Willja67
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Everything posted by Willja67
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
The eventual success of this effort is more in doubt than the cowling. I turned the stack of discs down and because i had hand stacked then when i glued them ie didn't use the centering holes to line them up exactly one side of the spinner is concave so i slathered the whole thing in wood filler and when it dries we'll see if it can be worked with.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Rope start
https://youtu.be/Ecosb5mSDwo
Sorry couldn't resist
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
The plan is to use it as a mold for fiberglass. I'm discovering my lathe is missing some parts so this might be a dead end. I'm not committing yet but how much are you asking for that spinner? I'm going up to Idaho to have Thanksgiving with my parents and my dad has a shop Smith lathe that I'll see if I can use while I'm there, so hopefully I'll be able to still do this the way I planned.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
Just waiting for the glue on all these discs to dry and i'll put in in the lathe and see what happens.
It's 9.5" at the base and 8.25" tall made of 11 discs of 3/4" mdf.
This ought to be interesting, as I've never tried anything like this before.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Replacing crank shaft seals?
I've been reading the manual a little but that dvd sounds like it'll help me understand the engine much better.
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Willja67 added a topic in Two Strokes
Replacing crank shaft seals?Ive got a 33 yr old but low time Rotax 532, there's nothing in the logs about the seals ever being replaced but it only has 75 hrs on it. There's some oil leakage around the front end and the back as well so I'm pretty sure the seals are bad but don't want to invest in a complete overhaul. So I'm wondering how difficult it would be to replace the crank seals myself?
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
My Christmas present to myself is here! Built by Stace Schrader of Rocky Mountain Wings LLC. Looks pretty nice in white powder coat ( the plane won't always be silver). Now i really have to get that cowl done and trailer modified so i can make arrangements to get the welding done!
It comes with brackets to weld on for both the front and rear attach points but I'm hoping to only need the front ones that the cabane bolts to so i'll only have to have to grind off the front ones. Looks like the aft mount fits the original brackets just fine. Stace says it will be about a foot wider on each side and taller.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
That aeropoxy is good stuff. Despite being in a cold garage for the last 48 hours it's already cured. That particular batch of aerpoxy has been through alot. I bought it over 5 years ago and it got frozen on the drive when i moved to Alaska and frozen when i moved back both times in the winter. It's sat in a tin shed in the summer and it still works just fine. I'm going to have to sand the fiberglass before i can add the next plies and there's a bunch of bubbles that I'd be better off dealing with before the next plies go on.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
Well gentlemen those are the first 2 out of 4 plies. It only took me 6.5 hrs from when i started getting the epoxy out till calling it a night. As cold as my garage is i doubt it'll cure anytime soon. The plan is to finish the last 2 plies by Monday evening, then tent it.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Getting close for an engine choice
Probably more of these engines on the other side of the pond but this is what i want to do with my -1
http://www.aircraftgraphix.com/bmw conversion.htm
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Operation Cannibal Fox
ya know just thinking the drag of the wings might not be a liability. Drag increases as speed increases but the distance between the 2 lines is only 3/4 of a mile so for maybe the first 1/3 of that you're not going fast enough for the drag difference to matter and the last 3rd of it you're trying to slow down to land in the shortest distance possible so now those draggy wings actually benefit you? Yeah sure Draco runs away from everyone at the start and can even slow down and stop pretty good with the reverse thrust but you'll notice the distance is greater and most guys made up some time on him by landing shorter and getting turned around in less space.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Operation Cannibal Fox
Yeah I was wondering about that undercambered airfoil.
So let's break it down so far:
Say 7-8k for the engine and prop (just guessing), $4500 for the covering materials (just got a quote last week) say 2k for all the carbon and vacuum bagging materials ( my labor is not counted). I'm putting aftermarket gear on so another grand there, and say another 4k just to round it off for the mod 4 wings and other goodies with a base price $16,000 plane. So all told about 37k. So we come in less than what he spent on the engine. And it's still iffy. But fun to think about.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
It's commencing! Here's the first piece of fiberglass cut for the cowling. 3 more similarly sized large pieces, 4 medium sized pieces, and a few small ones. Advice given to me by a cozy builder in my chapter was never touch it without gloves as the oil in your hands will keep the epoxy from adhering. I'm also going to weigh each piece of fabric and mix only that much epoxy by weight for it and wet it out on a piece of plastic then drape another piece of plastic over that and squeegee the epoxy out to the edges that way the fabric holds its shape enroute to the cowling then peel the back piece of plastic off and drape it in place. I'll link to s video soon showing the technique if that was hard to understand.
Doing wet layups about the best fiber to resin ratio you can get is 50/50 by weight hence the measuring of the epoxy and fabric. Ive got all kinds of dreams for this plane. Eventually i want to build a carbon fiber vacuum infused cowl for it. If it's anything like the weight saving trent palmer got doing his that's 5lbs more useful load and less nose heavy as well.
Trent Palmer Cub killer video
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
I've got some aeropoxy I'm planning on using. I had thought of a tent and small heater. But maybe i'll consider that more seriously. Especially if my gear gets here soon and i can take the plane to get the gear brackets welded on the will be renewed emphasis on getting the cowling cured and off the plane. I don't want to accidentally damage it on a 120 mile round trip.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Avid MK4 braking effect
I assume the KF1 pedals are the better design since those are the ones you're using?
I had no idea Matco was in SLC. that's just on the other side of the mountain from me.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
Working on the layout for the fiberglass. Right now the plan is 4 plies of Rutan 8 oz BID 38" wide fiberglass over the whole cowl. All plies with be oriented + & - 45 deg from the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. The black lines in the pic are the 45 deg marks. I think ive got the basic layout firmed up just needed to figure out all the little pieces. The goal is to have it layed up on Saturday. It's only going to getup to 50 deg so itll take awhile to cure but working alone that's a good thing. Also hope it'll keep 4 plies plus the overlaps from exotherming on me.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Avid MK4 braking effect
Brake pedal geometry came up on another forum and they linked here: ultralight news
There are diagrams from Matco on the proper geometry for brake installations which I've attached below. Hopefully someone finds them useful and they haven't already been posted 20 times on this forum.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
That's the plan exactly.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
i think/hope I'm in the homestretch building the plug. I added a little lip/ spoiler under the cowling and started the fillet between the cowling and windscreen. It'll probably need another coat of mud but maybe i can sand what's there good enough. The next step after all the sanding is done is to coat it in packing tape to act as a mold release.
One thing to watch out for is sanding too far into the white foam if it's unsupported. I did that and it started bubbling up. Might have to fix that when i get to the fiberglass stage.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
All taped off and ready for serious prep for fiberglass!
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
So far I don't think I've had any truly original ideas, but if it helps someone else seeing my missteps I'm happy to help.
I will be jealous of your 140 ponies though. Its not in the budget for awhile but if I could put a Bmw R100 in and have 15 more 4 stroke horsies pulling my chariot I would jump on the chance. Obviously I'd love 140 but the airframe won't handle it.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
Just saw this video last night and it got the wheels turning. We all know the KF1 has neutral yaw stability due to the small vertical tail. At 6:52 in the video you can see some blue plates he had mounted on the h-stab. I know that float planes often have those added to give more stability due to the destabilizing influence of the floats. Seems to me like it would be a easy way to add some stability without major modification and acting as an endplate might even add some elevator authority.
So good idea or had?
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
No problem easy to misunderstand. Don't worry I'm not thin skinned about stuff like this and didn't take it as criticism in any case.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
Here's where some of the idea came from. I also have the plans for the Thatcher CX4 and i'll have to look at them again but i think that was where i first learned of wrapping the plug in packing tape. Mike Patey is one of those guys that is so good and so experienced he makes stuff look ridiculously easy (and a lot of the work is not shown) but if you watch the video you'll see he had to do quite a bit of sanding and filling on his cowling. So you're probably right, but this is the way I'm going for now.
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Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc
I should probably name this cowl humpty lumpty. So far my idea for building a cowl like this is working but if I were to do it again I'd use blue foam on the top of the cowl forward of the firewall and between the cheeks/ nostrils like I did on the bottom. There's just a little too much curvature there for the white foam unless it's supported better. I think so far that the white foam on the sides has worked out pretty well.
Now I'm past the mudding and sanding phase and into the applying mold release aka duct tape and packing tape. I'm cheap and hoping the packing tape works ok since it doesn't stick as well to the drywall compound but it's cheaper than the duct tape. I'm using the duct tape for the compound curves and any place i think i need the tape to stick a little better. I also added the longitudinal strip to mark the parting line of the cowl. Hopefully it'll be visible under the fiberglass.
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