Bandit

I had a little excitement last night. It was a beautiful evening. I wanted to check the deer and hunters out. Filled my tanks completely full. That gives me about a hour and half range. 45 minutes into my flight and around 18 miles from the airport I glanced at my fuel level and I only had about a inch of fuel showing in the sight window. I'm thinking what the hell. I was assuming the gas line from my outboard tank to the in board tank was kinked again. I headed straight back to the airport. Bucking a little headwind and flying straight into a setting sun at 200 agl I figured is not going to be a good thing. Finally hit the freeway that goes by the airport. Still 5 miles out. Tried crabbing the airplane wing high. While doing that I reached back and opened the bleed valve.  No more fuel draining into the header tank. In the back of my mind I did not want to land on the freeway. The sun was  right on the horizon so I would have been looking straight into it. I headed away from the highway still at 200 agl and 1 1/2 miles from the airport. Most of the crops have been harvested some fields plowed some not. With a standing corn field and a small river coming up I went through my emergency procedure in my head. Fan stops turning, nose down, look for a spot to land, fuel off, ignition off. I no more than crossed the river and it quit. Nose down, find a spot, fuel off, ignition off. Thank the Lord I was within gliding distance of a harvested bean field. I came close to the trees but made it over them into the field. This was about the only time I look at my airspeed on landing. I set it up at 60 ias. 30' off the ground I pulled full flaps. It was one of my better landings. After calming down a little I got out and checked things over. What I found is my gas cap vent on my outboard tank turned 180 degrees pointing to the rear. It drained some fuel on the wing. I checked the tank, it was full. After a couple of minutes I could hear fuel draining into my header tank. After a few minutes I had enough fuel to fly back to the airport  a  mile and a half away. Lesson learned, make sure your tanks are vented into the wind and I should have not tried to get back to the airport. If it would have quit 30 seconds earlier or later things would have turned out different. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gave my neighbor a ride this morning. He is 6' 2", 230 lbs. Wow,we were heavy and awful cozy. That little 503 did a great job though. Got to love it !

I have a SkyRaider 1 kit for sale. Complete kit with a SkyRaider 2 tail. Factory built wings, tail section fit to fuselage, controls, header tank and floor installed. The wings and flaps are built. Cowling, instrument panel, turtle deck, droop tips, landing gear, two sets of rims and tires. Wheel penetration skis and fabric. Most hardware and cables. 2 five gallon gas tanks. One in each wing installed.

Still fighting my hard starting 503. Tonight I took a plug out to see if I had spark. Nothing. Started to dig into my wiring. This is what I found. The wires were worn through the coating and the powder coat was worn off of the cooling shroud. I pulled the wires off the shroud then I had spark. Going to try to test the electrical system with a ohms meter as long as I have everything open. Does anybody know how to do that? I think this is my problem though. Where can I get a new plug to splice in?

This summer my 503 has been starting hard or not starting at all. After three pumps of the primer and a few tugs of the pull rope it would fire on one cylinder spit and sputter then quit. After flooding it to many times to count, I replaced the plugs a couple of times, checked the float level, removed the needle valve, sync the carbs, new pulse line and new inline fuel filter. Still did the same thing. After scratching my ass way to long I gave Brett a call at LEAF and had a good visit with him. After explaining what was going on he said take the plug caps off and check them with a ohms meter. Sure enough the fourth cap I took off did not have a reading. Went to the local snowmobile shop and got a new one and installed it. After three pumps of the primer it fired in one pull. I ran it up and taxied around with everything good I flew it. Ran perfect. After landing I shut it down and let it set a few minutes and it started in one pull. I tried this a couple of times with everything good. Last night I gave it three pumps again and it started on the first pull. Again I shut it down and started it in one pull again, so it looks like my problem was a bad plug cap. Time will tell.  Maybe this can help somebody else if they are having the same problem.