Geoffrey Thorpe

Ask your AI if he/she is going to have a shit fit or if it's no big deal in their opinion. If your AI is happy, then everybody will be happy.

If you run aluminum from rib to rib it will curve nicely and I would think that there would be no need for foam.

I cut out the fabric over the tanks on my not Avid/Fox - as mentioned by others, cut inside the ribs. New fabric overlapped at the spar / trailing edge / ribs. You probably want to peel up the tape over the ribs (not hard, just pick a corner loose with a knife) and put the seam under new tape. I did some videos on the process when I did it - see link in my .sig  Polyfiber repair parts 1-3.  Real snoozers.

In the video I sprayed the poly everything, but I've done broom jobs on similar repairs and they come out, well, not great, but OK.

Adding an inspection ring it pretty easy - glue down a plastic reinforcing ring http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/inspectring.php cover it with some pre-shrunk fabric using polybrush, finish....

I would highly recommend buying the polyfiber book - the cover this sort of thing reasonably well. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/bvpages/polyfiberCover.php

Looks like a nice solution.

My Merlin GT has significant gapossis between the horizontal stabilizer and the fuselage - see photo.  Fabricating a fiberglass faring would be no big deal, but I'm looking for ideas about attaching the fairing - I could put a doubler on the fabric (similar to a reinforcing ring for an inspection plate) and use sheet metal screws - good idea? Yer gonna die? Do something else?

A coolant hose melted through on mine before I bought it - the previous owner then put in a chunk of copper where it goes past the muffler. I don't think he did anything special to the ends of the pipe.

FWIW I attached a chunk of aluminum sheet to some of the tubes on the bottom with Adel clamps and mounted the antenna to the middle and poked it through a hole in the fabric. I bent the edges of the sheet up a bit to reduce the chance of a chafing problem. Also grounded the plate to the airframe.

Not that hard to tig weld any cracks after properly prepping it.

But, in my ride (Merlin GT not Avid) I've had new cracks pop up in different spots on the seams. I suspect that the original welding did not have good penetration.

A guy selling one over on PilotsOfAmerica seems to like it... https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/fs-stratus-esg-ads-b-transponder-certified-version.100552/

ADS-B out gives ATC pretty much the same information as your mode C transponder does (with a couple extra things of dubious value like a 24 bit aircraft identifier) except it is GPS based instead of Radar and it is supposed to update a bit faster. The other thing is that if you dump even more money into it, you can get ADS-B in so you get a display of the various aircraft around you (with some exceptions) and "free" (as in it only cost $6000 or more) weather.

What you end up with is a GPS receiver, the actual ADS-B transponder and a Mode C transponder with altitude encoder that is tied to (or integrated with) the ADS-B so that they both output the same altitude and squawk code.

You might guess that I am not a fan.

ADS-B is in addition to the transponder requirements - you will need both if you fly in places that currently need Mode-C like the 30nm ring of death around class B airspace (I live very close to the center of one of those - so,  yea, I am going to have to spring for this garbage :-(     )

What is your A&P proposing for the $3-5k install? (this is on the low end of the cost scale).

Navworks used to be the low price option, but they had a bit of a tiff with the FAA and their boxes do not seem to be available at the moment. 

What you will find is that many of the requirements for an aircraft to be flown by a sport pilot (meet the definition of LSA in part 1.1) are not listed in whatever documentation may have been created for the aircraft (E-AB or type certificated such as a Cub). These would include "A maximum airspeed in level flight with maximum continuous power (VH) ", or "maximum stalling speed or minimum steady flight speed without the use of lift-enhancing devices (VS1) ". But, in most cases, it's reasonably obvious if a particular aircraft will "fit" under these limits. Just go fly the sumnabitch and don't worry about it.

One of the "gotcha's", however, is if someone had installed a variable pitch propeller and then later removed it - this kicks that aircraft out of the LSA definition but you won't find it without digging through the logs.

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Why is a Harley Davidson like a hound dog?

They both make a lot of noise and like to ride in the back of a pickup truck.

Heating the air reduces the density so you get less charge mass into the cylinder so less power / rpm.

Now, carburetors to a pretty poor job of actually atomizing / mixing fuel with the air, so there is a lot of liquid fuel in the manifold downstream of ye olde carburetor - people have made a lot of things like electric heater grids mounted downstream to try and evaporate the fuel (I wouldn't waste the money myself) or if you go back to old automobile designs, the bottom of the manifold may have been heated by an exhaust crossover or coolant in an attempt to better evaporate the fuel. But it becomes a tradeoff - more heat evaporates more fuel and can give you better fuel distribution (no guarantee) but the heat also reduces the maximum power available. I've also known guys that worked on vapor carburetors (fuel was heated and evaporated before mixing), but in the end, it's a big complicated mess that gives minimal benefit.

IN general, acceptable methods and practices is a good idea - but it's not regulatory - first of all it covers MAINTENANCE when the MANUFACTURER doesn't provide guidance. You, as the manufacturer of your E-AB, so what you do during construction or write in any sort of manual would overrule the AC. Second, the intent of the AC is to provide guidance for complying with FAR part 43 which, according to 43.1 does not apply.

So, yea, it's a good idea, but someone is making up regulations to get you to do it the way that he/she/it thinks it should be done.

From the AC

Lots of people like to make up their own regulations to back up their opinions on how the world should be run, though this is the first time I've heard this one. Flexible fuel lines are pretty common.

FWIW, I replaced all of the rubber line from the tank to the gascolator with aluminum and AN fittings on my Merlin GT just because I felt better about it. It's not that challenging.  There is even some really bad video that I made while doing this on my youtube channel if you are having trouble getting to sleep at night... 49 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

Well, that's more than I paid for mine 100% complete and flying with a Rotax 912...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/experimental-aircraft-/252632250879?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3ad20e39ff:g:hZ8AAOSwHMJYJk-T&item=252632250879

Refer to the Rotax installation manual (D04361 is what I have) for reservoir location:

I have my cooler (but not on an Avid) mounted behind the radiator to help keep the oil temperatures up.

There are a lot of different things that fall under the "JB weld" brand.  Some may or may not be suitable.

As I understand it, you plan to glue in new wood and then reinforce the joint with aluminum? Bonding aluminum to wood really should be done with proper adhesives and preparation - you have issues with different thermal expansion rates and corrosion at the aluminum / adhesive boundary. I would stick to a product that is known to work.  If you wanted to do a wood to wood repair then something like a West System epoxy from your local marine supply could be expected to work, but I wouldn't trust it for the wood / aluminum interface.

So you have room to do the shrinking - I suspect that you won't have any issues at all. If memory serves me  correctly, that's about what I did on the wing that I did not video. You can put a little heat on the overlap seam if necessary - again from memory - I think that 250F does not melt the polywhatever. I used parchment paper where I had to iron over existing polystuff to keep the iron from sticking. The video I did had ribs / leading /  trailing edge on every side. fwiw https://youtu.be/F02Qkl7VRck?list=PL3ea3YrO-K5hlHDwFTh4KCwlKzn8BrDQE 26 minutes of your life you will never get back. You have been warned!

Sanding, stripping ,poking, etc. around a hole tends to make the fabric slack. And, if you are in the middle of a unsupported bay, the patch will tend to be a bit on the saggy side (at least when I've done it.).  Shrinking a patch needs to be done carefully to avoid heat loosening the seams - but I would stick it in place first then shrink enough to take up the slack.

I would not think you would want to shrink the reinforcing tape.

Big area? Small area?

The only video I have is one where I replaced the fabric over an entire bay.

You may find that the FAA's "AC 43.13-1B - Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices - Aircraft Inspection and Repair" will have a lot of useful information on repairing broken tubes, etc.  http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentid/99861

FWIW, my Merlin GT (Avid derivative) has the female part of the camlock riveted directly to the glass, and the male part stuck through a hole in the glass. No added reinforcement. 500 or so hours, no problems that I am aware of.