Q-2, Q-200 Fuel Filler Cap

This is kind of an old topic, but since some builders are still in process, I thought it would be useful to post a little bit about the fuel filler cap. In the original plans, they ask you to take a plastic 1 pint camping bottle, cut the top off and use the threads and cap for a fuel filler cap. This is proved to be a very bad idea because if the threads should crack, as they will, you are now introducing low pressure air to your fuel system and you're not able to deliver enough fuel to the carburetor. Unfortunately, the pilot only finds this out when he's about two or three hundred feet off the ground, a hair raising experience.

Several people have come up with different ways to make a fuel cap assembly, but I have been using this very simple one for over 20 years and it is working just great and it is dirt cheap. Run down to your hardware store and get a 1-1/2 by 1-1/2 PVC threaded x slip fitting. Then go to the section of the store that has that little plastic nut that you use under your bathroom sink for the drain slip fitting. Finally, take a piece of .030" aluminum and make a little disc that fits into the slip fitting nut. Now you have all the pieces you need to make a fuel filler cap. I think the pictures should speak for themselves more than me cluttering up the airways with a bunch of verbiage.

A short length of PVC is used to connect the fuel filler to the main fuel tank.

Here in the same installation on my auxiliary fuel tank.

Couple of Air-to-Air photos

I have been wanting to get some new pictures with the latest canard and wheel pants.  I also just installed a uAvionix SkyBeacon ADS-B Out. Thanks to Ken & Amy Bro and their Piper Cherokee.

2018 Bug Muddy Air Race is complete - sort of.

Check the news stories here.

The excitement builds.

Rain disappoints.

Newspaper article

The Big Muddy Air Race, coming up June 9, 2018

Come and flex your wings and join us at this year's Big Muddy, down in beautiful Southern Illinois.

Get all the race, and registration information here:  2018 Big Muddy Air Race

What is wrong with the plans-built wheel pants?

I was helping a couple of new Q-200 owners out and we were talking about wheel pants.  Here is a video we took, back in 2003, doing some tuft testing. You can see the separation, causing the yard detatch from the surface. 

Here is a shot from the cockpit.



So the goal is to have the wheel pant shaped so the yarn stays flat and that led me to the wheel pants I have today. I kind of used some RV-7 pants as a model, then took some Sawzall artistic license. I think they added 4 miles an hour, maybe more.

I need to do some comparison tufting with the new pants to show the difference for you folks.

Here is how it came together for me and this is how you can modify your existing wheel mants.

Here is the shape I'm shooting for. Right now, the wheelpant foam is the thickness per plans and the brake and axle mounts have been installed.

Using X-40 two-part foam, glue on lots of pieces to build it up.

Here is a Sawzall video, Part 1. There is a part 2 as well.

Old Video of my first Flight June 9, 1986

I'm been re-arranging files on my computer and I came across this old video.  Marvin Getten was my coach and we were at the Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie, MN.

Happy New Year!

Sam