while getting the oil seal changed.

 

It would be unfortunate not to replace it, and have it fail in the near future. ....

Indeed! Already on the list for the bank manager.

 

 

So I went out to the airport and had a look. The Skyranger has many endearing features but it aint that easy to get a good look at the back of the engine. I think it is a 6 way male plug and a 6 way female plug. Not all the plugs have wires running through them. I gave everything a wriggle and nothing obvious stood out. Started the engine ran rough for ten seconds while rpm was around 1500 - 2000 pushed her up to about 2500 and it came good. I could not fault it in the run up so I went for a fly and as per usual did not miss a beat for the 1.7 hrs I was up. I constantly checked magies while up there and just the usual expected drop on both.

 

One of these days I am going to have to pull the engine out to fix it and the wretched oil leak I have that drops enough oil down onto the spat when the engine is cooling but is not enough to reach the bottom of the spat. The seal on the back of the engine is the culprit so the LAME says, along with it being a real bugger of a job and it needs special tools. Which translates into the LAME telling me it's going to be expensive. The silly thing is at this point in time I am only putting about 500 mls of oil in the engine between each 100 hrly.

 

BTW I did enjoy the flight yesterday. I circumnavigated the Bunyas to look at the wind farm emerging out of the nth western end of the range near Porter's Gap and then to say g'day to dad and my brother with flyovers at their places, a circle around Bell before flying back over the Bunyas before landing back in Kingaroy just on sundown.

 

Puk

 

 

I

 

should be 1 of 6 way male housing and 1 of 6 way female housing if it is the 6x6 .... the 6x4 has 1 of 4 way male and a 6 way female and 2 flywires with bullets on them

I have a chance to go and check it out a bit more tomorrow. Will let you know.

 

Thanks

 

Heath

 

 

FriarPuk

 

Thats a common fault with older ones. Funnily enough I just tested a couple of the latest style modules for another savannah driver down south and one of his latest version modules does the same thing. This is the first I have heard of world wide of this fault in a later generation module. On my test rig it took about 1 min of running before it fired but only went for a couple of seconds then stopped for about 15 sec then started again twice like this then it started running no problem at all. I cold tested it by putting it in the fridge for a couple of days and it started straight up but when it got to around 28degC ambient the module started playing up again

 

What type are they?... the original 4wire type or 6x4?... if the engine is older than about 2007 it will most likely be 4 wire then from 2007 to around 2011 they went to 6x4 for a while and then the older 6x6 without softstart then after 2011 they are the later ones which are 6x6 and also have softstart

 

If they are 4wire check the brass bullet connector on the red wires coming from the generator. I have found a few guys have got modules from me only to find out it was a dodgy connection into that brass female bullet connector. The red wire supplys the voltage for the module to fire on the older units. usually not any trouble with the latest plugs except for craked and corroded wiring as Rotax modules use auto style wire out of the modules. Mine use all silicone wire. 200 degC and 600v

I built my Skyranger in 2009 after purchasing the engine from Flood Imports in 2008. I believe it is a 6 wire plug.

 

 

A minimum of 200 rpm is required to "fire" the engine. This is part of the safety mechanism to allow you to "burp" the engine without it firing.

 

Alot of engines seem to be wired with smaller than minimum spec starter cable size too. It should be 16mm2 cable minimum (mulitstrand/flex) and the further the battery is away from the starter, the larger the cable size.

 

I've seen people try to start a rotax with a half flat battery and (as you alluded to) there is the risk of damaging the sprag clutch which is a 3 to $4000 repair. Best to always start with a fully charged battery.

No problem re battery not being charged. I run a solar panel to trickle charge the battery, keeping it topped up all the time.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to tell me of you experience. I will look into it.

 

I suspected that it might be something like that.

 

Wiring those plugs to the magneto switches in the cockpit, I recall, was a bit of a pain in the posterior.

 

Regards

 

 

I have not been on here for a while and I am dammed if I can find the video section in the media. And videos I have uploaded in the past now only appear as pics. Not sure what is going on.....????

 

 

Hi I have about 500 hrs on my Rotax 912 and recently on startup it one of the magnetos is dead for about one minute and then comes good. Has anyone heard of this or had this issue? Any pointers would be appreciated!

 

Thanks

 

Friarpuk

 

 

Remembered when it was too late. Was out L plating with my son on Saturday. 

 

 

Check out my first attempt at VR 360 video. Enjoy 

 

Friarpuk

 

 

 

G'day Joe

 

Welcome to the forum.  You probably have many more hours up flying than I do, so please forgive me if it sounds like I'm telling you to suck eggs.  As a padre I have flown in and out of interesting paddocks quite a bit.  I have a Skyranger Swift, a very simple plane to build and with a 100hp rotax get 85-90 kts in hot weather and 90-95 in the cooler months.  She gets in and out of tight spots easily and although you don't want to build, it is a very easy plane to build and maintain.  It has a good solid commanding rudder so it will go were you point it.  There are a few variants around, the latest being the Swift 2 and the Nynja which has more fiberglass on the fuse than the Swift and the Swift 2.  Some of my mates that have dedicated stol aircraft don't get much better performance than what the Skyranger delivers but their stol  aircraft get belted around much more than my Swift does on turbulent days.  I also believe the Bushcat, which was once called the Cheetah is a copy of the Skyranger.  FWIW

 

Oops too late just saw you bought a plane.  

 

Friarpuk 

 

 

In 2013 I flew Myrup (Esperance) to Caiguna to Nullarbor RH to Ceduna in a skyranger swift (100 hp Rotax) with plenty of reserve to spare. The strips were in no way rough either. Flying to Forrest is a long way round especially when you are not flying from Northam or Perth.

 

See my video in media folder

 

 

Would a perennial such as lucerne do the trick? Once it has established a deep root system I think it might withstand being mown short.

Growing up on a farm that had couch and grew lucerne neither would be very good. Lucerne gets very clumpy after it has been cut a fair few times. Couch may cover well and be low resistance to wheels but its tolerance to traffic is poor and it allows weeds to grow though quite easily. If one hasn't done much preparation to the soil under the grass (i.e. some sought of fine gravel base) it wouldn't take too much to go through the grass and get bogged if the soil gets slushy when wet.

I weakened after vowing not to ask them again if my MPC cert would do for a L1. I phoned them and was told where to find the info. I duly sent a copy of my certificat to RAAus and received a reply that they would reply within 7 days. Still waiting and it is over 7 days. Can't be bothered trying again as I know they have all they need.

What's a MPC certificate?

If you look under “manage my membership” then “endorsements” it should have “owner maintenance” and the date?

Thanks for that Frank. That's one question answered. I had given up looking a long time ago. Going by Murphy's Law it probably updated the day after I last looked.I still wish I could find out what I got wrong in the test, it would be poor form for RAA if my plane dropped out of the sky as a result of not knowing one of the answers I got wrong in the L1 test.

 

 

:) Yeah man, I hear ya!. Would be nice to get a KDR though, so at least I know what questions I got wrong. I can't even see that! :(

That's exactly one of the reasons I emailed them. If the test is for greater safety in the industry then I would have thought learning from your mistakes is of paramount importance. Lest I say anymore! The other reason I emailed them was that there was nothing to show for it on my RAA records and still is not even a year after I did the test.