Sapphire

Good choice. If you build a plane you are lucky to get your construction cost back. No payment for time. Fix up some one elses "gotten tired of it" plane.

I guess you considered the Sapphire, boingk? Are you still going to do the Hummel Bird? Couldn't see much welding on it and you don't need years of experience to rivit.

Different gear boxes have different gear ratios. A few hundred hours is a lot for that engine-tbo is 300 hrs

I had a 447 a while back. Needed lots of priming to start cold even using the "choke" which was actually an enricher valve-one way was to saturate the air filter with fuel but a better way I drilled a small hole in the metal end of the air filter and with a long tube attached to a squeeze bottle injected fuel into the carby. Even then on real cold mornings, you needed a few trys and injections before it would run continuously. Also, the needle in the carby can come loose and drop down closing off the high speed jet leaving the engine on idle. A modified clip and some o rings from Rotax need to be installed. Could be causing the wild rpm's. These carby's don't have carby heating and icing could cause that as well. In fact a 503 Rotax went down with the same problem and no reason could be found. Ice probably was the culprate and would be gone before any investigation. Some pilots wrap a heating coil around the carby [like an electric blanket] Also, replace the fuel pump. An overhaul kit is cheap. It's just a piece of plastic with some flaps cut out. The carby is simple to take apart and blow out with compressed air. Replace the fuel level valve-needle and seat. Make sure the plunger connected to the throttle cable runs freely and the throttle cable works ok. Also check the idle and high speed jets which just screw out. They get a deposit on them so clean them out with soft plastic. Adjustment of the competed carby is simple You really are overhauling the carby and a publication on how to do it is available-maybe free on the internet, can't remember

I am looking for a single seater though I am probably far from Frogs Hollow. That looks like a half vw engine in it? Can it be assembled quickly by one person?

Have you tried maintaining a constant nose attitude when the a/c is a mile away-have to learn to fly again but without the big expense

I think we need a new preflight check!!! I found a loose plug--that's it. Actually a non fuctioning cyl. is interesting. In a v8 it would be hardly noticeable in a car but of course in a single cyl engine it would attract attention. I've driven home [slowly] a few 4 cyl cars working only on one or two cyl What has this got to do with flying? Absolutely everything if it happens to you.

Not on my puddy cat. Sounds interesting but not perpetual. You still have to feed the cat.

May not be a problem with an ultralight lic and the RAA. If you qualify for a drivers lic. you're in. Re-read....and disegard

I didn't see him use the headphones after that! While we are on bizarre stuff, I was watching Cops last night and this guy was sitting in an ambulance telling a police officer that he had become pregnant to a dinosaur and wanted to go to the maternity hospital. The officer queried him as to how that happened. Wasn't too sure but somehow the eggs got implanted into him. Wonder what you would call the "kid"; T-rex sounds a bit classy. What does this have to do with flying? Absolutely nothing.

Double ditto

Ditto

I thought I should add to this thread before it disappears into the catacombs of the forum vault. Every thread should bring more information on it's subject to light and I think that was achieved. The design of a half vw engine, say in a Hummel Bird, with cyl heads poking out of the cowling provided better than average cooling. Even at idle, the propeller provides unobstructed cooling to the hottest part of the head. Fully enclosed engines have ram air entering then being directed to select parts of the head where the hot expanded air is forced out into a low pressure area. They wont be efficient unless tested and designed on every engine/plane combination. Also, any air cooled system doesnt supply adequate cooling all the time, unless you are winter flying in Alaska where inadequate heating may be more of an issue than inadequate cooling.

Very cute cats

Cats are great-keeps the place free from mice and warms my feet at night. Another preflight true story. Regularily had a faint petrol smell in the cockpit and put it down to over priming the engine at times Though it eventually was happening too often and had a look at the fuel system in the hanger-good idea at any time. No leaks and the lines were flexible. Leaks mostly occur where the hose clamp is squishing down at the connection. The plane had a mechanical fuel guage at the back seat wall which poked into the fuel tank. Moving my finger around the perimeter produced a whisp of fuel. No problem-tightened down the mounting screws but immediately a steady stream of fuel came running out. It ran down to the cockpit floor melting newly applied paint along the way, and there was no hole there for it to escape. At least I could have put a bucket underneath to catch it all. This is where your past life flashes in front of you, but no time for that. Used rags to mop up the mess but I had two tanks three quarter full. Had to prop open the fuel drains with a stick and some wedges and collect in plactic ice cream containers. The drains did not hold themselves open. This went on for eternity-mopping and throwing out buckets of fuel and there was no one else at the airfield. Thought of making a 200 foot dash to a grassed area but that was near where the Royal Flying Doctor plane parked when it came around. There was one guy in the club who smoked, and if he came around, I would not be around [and the hanger]. Eventually got everything cleaned up. If this happened in the air, the fibreglass plane could turn into a flaming metorite. Seen that as well with another pilot, but did not catch fire and landed safely

I have one in my house and never had any mice in the house-only dead mice in the back yard

Good luck on your Hummel. I've taken a big interest in them since one came for sale near me. Sits on a trailer with wings folded in the air. No hanger needed. Was a very tight squeeze to fit in length wise. Hope they were made in different lenghts.

I've had a lot to do with hydraulic lifters on a 0-200 Continental. If the clearance is wrong either your valves are going to stay open or not open enough. The clearance is fiddly to get. Blockages from sludge etc will cause problems and they are expensive to replace. Simple solid lifters will last the lives of the engine and more and are simple to adjust. They are noiser, but you would never hear them over a straight through exhaust.

I had 10 hrs taken off my GA training because I had a glider lic. and did a cross county flight plus an 8 hr flight and some minimum altitude thing. Call up RAA what hoops you have to jump through.

From what I read an aircraft is supposed to fly off the side of the runway into marker cones etc. Maybe that is more likely with wheel fairings and the tyre jams

Thanks metalman 2. Boat trailers are rusty, dirty and galvanized. Quite often you can't clean much. Are there welding rods that work better than the general purpose "on special" ones I am using?

Marriages are made in heaven. So is thunder and lightening.

I hear that ethanol is in auto fuel in the eastern states? They don't have it here yet as I have tested it as above. Used auto fuel in my aircraft which will probably raise a few eyebrows here. Happy to try to defend myself on that. BTW don't use fuel with ethanol in fibreglass tanks. Will dissolve them. Then your preflight check would involve plugging up leaks with wads of gum.

I like the way this thread is going-people rushing out to check things they never thought of and I'll be doing the same. One more. Long time ago an aeroclub plane had a spear pushed through the rudder-something you'd want to pick up. I understand that interference with an aircraft carries an automatic jail sentence, as opposed to, say, interfering with a car. I had three windcreens on my cars smashed by some Homeswest lunatic kid. Had video of him doing it, fingerprints, knew where he lived and the pub he frequented. The police did nothing. The jails must be too full.

How does so much water get into the fuel? After I got rid of it I'd be looking at that. A car I worked on had mostly water instead of oil in the crankcase-blown head gasket.