RDavidson

Fellas,
 
I have Cylinder #1 exhaust on my Lyc IO-360 coming straight down for about 3 1/2" then it bends inboard, but at the bend there is only about 1/2" of clearance from the bottom engine cowl.
The idea is to cover the inside of the bottom cowl with a reflective shield.
Do you have a good experience with a certain product?
Aircraft Spruce advertises some fancy Kevlar sheeting that can hold up in 3000 F temps, but they want mucho $ for it.
what do you guys suggest?
 
Thanks,
Ron

Thought I would share an experience with all of you.  This 4th of July I went flying with a buddy up in the mountains.  He has a 108-3 Super Stinson.  It has a Continental O-470 and performs really well.  We got an early start and flew to our mountain destination without issues.  We had another buddy meet us in his Cessna 182.  We ate breakfast and then started home.  We climbed up to 11,000' MSL to get over a mountain ridge.  This was my first time to fly with my friend and I showed him how to fly different formation positions off of the 182.  The 182 was quite a bit faster than us, so we asked the 182 to give us one.  I showed him how to use the energy with climbing and descending to keep up with a faster straight and level aircraft.  This whole time we were holding about 2600 RPM and had the prop fixed at full climb pitch for ease.  The 182 began descending as we got within about 25nm to our airport.  We decided to break up to enter the airport's airspace, so the 182 went straight ahead as me and my buddy did a 360 for spacing which was right over a big reservoir at about 1500' AGL.  As soon as we made a complete 360 I saw the RPM burble and then rapidly fall!  My buddy took the aircraft back from me, I looked out the window and told him we had the state park with a lot of dirt roads beneath us.  He tried everything to get a restart, but it didn't fire at all!  What surprised both of us was our sink rate!  We had practiced engine outs before, but this was the first time we had experienced the drag of a prop that isn't even idling...it was a lot of drag!  Anyway, we immediately prepared to land, but being the 4th of July, there were people and cars on every dirt road!  I saw one dirt road that was completely open and we decided to go for it.  At this point we had a few hundred feet to lose to get her on the road.  My buddy did a great job slipping to lose altitude, we suddenly realized our dirt road was actually a concrete path that was too narrow and curvy to land on so we shifted off of it to the field next to it full of cactus and prairie dog colonies.  He got it down in the field and after a few bumps we came to a stop.  We got out and after emptying our shorts, we began to troubleshoot things.  I asked if he had done anything different or done any maintenance recently.  And guess what...he had just added the Mogas STC and we were flying with Mogas for the first time.  It all made sense now.  We had no problems on the way into the mountain with a nice cool morning, but flying back we had the engine fire walled and we're working it hard with the formation stuff, while descending into 100 degree temps...Vapor Lock!!!
His Stinson is all gravity fuel feed, no mechanical or electrical fuel pump, so there is no way to force feed the fuel through a vapor lock, thus no restart for us.
I'm telling you guys this because most of our little planes are burning Mogas.  So, it would be a great idea to look at the dangers of running Mogas.  It is not regulated like avgas, so you can get different values of Mogas that can be more susceptible to vapor lock.  Mogas is more likely to vapor lock at high altitudes.  Mogas should be as fresh as possible, do not let it sit in your wing tanks for months.
This shouldn't be taken as Mogas is bad, this info should be used as a warning.  If you want to be prepared for vapor lock possibilities, install a small electric fuel pump (A small facet works great and is cheap), wrapping you exhaust reduces heat under the cowl, maximize airflow through your cowl with proper baffling, wrap your fuel lines with fire sleeve, route your fuel lines away from exhaust pipes, if you can't avoid proximity to pipes look at using a shroud.  Look at shroud materials...don't use aluminum, it acts as a heat sync!
Things I learned as a Pilot playing passenger...when you ride in a new plane, take the time to learn the location of all controls/switches so that you can help out in an emergency and not just be a sandbag in the right seat!  Sure the PIC is ultimately responsible, but a passenger with thousands of hours that doesn't know the cockpit layout holds the value of an empty seat!  The Fuel Master on a Stinson is on the Dash and has a Left/Right/Off position...no "Both"
Anyway, just think about it so you don't experience the deafening silence of your engine vapor locking!
By the way, no human injuries, but we probably murdered some prairie dogs
 
See ya,
Ron
 

Well, I had to take a month away from my Magnum project, but I'm back at it...finishing up the little things, while saving up $ for the last few big items (Exhaust, and big tires).
I decided to remake my baffling on the engine to fit my new cowling and went ahead and painted it black, then I thought the valve covers would look better yellow.  After that I made a "Super Bee" tail flash and some cockpit decals as well!
Having fun with some of the finishing out!
 
Ron

Hey guys,
I have my original Magnum Landing Gear for sale.  They were fitted and on the fuse for a while.  I went with a new gear.
I need the garage space back, make me an offer, you cover shipping.
 
Thanks,
Ron

I thought I would throw this info in for the next guy installing an ADS-B...
 
I can only speak for the Navworx ADS-B 600 EXP, but after installing my new 600, I had a loud, cycling, clicking noise in my intercom.  By pulling circuit breakers I determined it was my ADS-B unit.  I called Navworx and they had me ground the box with a braided strap and the ground plane was grounded with a pigtail, but it didn't change the noise.
I chased all of my wires and made sure everything was grounded properly and all solder cups in the plug still had connected wires.  This took forever!  I was frustrated and Navworx wanted me to put a coffee can over the antenna to see if that reduced the sound.  Instead I realized that the transponder and ADS-B antennas were exactly the same, but I had the transponder antenna way back in the tail and the ADS-B in the belly of the cockpit.  I swapped the antenna cables with the two units and poof, my clicking sound was almost completely eliminated!
So keep this in mind if you decide to install ADS-B out.  It must have some serious broadcast strength.
 
Thanks,
Ron

Is anyone using a Becker 4201 VHF radio?
I installed one and it has two issues that might be the same problem?
1) The radio turns on when the avionics buss is powered, not with the round switch, bottom left of face
2) There is continuous static when the avionics buss is powered.  It is like the squelch is always off.  I have found the squelch threshold menu and I have set the squelch at all levels, but without effect.
I'm thinking I might have a wire wrong or might have a solder cup that flowed together with one beside it, but I thought I would ask before I tore my panel apart...
I bought it on eBay, but it was brand new in the box with everything still wrapped up.
 
Thanks,
Ron

Guys,
Just wanted to save some people from making the same mistake I made...it turns out that USB plugs are not universally the same Amperage. What does this mean?
It means that older iPhones and iPads can operate and charge on 1.2 amps, while newer iPads require 2.4 to fully charge the batteries.
How did I figure this out?
The hard way of course!  I wired two dual USB female ports into my wiring harness.  I tested it on my older iPad 2 and it worked like a champ, it was operating and charging while the aircraft battery was on.  Then a month later I bought two iPad Air 2 for my poor man's glass panel and after hooking things up I noticed that the batteries were not charging.  I read that some aftermarket USB cables wouldn't charge the newer iPads, so I bought new cables.  Guess What?  They still didn't charge!  So after further investigation I found the Amp requirements were the issue!
So once again, I learned the lesson the hard way for you guys! Your welcome and I'll make more
 
See ya,
Ron

 
Well, just when I was close to being finished...I spent a lot of time trying to build baffling on the engine, but the engine was just too close to the cowling.  So, I decided to make a blister on each side of the cowl.  It really hurt to cut up my finished cowl, but it had to be done!
I decided to make some unique shapes and later on I will post the finished product and the shape will make sense.  I made them out of fiberglass, but first made the foam part, then a fiberglass mold, and finally the part!  It took forever and I had to do that for both sides.  I thought I was finished, but the left blister was just a little different from the right so I cut and shaped the foam today and will make the mold and part tomorrow.
I did learn a tough lesson...do not wear those under armor shirts when working with fiberglass!  They trap fibers in the shirt and then they make it into your pores!!!  I look like I have the measles!  Solution = soaking in a Epsom salt bath and cortisone lotion.
Ron