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IBob

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Everything posted by IBob

  1. What a beautiful aircraft they were! My folks took me to Heathrow as a kid to watch them come and go.......)
  2. Another potential indicator is the very round numbers: almost nothing costs exactly $9500 (though in this case nothing does!) Somebody recently tried to hit me up for a very small amount of bitcoin I hadn't purchased: the cost was to be exactly 300pounds....
  3. I was tempted, sometimes a lot, during my build to 'improve' the design. I resisted by telling myself that there are probably thousands of these, built according to manufacturer's instructions, and they work fine. Then, sometime after the half way mark, all I wanted to do was see air under the wheels, so I took the shortest route to that and just followed the instructions. Or tried to (we all have moments with the manual!) And in retrospect, I think you could count on less than one hand advisable improvements to the kit and instructions as delivered.
  4. That is the 'newer' bellcrank arrangement. My kit, factory dated Dec 2014, came with the old quite different version, but the instructions for what you have there. So it changed about then. I would think that if there were wear problems we would have heard by now. My thought is that, while the bellcrank is constantly worked, the movements are for the most part very small. And assuming the bellcrank pivot is at 90deg to the pull of the elevator cables, there would be minimal pressure on the side faces. Having said all that, if you have the means to shorten the tube and add a washer, why not?
  5. We don't generally chew on our stick grips much round here..........
  6. I think the stick grip as supplied by ICP is actually a pretty good shape (unless you're wanting more buttons): specifically because on a full flaps approach you are out of trim and holding the nose up (also a good arrangement, allows the nose to be dropped promptly if airspeed decays). It has scalloped finger grips at the front, and a more pronounced protrusion at the top front. But it is made of some solid rubbery stuff, a bit sticky in summer, I have been flying it with a handkerchief wrapped round it. This thread finally prompted me to do something about it: There being a shortage of kangaroos over here, I bought a leather steering wheel cover, cut a section out of that and laced it on. So far I've done one side (it's a Y stick) and I'll fly that for a bit to check that it's tight enough, then do the other side. Okay, it still doesn't look like a Ray Allen creation, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. Expenditure so far $20 and a couple of hours measuring and sorting out tidy lacing, the other side will go much faster.
  7. Brendan, the design came from NZ. Mark Kyle has tailored it for production, and is making them.
  8. Oh darn RFGuy...major brain fade here...but nice catch! Yep, that is indeed the oil cooler, and it's the coolant radiator Marty is wanting. Sorry about that, folks .........(
  9. Just back from the hangar. The Savannah radiator has 10 cores and the core area (not including the end tanks) is 250 X 75.
  10. Savannah S Vx 48-57kts for 450Kg-600Kg Vy 54-64kts for ditto. Cruise 85kts @ 5000RPM
  11. Skippy, some steel gauge sets seem to come with a selection of brass ones as well. So maybe they're hiding in plain sight? If all else fails there is a selection on aliexpress: I don't know how it runs there but I recently got a set of (non aircaft) bearings and they arrived in under 2 weeks.
  12. Thank you RodgerC, that is unexpected and good to know. I have seen too wide a gap cause poor starting on an older 912. And as you say, non ferrous feeler gauges are a must: the steel ones stick to the magnets and feel like a snug fit when they are not at all. I also found that my 912ULS idle speed adjustment and idle mixture screw settings were a bit out and not identical from the factory. There was no obvious impact on idle, and the settings are easily found under Basic Throttle Adjustment in the Line Maintenance Manual.
  13. Trike, there is a factory VG on our field, I cannot remember the cooler/radiator layout, but he has no problems, has to blank off part of the oil cooler in winter to get the temps up. Yes, best you provide pics or a sketch, otherwise it is very difficult to comment.
  14. No ducting. But the radiators do sit close to the air scoops, though this pic is a bit deceptive, makes them look closer than they actually are (I have an LED light bar landing light bolted inside the lower lip of that upper scoop and it's well inside the scoop without being close to the oil cooler).
  15. A pic would help to visualise what you've got, Trike.
  16. Hi Marty, here is the arrangement on the Savannah, with the oil cooler upper and the radiator lower. All temps remain well within specs here in NZ, in fact I have about 1/3 of the oil cooler blanked off. Rotax used to reccomend raising the oil temp each flight to 90'C, I believe they recently raised that to 100'C, I don't see that unless I make a sustained hard climb. I would say you have plenty of air intake on your cowl as it is. I would go with that, and in the unlikely event that you need more, you could consider fitting a scoop at the air exit point underneath to lower the air pressure there and induce greater flow.
  17. Looks okay to me, apart from the possible drawbacks already mentioned. About the only comment I would add is that they must be in series, not in parallel: I had a site with twin industrial boilers in parallel, in a closed circuit feeding a plate heat exchange. While the pipe work was almost exactly mirrored between the two boilers and each boiler had it's own circulating pump, if there was any restriction in the system then the flow would go through one boiler or the other. And once the flow began to favour one boiler, it tipped increasingly that way. So the stable states were flow through one boiler or the other, and the unstable state was equal flow through both.
  18. Do you have a pic as to how/where they are mounting them, Skippy?
  19. That's not what is happening, Nev: One part has the full sized hole in it, the other part has just a pilot hole (which is not exactly centered, it would be better if there were no pilot hole). So it's a matter of marking up then holding the drill centered to drill on that mark (rather than on the pilot hole). The bush (which not drilled out of true) is then inserted through those two parts, and secured with the ubiquitous AN3 bolt etc. Given the shape of the elevator, which narrows to a box section at the centre LE, it would be surprising if the (pilot) holes were perfectly aligned. Also this: that centre section (and bearing) takes all the load of the elevator control cables pulling forward. So, even if the holes were perfectly aligned initially, they wouldn't stay that way (without the bearing) once the cables were tensioned.
  20. PS and to state the obvious: the hole you drill must take in the existing (offset) pilot hole.
  21. Yes. As I recall, with the tip pivots in, I used a fine marker to mark through the 0.235 hole onto the stab flange. I then disassembled and clamped a piece of thick scrap (steel?) with a 0.235 hole in it, over my marking on the stab flange. This held the drill centered so I could drill the stab flange. I also took a bit off the tip of the stab flange so that it cleared the elevator skin at that point.
  22. I think that's excellent advice any time you get stuck in a build.
  23. My money is on the paint they apply to all the fabricated steel assemblies: the bush will be greased inside during final assembly, the paint needs to come off. If the bush or the bolt are wrong, ICP need to be told.
  24. Looks to be plus and minus 1.5thou for the AN3, Onetrack? http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ra/an.html
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